Patent ID: 7496665

Claim:
A system supporting the indirect control of at least one media peripheral, the system comprising: a first television in a first home; a first storage in the first home, the first storage for storing media, and having a first network protocol address with respect to a first user in the first home; a user interface displayed on the first television in the first home, the user interface having at least one view comprising a representation of media available for consumption, the user interface supporting delivery of media from the first home to a second home; a second storage in the second home, and having a second network protocol address with respect to a second user in the second home, wherein the second user is known to the first user; at least one media peripheral, in the second home, communicatively coupled to the second storage; and server software that maintains a user defined association of the first and second network protocol addresses and that receives via a communication network a request that identifies one of the associated first and second network protocol addresses, one of the at least one media peripheral, and at least one media peripheral command selected by a user at the first home, and responds by identifying the other of the associated first and second network protocol addresses to support control from the first home, via the communication network, of the identified one of the at least one media peripheral, at the second home, according to the at least one media peripheral command.