Patent ID: 7844610

Claim:
An apparatus for designating at least one authority to rate content, comprising: at least one server in a distributed network that receives a rating of content or a designation of content rating authority from a primary authority, said primary authority designating at least a portion of said content rating authority to a first level of a plurality of contributing authorities, said portion individually designated for each contributing authority; said at least one server in said distributed network that receives a rating of content or a designation of content rating authority from said first level of said plurality of contributing authorities, said first level of said plurality of contributing authorities receiving said portion of content rating authority from said primary authority and being capable of designating at least a portion of content rating authority to a second level of at least one contributing authority; said at least one server in said distributed network that receives a rating from said second level of at least one contributing authority, said second level of at least one contributing authority receiving said portion of content rating authority from said first level of contributing authority; said at least one server in said distributed network that prevents a contributing authority in said second level from designating content rating authority to a contributing authority in said first level to avoid creating a loop of designated authorities; a plurality of ratings, each rating associated with said content by any of: said primary authority, said first level of plurality of contributing authorities; and said second level of at least one contributing authority; a computer that computes a composite rating for said content as a function of said plurality of ratings and said content rating authority of each provider of said ratings, wherein said composite rating is determined by combining said ratings, wherein a level of influence is conferred upon each of said contributing authorities in accord with each of said contributing authorities' respective delegated quantity of authority, wherein said composite rating, R, is calculated according to: R= (1/ w )Σ 1 N ( w i r i ) wherein W i is authority delegated to authority of i, wherein r i is rating i of N ratings, and wherein W is the sum of the N weights; and said at least one server in said distributed network comprising a database for storing said content in association with said plurality of ratings and said composite rating.