U.S. patent application number 14/738807 was filed with the patent office on 2015-10-01 for network, affinity-interest-group commerce method.
The applicant listed for this patent is Jon M. Dickinson, Robert D. Summer. Invention is credited to Jon M. Dickinson, Robert D. Summer.
Application Number | 20150278875 14/738807 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 35515133 |
Filed Date | 2015-10-01 |
United States Patent
Application |
20150278875 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Summer; Robert D. ; et
al. |
October 1, 2015 |
NETWORK, AFFINITY-INTEREST-GROUP COMMERCE METHOD
Abstract
An electronic, vetted-entrepreneurship-enhancement commerce
method implementable by common-affinity-interest
network-communicant parties employing the structure of an
electronic communication network to engage in affinity subject
matter financial transactions, in association with a
network-connected, limited-access, and specifically an
entrepreneurially-vetted-network-communicant
authorized-access-only, digital-data catalogue of
commercially-transactable affinity-interest-associated
goods-and-services (subject matter) deliverables that are
represented by electronically transformed data stored in the
catalogue. The method includes (1), in relation to intended
catalogue-financial-transactional-access limiting, specifically
basing financial transactional access to catalogue deliverables
focusedly on vetted-network-communicant,
financial-transactional-promotional entrepreneurship, and (2),
limiting such access to the catalogue to (a) only an
entrepreneurially vetted, entrepreneurially-talented
network-communicant party, and (b) another party to whom such
access is furnished specifically, and only, by such a vetted
party.
Inventors: |
Summer; Robert D.; (New
York, NY) ; Dickinson; Jon M.; (Portland,
OR) |
|
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
Summer; Robert D.
Dickinson; Jon M. |
New York
Portland |
NY
OR |
US
US |
|
|
Family ID: |
35515133 |
Appl. No.: |
14/738807 |
Filed: |
June 12, 2015 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
|
|
|
|
|
|
Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
|
|
12387084 |
Apr 27, 2009 |
|
|
|
14738807 |
|
|
|
|
11174023 |
Jul 1, 2005 |
8185433 |
|
|
12387084 |
|
|
|
|
60585491 |
Jul 2, 2004 |
|
|
|
60585492 |
Jul 2, 2004 |
|
|
|
Current U.S.
Class: |
705/14.66 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06Q 30/0277 20130101;
G06Q 40/00 20130101; G06Q 30/0225 20130101; G06Q 30/0269 20130101;
G06Q 30/0601 20130101; G06Q 99/00 20130101 |
International
Class: |
G06Q 30/02 20060101
G06Q030/02; G06Q 40/00 20060101 G06Q040/00 |
Claims
1. A network, affinity-interest-group method, optionally
step-effected by an optional within-group manager, for enhancing,
in the employment of an electronic communication network,
affinity-interest-group network commerce in the form of
within-group-implemented financial transactions, said method
comprising creating, in relation to a selected affinity-interest
group formed of network communicant members having a common
subject-matter affinity interest, and including, optionally, a
within-group manager member, a network-accessible, but
limited-access, electronic catalogue containing electronic
representations of affinity-interest goods-and-services
deliverables that are associated with the group members' common
affinity interest, such deliverables, in the practice of the
method, being selectively subject to various forms of financial
transactions involving affinity-group members, access to the
created catalogue occurring only through the promotional activity
of an entrepreneurially vetted affinity-group member, establishing,
for the purpose of creating an only-access route to the catalogue,
at least one network-communicant affinity-group member, drawn from
any of the group members, characterized by possessing
financial-transactional-promotional entrepreneurship talent of a
nature associated with promoting financial-transactional interest
regarding the catalogue-contained deliverables, to become
recognized as an at least one authorized, entrepreneurially-vetted,
affinity-group network-communicant member/party to have control
over financial-transactional access to deliverables contained in
the created catalogue, and limiting financial transactional access
to deliverables in the catalogue to only (a) such an at least one
entrepreneurially-talented, vetted, network-communicant party, and
(b) another network-communicant-party in the group having a
potential financial-transactional interest in a catalogue-contained
deliverable, and solely for the purpose of such other party's
considering, and if desired engaging in, a
vetted-communicant-promoted financial transaction regarding a
catalog-contained deliverable.
2. An electronic, vetted-entrepreneurship-enhancement commerce
method implementable by common-affinity-interest
network-communicant parties in, and employing the structure of, an
electronic communication network, in operative association with an
established, network-connected,
financial-transactional-limited-access, and specifically
entrepreneurially-vetted-network-communicant
authorized-access-only, digital-data catalogue of
commercially-transactable affinity-interest-associated
deliverables, including goods and services, represented by
electronically transformed data stored in the catalogue, said
method comprising in relation to intended
catalogue-financial-transactional-access limiting, specifically
basing financial transactional access to deliverables contained in
the established catalogue focusedly on vetted-network-communicant
financial-transactional-promotional entrepreneurship, and limiting
financial-transactional-activity access to the catalogue to (a)
only an entrepreneurially vetted, entrepreneurially-talented
network-communicant party, and (b) another party to whom such
access is furnished specifically, and only, by such a vetted party.
Description
CROSS REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application is a continuation from copending U.S.
patent application Ser. No. 12/387,084, filed Apr. 27, 2009, for
"Network Affinity-Group Commerce Method Involving System-Management
Fulfillment", which is a continuation from U.S. patent application
Ser. No. 11/174,023, filed Jul. 1, 2005, for "Peer-to-Peer
Affinity-Group Commerce Method and System", which application
claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. Nos.
60/585,491, filed Jul. 2, 2004, for "P2P Information-Exchange,
Collateral-Transaction-Promoting, Business Method", and 60/585,492,
filed Jul. 2, 2004, for "Peer-to-Peer Affinity-Group Communication
Commerce Method and System". The entireties of the disclosure
contents of each of these applications are hereby incorporated
herein by reference.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
[0002] This invention pertains to the field of
communication-network commerce, e.g., Internet commerce, and in
particular to a methodology for enhancing the operative,
transactional flow of such commerce through implementing a unique,
commercial-promotional practice, described hereinbelow, involving,
as will be fully explained, vetted-entrepreneurship
financial-transactional access control respecting commercial access
(entree) to what are called affinity-interest deliverables
"contained", and represented electronically transformably, in a
network-accessible, but limited access, catalogue to which only an
entrepreneurially vetted, affinity-interest party can furnish
financial-transactional entree.
INTRODUCTORY BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0003] This methodology, while seated in the generally well-known
realm of otherwise conventional network commerce, functions,
according to the invention, in notably uncharted territory in this
realm through implementing, in the setting of a defined
affinity-interest group--any such group--of network-communicant
member peers (also referred to herein as parties), unique,
"entrepreneurially-gate-controlled" (i.e.,
entrepreneurially-gated-access) entree to a special limited-access
electronic catalogue of affinity-interest goods and services (also
called, interchangeably, affinity-interest subject matter, or
simply affinity subject matter) that are relevant to such a group,
for permitting affinity group members, when given catalogue access,
to engage, selectively, in a wide variety of income-generating,
affinity-group-member financial transactions involving goods and
services--e.g., sales, licenses for temporary
affinity-subject-matter uses, and other sanctioned grants of
temporary uses, such as borrowing grants, as well as various other
kinds of commercial transactions--involving members in that group.
How, and with what operational content, this innovative practice in
the stated field (a) rests on special, entrepreneurially promoted,
financial-transaction features, and (b) plays out transactionally
within an affinity group, are set forth in detail below.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0004] Many facets of this multi-complexioned invention have been
described in the various and several underlying provisional and
non-provisional patent applications identified above, and the
present invention-disclosure specification, tied to the original
provisional-case content, draws freely, extensively, and freshly
expressively, upon a number of these earlier-presented facets in
support of the invention complexion (a) focused upon in the present
specification, and (b) as characterized in the below-appended
claims.
[0005] In relation to its aim of enhancing network commerce,
commercial practice of the present invention occurs focusedly, and
inter alia, through the incentivized promotion of high-bandwidth,
communication-network commercial interactions (i.e., financial
transactions) specifically, and specially entrepreneurially
controllably, taking place with respect to what is called, as noted
above, affinity-interest goods-and-services subject matter, and in
particular, within a defined affinity-interest group (or affinity
group) of network-communicant parties (members), referred to herein
alternatively (as above), and as will be explained below, as member
"peers" within the relevant affinity group. Such commercial
interactions, in accordance with the present invention, are ones
that take place regarding members within an affinity group.
[0006] As will become apparent, in accordance with practice of the
present invention, an affinity interest group effectively functions
as a specially defined marketplace for various financial
activities--i.e., financial transactions--centered on
affinity-interest goods and services. From a generalized point of
view, affinity-group-member financial transactions within an
affinity group involve the purchases, or other forms of
acquisitions, including temporary forms (such as temporary grants
of licenses, permitted media-file streaming, or other types of
temporary, sanctioned allowances like temporary
affinity-subject-matter borrowings, etc.), of catalogued,
affinity-interest deliverables subject matter, taking place
effectively between (a) one or more group-member sourcing providers
and (b) one or more group-member deliverables "acquirers". Where an
affinity group happens to include an optional group manager, such
transactions may be assisted (e.g., mediated) by that manager; and,
of course, all such transactions are preceded by
limited-access-catalogue entree, i.e., gated entree, promotionally
enabled by an entrepreneurially vetted member of the relevant
affinity group, which member might also be an, or the,
entrepreneurially vetted group member.
[0007] As will be understood from readings of the disclosure
contents in the above-identified, "related-applications" background
material regarding the present invention disclosure, an affinity
group of network-communicant members, peers, or parties, is
effectively defined, open-endedly, by persons (i.e., "legal
persons" of any category--individuals, as well as business entities
of any form) who/which share a particular-subject-area affinity
interest, and such a group may freely include any such party
possessing such an "in-common" area of interest. Accordingly, and
in the specific context of the "invention complexion" which is now
being addressed, and as is generally outlined above, an affinity
group network-communicant membership-makeup herein includes (a)
both the offerers (called sourcing providers), and potential, and
actual, acquirers, of catalogue-contained affinity-interest
deliverables, (b) a group member, or even plural group members, who
has/have become entrepreneurially vetted to furnish gateway access
to the limited-access deliverables catalogue, and (c) any
optionally involved group manager (also referred to herein as a
system manager)--all of these parties possessing, or sharing, the
mentioned "in-common" area of affinity interest. Other specific
forms of affinity-group membership makeups are of course possible,
some of which find mention both hereinbelow and in
predecessor-application texts.
[0008] Network-communicant members in an affinity group are, as
stated above, also referred to herein as peers on account of their
belonging to the same affinity group, and within that group,
sharing, at least at some level, a common affinity interest--i.e.,
an interest which is associated with the above-mentioned
affinity-interest goods-and-services subject matter.
[0009] Regarding the "affinity" terminology employed herein, the
term "affinity", as, for example, related to an "affinity group",
is chosen and used throughout this disclosure to identify a
condition wherein there is (1) a particular subject area, and (2),
particular, subject-area-associated goods-and-services subject
matter, called "affinity-interest subject matter", on which such a
group focuses special attention. Coming generally within
affinity-interest subject matter are all potentially
affinity-interest-relevant, i.e., affinity-interest-associated,
forms of goods and services respecting which affinity-group members
may have an interest in transacting business, i.e., engaging in
financial transactions, of different types. As non-exclusive
illustrations of the possible varieties of inter-member financial
activities, such transactions, as suggested above herein, may
include sales and purchases of goods, arrangements for paid-for
services, temporary affinity-subject-matter use grants--e.g.,
licenses, media-content streaming, and other temporary,
borrowing-like arrangements--effected within the body of affinity
group members regarding any category of affinity-subject-matter
goods and/or services, and many others. FIG. 11 still to be
mentioned and further discussed models such arrangements.
[0010] Commercial interactions, in the forms of various types of
possible financial transactions (such as those above mentioned)
within an affinity group, occur, and are controlled, through what
has been referred to above as "gated access", or "gateway access"
to a limited-access electronic catalogue containing
sourcing-provider-furnished, affinity-interest deliverables.
Catalogue-contained deliverables are accessibly controlled,
relative to engageable financial transactions, effectively, and
solely, through (a) the entrepreneurial vetting and authorizing of
at least one thereby entrepreneurially vetted network-communicant
member of the relevant affinity group, who (or which) is given
gateway control over the furnishing of financial-transaction access
(entree) to the associated catalogue of deliverables, and (b),
incentivized entrepreneurial promotion implemented by the vetted,
affinity-group communicant aimed at inspiring commercial access to
the catalogue.
[0011] The invention elements described involving (1)
entrepreneurial vetting, (2) limited-access cataloging, and (3)
controlled catalogue-access gating implemented solely through
vetted entrepreneurship promotional behavior in the hands of the
important, at least one vetted affinity-group communicant member,
centrally characterize what was referred to hereinabove as
"uncharted territory". Ultimately, in the practice of the present
invention, and as a key feature defined within this territory, only
a vetted network-communicant party possesses the authority to offer
electronic catalogue access to others. Establishment of such a
vetted party is done for the significant purpose of creating an
only-access, financial-transactional route to the catalogue. It is
thus the case, according to the invention, that it is specifically
an entrepreneurially vetted party, and only such a party, who, or
which, through entrepreneurial promotional activity, effectively
holds the gate key to catalogue access for others.
[0012] Continuing, the enhanced, network-based, electronic-commerce
and financial-transactional practice, i.e., the method, proposed
and offered by the present invention, promoted within an
affinity-interest group, is preferably, though not necessarily,
i.e., optionally, "method-step-implemented/effected", or simply
"step-implemented/effected", under the managerial control, and/or
simply the managerial assistance or mediation, of a
network-communicant party, referred to herein as a group (or
system) manager who, or which, is preferably also a
network-communicant member of the relevant affinity group. Such an
optionally present "group manager" may also be an, or the,
entrepreneurially vetted member of an affinity group.
[0013] In this vetted-entrepreneurship,
controlled-deliverables-catalogue environment which is specially
featured by the invention, vetted-communicant entrepreneurship
sparks the basis for the intended affinity-group-marketplace
financial transactional activity, and the intended, appreciable
enhancement of network commerce. As outlined already, enhanced
financial-transactional interactions involving affinity-group
members center on the key condition of intentionally gated-access
to the controlled, limited-access electronic catalogue of
sourcing-provider-furnished, affinity-interest deliverables, with
such gated access occurring through the entrepreneurial promotional
activity undertaken by the at least one entrepreneurially vetted
member of the group. Catalogue deliverables--goods and
services--provided by sourcing providers for content in the
controlled catalogue are typically fully owned, in terms of all
held rights, by such providers who, as is conventionally the case
with respect to such owners, enjoy and bear, respectively, the
financial benefits and the risks of such ownership. A financial
transaction may, of course, involve an appropriate
plurality-assembly, or aggregation, of sourcing-provider furnished,
including plural-sourcing-provider furnished, catalogued
deliverables. If an optional affinity-group manager member is
involved in the relevant affinity group, that manager may, if
appropriate, assist in perfecting, as, for example, by mediating,
the "transactional flow" of affinity-subject-matter
transactions.
[0014] Those skilled in the art will recognize that, in relation to
practicing the present invention, and thus to experiencing and
participating in invoking its unique features in terms of employing
required, network connected/connectible electronics, affinity-group
network-communicant parties need only possess, or have appropriate
use-access to, even a relatively simple electronic
computer--tablet, laptop or desktop--or, in fact, to any one of a
variety of so-called "smart" portable, handheld electronic devices
such as a smart cellphone. There may, of course, be other
appropriate communication devices, optical as well as electronic in
nature, differing in identity from those just listed, which will
function well in the practice of the invention
[0015] Illustrating now, and further discussing, more or less
generally, the features of the present invention in the
representative setting of the affinity world specifically of
file-sharing, and recognizing that the invention possesses, as
well, significant non-file-sharing character, it is well known and
recognized today that the practice of peer-to-peer (P2P) file
sharing over a wide-area network, such as the Internet, is one of
the most popular and rapidly expanding practices in history. This
practice, which grows dramatically even as we now speak about it,
is readily accessible and practicable, utilizing any one of a
relatively widely available array of available P2P file-sharing
intercommunication technologies, by essentially all in the world
who have computer, or like, access to the Internet. The present
invention offers, we believe, interesting, representative utility
in the file-sharing world, and accordingly, we use a discussion of
this world to frame especially well the network-commerce-enhancing
contributions of the invention. Similar contributions, of course,
and as those skilled in the art will recognize, rise to importance
in many other affinity-group-subject-matter, network-commerce
"worlds".
[0016] Unfortunately, and we believe mistakenly, P2P file sharing
in the representative file-sharing world has, in the last few
years, come to be viewed by some as an enemy of certain
commerce--particularly commerce involving provider-controlled
electronically distributable media content, such as music and movie
files. In this "enemy" mode of thinking, the various conflicts
which have arisen between P2P file sharers, providers of
communication software/technology which enables P2P file sharing,
and copyright rights holders (providers) associated with such
electronic media content, have centered on the issue of apparent
massive copyright infringement in the form of file acquisitions and
use without payments to rights holders. These conflicts have
unhappily pitted certain among these parties against one another as
hostile legal combatants.
[0017] Notwithstanding this landscape of "copyright contention",
the present invention, in its proposed unique methodology and
systemic management approach, recognizes and proposes a paradigm
shift based, in the file-sharing world, upon an awareness that the
extraordinary and massive communication, computing, and
data-storage and handling bandwidth which is represented by the
world of P2P activity can, in fact, be tapped creatively, along
with the affinity interests of P2P file sharers, as vehicles and
growth engines for the promotion, expansion and impressive
enlarging of many forms of subject-matter commerce, including
commerce relating to the subject matter involving electronically
distributable media.
[0018] By proposing a significant change in the thinking about how
P2P activities, and associated software and communication
technologies, can be constructively employed, and indeed how a
network-accessing "financially transacting, such as a purchasing
consumer", for example, can be converted effectively to become a
positive part of the distribution "machinery" of network-commerce
deliverables, one can be brought to recognize that P2P
interengagement activities, in all kinds of affinity-interest
fields, offer an unparalleled and historically monumental
opportunity for the expansion and enhancement of commerce in many,
if not all, forms of, and types of sales and other financial
transactions relating to, goods and services under the dominion of
network-communicant, P2P-like parties. In the file-sharing and
other affinity-interest worlds, it can do this quite simply through
harnessing the unique and specialized behaviors and the enthusiasms
of P2P parties, such as P2P electronic-media file sharers, in a
kind of piggyback fashion, to link with the communication traffic
most affectionately focused upon by P2P affinity-group file sharers
specially permitted, managed, controlled and appropriately,
ultimately fulfilled offers of sales for, or other commercial
transactions involving, various goods and services. Such goods and
services may reside (a) only in the field of electronic media (such
as music song files), (b) only in a variety of other fields which
are outside the electronic media field, and, and even (c) in a
blend of fields. Accordingly, it should be understood that
references made herein to a catalogue, or to catalogues, i.e.,
physical, digital-data catalogue(s), of deliverables are intended
to convey the understanding that such deliverables may "reside" in
any one of these single or blended "fields", or in fact in any
other kind of affinity-interest field, in the form of
representative, or appropriately representing, electronic data
which, through transformation into computer screen imagery, is
viewable in and from such a catalogue. Shortly-to-be-discussed FIG.
11, a diagram which provides a generalized, overall illustration of
the invention, furnishes an especially good "picture" of the
any-affinity-interest-field applicability of the invention. And, as
will be well understood by those skilled in the art, the catalogue
electronic representations of affinity-interest deliverables, no
matter what their nature, may "sit" in a widely distributed
condition electronically in and throughout a network.
[0019] As an interesting illustration describing features of the
present invention, a very good and representative P2P affinity
group might be a group of such file sharers who have a special
interest in a particular style, or genre, of music. There are, of
course, many other relevant examples of affinity groups, and
practice of the present invention, as has been indicated earlier
herein, is not constrained just to a "music genre" group. Put
another way, implementation and practice of the present invention
offers special opportunities for significant expansion of network
commerce, in addition to electronic media commerce, to
affinity-based network financial transactions occurring in the
contexts of many different other affinity-group interests covering
a very wide range of subject matters.
[0020] As will become understood from a reading of the description
of the invention, its practice, both in the current, and herein
illustrative, high-profile world of P2P file sharers, and in the
worlds of other types of affinity-interest "network consumers",
effectively causes the relevant consumer population to become part
of the mechanism of deliverables-distribution, thereby overcoming,
in the case of protected deliverables content, such as electronic
media content, the unacceptable instinct for one singly to acquire
such content without directing payment to content rights
holders.
[0021] As an illustration of one form of practice of the
invention--an illustration still pictured representatively in the
world of media file sharing, P2P file sharers (in a group) who have
an affinity interest in a particular kind of music are encouraged
to become subscribers to a rights-sanctioned (copyright-liability
sanctioned, or freed), such as a temporarily-granted use-licensed,
P2P file sharing community for the payment of (a) modest monthly
fees, and (b) modest additional fees (or selectively in some
instances, as with "older" media subject matters, no fees)
associated with acquisitions (downloads) of particular media song
files. Such song files are additionally referred to herein as
rights-associated media, with respect to which copyright owners'
rights are referred to as possessor-owned relationship rights.
[0022] Particular members (or at least one member) of such a
network affinity group are/is vetted for entrepreneurship talent
(i.e., entrepreneurially vetted), and thereby selected to become,
effectively, authorized "sales, or offering, agents" to offer
various purchasable or otherwise acquirable, financially
transactable goods and/or services to be made available to other
members through a controlled, authorized-access-only, centralized,
catalogue, or pool, of such deliverables.
[0023] These selected peer-group members who become, in effect,
specially selected marketing surrogates, are encouraged, i.e.,
incentivized to innovate and propel their own talents and styles of
financial transactions promotions, and are the only parties, i.e.,
entrepreneurially vetted parties, having authority in the practice
of this invention to offer electronic catalogue access to
others.
[0024] Lying thus centrally within the character of the present
invention is the concept that it is the quality of natural,
personal enthusiasm and "energy", and entrepreneurial talent, of
affinity-interest, network-communicant peers in a peer affinity
group which becomes the harnessed driving force behind promoting
various financial transactions respecting affinity-interest goods
and services. This central feature of the invention, powerfully
linked with entrepreneurial vetting of at least one affinity-group
network communicant, taps the important power and potential of (a)
network-communicant-driven commercial transactional promotion, (b)
network-communicant-driven transactional enthusiasm, and (c)
energetic, vetted-network-communicant entrepreneurship.
[0025] Springing from the above-presented invention outline, and
mentioning here again FIG. 11 which provides a good overall,
generalized, i.e., block/schematic) illustration of the invention,
the invention may be characterized as a network,
affinity-interest-group method, optionally step-effected by an
optional within-group manager, for enhancing, in the employment of
an electronic communication network, affinity-interest-group
network commerce in the form of within-group-implemented financial
transactions, this method including the steps of
[0026] (1) creating, in relation to a selected affinity-interest
group formed of network communicant members having a common
subject-matter affinity interest, and including, optionally, a
system manager, a network-accessible, but limited-access,
electronic catalogue containing, in electronic representational
manners, affinity-interest goods-and-services deliverables that are
associated with the group members' common affinity interest--such
deliverables being selectively subject to various forms of
financial transactions (like those mentioned illustratively above)
involving affinity-group members, with transactional access to the
created catalogue occurring only through the promotional activity
of an entrepreneurially vetted affinity-group member,
[0027] (2) establishing, for the purpose of creating an only-access
route to the catalogue, at least one network-communicant
affinity-group member, drawn from any of the group members,
characterized by possessing financial-transactional-promotional
entrepreneurship talent of a nature associated with promoting
financial-transactional interest regarding the catalogue-contained
deliverables, to become recognized as an at least one authorized,
entrepreneurially-vetted, affinity-group network-communicant party
to have control over financial-transactional access to deliverables
contained in the created catalogue, and
[0028] (3) limiting financial transactional access to deliverables
in the catalogue to only (a) such an at least one
entrepreneurially-talented vetted network-communicant party, and
(b) another network-communicant-party in the group having a
potential financial-transactional interest in a catalogue-contained
deliverable, and solely for the purpose of such other party's
considering, and if desired engaging in, a
vetted-communicant-promoted financial transaction regarding a
catalog-contained and offered deliverable.
[0029] From another perspective, the invention may be described as
an electronic, vetted-entrepreneurship-enhancement commerce method
implementable by common-affinity-interest network-communicant
parties in, and employing the structure of, an electronic
communication network, in operative association with an
established, network-connected,
financial-transactional-limited-access, and specifically
entrepreneurially-vetted-network-communicant
authorized-access-only, digital-data catalogue of
commercially-transactable affinity-interest-associated
deliverables, including goods and services, represented by
electronically transformed data stored in the catalogue, this
method including
[0030] (1) in relation to intended
catalogue-financial-transactional-access limiting, specifically
basing financial transactional access to deliverables contained in
the established catalogue focusedly on vetted-network-communicant
financial-transactional-promotional entrepreneurship, and
[0031] (2) limiting financial-transactional-activity access to the
catalogue to (a) only an entrepreneurially vetted,
entrepreneurially-talented network-communicant party, and (b)
another party to whom such access is furnished specifically, and
only, by such a vetted party.
[0032] These and other important features and advantages that are
offered by the present invention will become more fully apparent as
the detailed description which now follows below is read in
conjunction with the accompanying drawings which, in
block/schematic forms, illustrate various different ways of
visualizing and explaining the invention's
network-commerce-enhancing character.
[0033] In this context, while, in relation to one's reading of this
detailed invention description which now follows, it should be
clear that the invention, as generally discussed above respecting
its important core aspects, is practiceable in a wide variety of
affinity-interest realms, these core aspects we believe stand out,
and present illustratively, especially well in the illustratively
descriptive and focused context of so-called P2P media file
sharing--a very recognizable affinity-interest subject matter.
Accordingly, the below detailed elaboration of the invention
focuses attention on this well-known, though specially
individuated, affinity-interest arena. Those skilled in the art, we
believe, will readily appreciate, from this particular-case
elaboration, how many other commercially exploitable
affinity-interest areas fit into the practice scheme of the
invention. In this context, a limited access catalogue employed
according to the present invention may, depending upon the
common-interest characters of different affinity groups, "contain"
all sorts of relevant, affinity-interest subject-matter
deliverables that differ from media files, and that relate, of
course, to whatever happens to be the special, common affinity
interests of such different, particular affinity groups.
[0034] Additionally, and with respect to the above-mentioned option
of including a style of invention practice involving features of
system, or group, management, we illustrate and describe a
representative form of the invention wherein there is an optionally
involved system (or group) manager whom (or which, in the case of a
business-entity manager) we treat herein as being both an
affinity-group member, and potentially also an entrepreneurially
vetted network-communicant. This optional group manager may, as
mentioned above, assist is step-effecting the several method steps
of the invention.
DESCRIPTIONS OF THE DRAWINGS
[0035] FIG. 1 is a very high level block/schematic diagram
presented in simplified form to illustrate core features of the
present, network-and-computer-based invention.
[0036] FIG. 2 is a high level block/schematic diagram illustrating
an important variation in implementation and practice of the
invention (as illustrated in FIG. 1), wherein a common peer member,
or network-consumer member, of two, different, chosen
affinity-interest groups can function as an important commercial
bridge, or gateway, in the practice of the present invention
involving the activities of such two different network affinity
groups. This figure in fact pictures what may be visualized as
being an "elemental, representative region" (i.e., a region subject
to extensive, incremental replication/repetition) in a massive
network of the kind involving a huge plurality of widely
distributed network participants, and remotely accessible
computers, servers, databases, software services, etc., popularly
referred to for years, in the context, at least, of the Internet,
metaphorically as an Internet "cloud". This being so, FIG. 2, as
presented in the parent to the present continuation application,
can be viewed as illustrating the now popular behavioral term
"cloud computing".
[0037] FIGS. 3 and 4 are block/schematic diagrams which relate to
one another in illustrating a particular practice of the present
invention with respect, representatively, to the world of peer
affinity groups interested in electronic music files, and with
respect to which industry providers of these files differentiate
distributable categories of music files both through sanctioned,
licensed streaming and licensed non-streaming handling of these
files depending upon, for example, current file popularity and/or
"age".
[0038] FIG. 5 is a block/schematic diagram illustrating how
implementation and practice of the present invention can be viewed
as an important positive feedback commerce enhancement system and
methodology.
[0039] FIGS. 6-10, inclusive, viewed along with FIG. 1, provide
high-level block/schematic "point-of-view" diagrams picturing, as
will shortly be explained, the key steps involved in several
different specific ways of characterizing the structure and
operational features of the system and methodology of the present
invention.
[0040] FIGS. 11 and 12 are a block/schematic diagrams which
illustrate, in a generalized and overall manner relevant to any
realm of affinity interest and its subject matter,
financial-transactional practice of the invention based upon a
selected offering-representative (entrepreneurially vetted and
authorized network communicant) gateway model for promoting
commerce using peer-to-peer-type network communication as the
financial-transactional commerce communication vehicle.
[0041] FIGS. 13-15, inclusive, like previously mentioned FIGS.
6-10, inclusive, provide simplified, high level, "point-of-view",
block/schematic diagrams presenting key steps involved in other
ways of visualizing the system and methodology of the present
invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
[0042] Turning attention first of all to FIG. 1, indicated
generally and fragmentarily in dash-dot lines at 20 is a wide-area
communication network, or network system, such as the Internet,
with respect to which the present invention is employed. Network
20, which is only specifically pictured in FIGS. 1 and 2, is to be
considered operationally and functionally present in all of the
drawing figures. Throughout the descriptive discussion which now
follows, financial transactions are representatively discussed
principally in the realm of goods and/or services purchases. There
are, of course, and as has been pointed out above, many other forms
of financial transactions that may take place within an affinity
group, and others of these types of transactions are mentioned
again on occasion in the below text. The purchases type
transactions are presented predominantly, and simply, as
transactions representatives.
[0043] One illustration of the structure and implementation
(methodology) of this invention is shown generally at 22, with this
illustration including blocks 24, 26, 28, 30, 32. These blocks are
appropriately associated/connected with Internet 20. Dashed-line,
double-ended arrows 34, 36, 38, 40 extend between different ones of
these blocks, as shown, for reasons which will be explained
shortly.
[0044] FIG. 1, in general terms, diagrams the basic vetted-peer
entrepreneurship concept of the present invention which involves
utilizing the extensive and powerful bandwidth of P2P file sharing
between peers in an affinity group to promote financial
transactional commerce through employing linkage between (a)
affinity subject matter associated with such a P2P affinity group,
and (b) ancillary, and other, goods and services deliverables, all
for the purpose of utilizing the practice of peer-driven file
sharing to promote sales of such other deliverables to members of
the P2P affinity group.
[0045] Block 24 represents such an affinity group, with this block
including plural members, such as the three members shown in small,
shaded rectangles contained within block 24. Dashed arrow line 34
represents an affinity linkage between the members of group 24 and
so-called affinity subject matter which is represented by block 28.
An illustration of affinity subject matter which is useful for
describing the present invention is electronically deliverable,
"copyright sanctioned" music organized into song files. In the
particular invention illustration now being given, the music files
which make up affinity subject matter 28 are copyrighted music
files with respect to which there are associated copyright rights
holders who expect compensation for the downloading and delivery of
files which become acquired by members in group 24.
[0046] According to the invention illustration now being described,
members of the affinity-group, affinity-subject-matter
right-holders, as well as others who may be offerers of various
other kinds of goods and services for sale or paid-for use, have
chosen, as sourcing providers, to make certain goods and services
available to one or more selected, vetted members of group 24 for
sale or other promotion to other members in group 24 in conjunction
with P2P file sharing which takes place between members within
group 24. Block 30 in FIG. 1 represents an authorized,
electronic-data catalogue, or the like, which identifies all such
deliverables. Such deliverables, which are represented in the
catalogue in the form of electronic data, might include, in
addition to goods and services specifically associated with
affinity subject matter, various other, ancillary,
affinity-subject-matter goods and services which, in the case of
music files, might include posters, photographs and various group
and artist paraphernalia. In an implementation of the invention
which only involves commerce in the field of electronic media,
blocks 28, 30 may effectively be visualized as being merged,
whereby the "catalogue" of deliverables includes only electronic
media. All such subject matter, affinity-interest and ancillary,
are, of course, aggregatable in various ways to make up a
fulfillable sale, or other kind of financial transaction, as
promoted by one or more vetted peer(s).
[0047] It should be understood that in the implementation of the
invention respecting file sharing, a suitable file-sharing
technology, typically in the form of software which may be made
available to members of group 24 over the Internet, is indeed made
available to those members of group 24 who choose to participate in
the system and methodology of the invention, as, for example, by
becoming subscribers for an appropriate, modest fee, referred to
herein as a "good-standing" fee. This software may be any suitable
type of file sharing software, the details of which form no part of
the present invention.
[0048] In accordance with practice of the invention, at least one
peer member of group 24 is appropriately (entrepreneurially) vetted
and selected to be given permission to make offers to other members
of group 24 of deliverables for sale from the collection (or
collections) thereof represented by block 30 (and/or block 28) in
the FIG. 1. Preferably, such a selected peer group member is
encouraged to utilize his or her own-imagined procedures and
entrepreneurial talents for promoting interest in other peer
members to "take a look" at offerings from these deliverables,
along with presenting further encouragement to such other peers to
make one or more purchases, or to engage in some other form of
permanent or temporary (such as licensed) transaction. One of the
key, powerful features of the invention is that it is thus through
peer promotion and enthusiasm that financial-transaction offers of
deliverables takes place. One can thus visualize this key as
utilizing specific P2P "affinity group culture" as a driving force
for commercial sales of, or other financial transactions involving,
the deliverables.
[0049] When a peer in group 24, who has received an encouragement
(only by a vetted peer) to "take a look at the catalogue of
deliverables", takes action, for example, by clicking on an offered
deliverable, and thereby sending an electronic signal over the
Internet, that action is preferably considered to have created what
is referred to herein as a peer hit upon a promoted deliverable.
Such a hit is represented by block 26 and dashed arrow line 36 in
FIG. 1. Arrow line 36 is thus representative of the transmission of
an electronic, over-the-network signal. In any appropriate manner
which is well within the skill of those skilled in the art
involving the creation of software, etc. associated with
peer-to-peer file sharing activities, such a hit is appropriately
recorded and preferably made known for ultimate fulfillment. It may
be, for example, recorded as digital electronic data to an
appropriate memory location, such as might be represented by block
32 in FIG. 1, to establish for the offering peer a "peer hit"
account which records hits attributable to the promotional activity
of the offering peer. A peer hit may, of course, be as modest as a
simple peer click to look and see what is being made available from
the catalogue of deliverables, and, of course, as robust as a fully
consummated and ultimately fulfilled sale, or, in fact, as a
proposed engagement in any one of the several types of financial
transactions discussed earlier herein.
[0050] Dashed arrow lines 38, 40 in FIG. 1, in a setting where
commerce involving both electronic-media and other deliverables is
involved, represent, respectively, (a) linkages which are made
between available affinity subject matter and other deliverables,
as promoted by a peer in group 24, and (b) access by members within
group 24 to the offerings of other deliverables represented by
block 30.
[0051] In any appropriate manner, also well within the skill of
those skilled in the art of Internet communication computer
technology, and in accordance with a practice that may have been
put in place, for example, by an affinity-group manager, as the
peer hit account for an offering peer member of group 24 crosses
various predetermined performance levels, some form of award or
appealing recognition, also represented by block 32, is given to
(or is requested by) the associated offering peer, or otherwise
made available to that peer.
[0052] What one can see from this description, and from the
practice illustration presented in FIG. 1, is that a methodology is
thus proposed which opens the door to significant promotion for,
among other financial transactions, the sales of goods and services
associated with, or even ancillary to, affinity subject
matter--i.e., that subject matter which defines the area of initial
and special interest for the exchange of information between peers
in affinity group 24.
[0053] By offering this methodology under, for example, an optional
group-manager-assisted subscriber system wherein subscriber fees
are made appealingly low, and wherein actual transfers of affinity
subject matter files may be permitted within the operation of the
system for relatively low, or even no, per-file-download payments
from a receiving peer, members, and would be members, of an
affinity peer group are encouraged to retain good-standing
membership statuses in order to have access to relatively low-cost
acquisition of affinity subject matter materials free from a
threat, in case of copyrighted materials, of the possibility of
adverse legal action.
[0054] Peer members may also become enthusiastic about the
commercial offers made and promoted by others among them, and may
be encouraged by the prospect themselves of becoming vetted and
authorized, peer-group offering entrepreneurs. Providers of
ancillary catalogue deliverables who may pay fees to be "included"
in the catalogue of deliverables will most probably experience
nearly immediate and very wide-spread and remarkable low-cost
promotion of their goods and services, well beyond what they have
experienced or been able to support in the past, with resulting
business growth driven by peer-culture entrepreneurial
enthusiasm.
[0055] Rights-holder contributors of material to the supply of
affinity subject matter deliverables, such as copyrights holders in
electronically distributable music files, are presented with a
structure which has the potential, through peer subscription
membership growth, for growing their economic return from the
expanded and paid-for distribution of such files, and the landscape
of copyright combatancy between file sharing members of an affinity
group and rights holders should shrink considerably.
[0056] FIG. 2, as outlined in its description above, illustrates a
slightly modified version of what is shown in FIG. 1, wherein a
vetted and "authorized` catalogue-offering peer 24a in peer
affinity group 24 is also the same person as peer 26a in a peer
affinity group 26 which has interest in a different affinity
subject matter. This peer (24a, 26a) who is common to groups 24, 26
(also referred to herein collectively as an electronic-network
subassembly) thus acts as a gateway, or connector, between the two
different P2P affinity groups, which can thus be thought of as
being "collected" or "gathered" under the wing of, or at least in
operative association with, common system management, or
support-bridging by a common, affinity-interest group manager--this
gathering gateway being represented in FIG. 2 by double-ended
curved arrow 42, and by dashed-line block 44. Catalogues of
deliverables associated with such two, different, chosen affinity
groups may, of course, have different, group-relevant, as well as
group-non-relevant, content, i.e., different affinity-interest and
ancillary-subject-matter deliverables. Arrows 42, in the
common-support-manager context just mentioned, is relatable to
previously mentioned line 38 in FIG. 1.
[0057] Such a group plurality of distributed, but readily
connectable, (a) peers, (b) associated network hardware, (c)
software, (d) databases, and (e) management services, etc.,
illustrated "elementally" in FIG. 2, helps to make understandable
the massive network-cloud commerce-expansion which is made
achievable by the present invention.
[0058] Turning to FIGS. 3 and 4, these two figures illustrate a
particular practice of the present invention in relation to a P2P
affinity group which has an affinity interest in music of a
particular character, and wherein providers, referred to as
industry providers, of such affinity-group music have determined to
make music files available in two categories of files, one of which
categories contains, say, current high-popularity, hit-list song
files, and other of which contains music files which may have
"graduated", for example, from a hit-list category either because
of declined popularity, or elevated age.
[0059] FIG. 3 illustrates this form of practice of the invention in
blocks evenly numbered 46-66, inclusive. Interconnecting activity
lines are illustrated in FIG. 3 by solid arrow-headed lines as
shown.
[0060] In FIG. 3, block 46 represents a population of copyright
rights holders (entities) in music song files, and these entities,
referred to, as mentioned above, as industry providers, make such
files available to an accessible (over the Internet) music file
pool represented by block 48. The rights holders for these music
files have chosen to characterize them as belonging in one or the
other of the two different categories of files identified above.
Song files which are the "young", and/or high-popularity, files
follow an activity flow path generally represented by blocks 50,
52, 54 and 56. The other files generally follow a flow path which
is represented by blocks 58, 60, 62 and 64.
[0061] In accordance with the practice specifically illustrated in
FIG. 3, a high-popularity music file, for example, will be treated
as something for which a recipient peer will pay on a per-file
basis for a file-share download, with this file being otherwise
delivered over the Internet only through the temporary-use practice
known as streaming so as clearly to identify it as not being
obtainable except through payment. According to the FIG. 3 practice
of the invention, streamed files are tagged with appropriate
markers which effectively "age" these files in relation to their
retention in a hit-list category, and when aged beyond a point
wherein they should remain in this category, these files are
transitioned, in effect, by applying appropriate electronic markers
to them which then designate them as copyright sanctioned (i.e.,
licensed), non-pay-per-file song files. Such a "transition" is
represented by the arrow-headed line which interconnects blocks 56,
58 in FIG. 3.
[0062] Song files which are either initially designated to be
non-pay-per-file files, or which become such following a transition
as just described, are made available to affinity group peers under
an established premise which defines them as non-pay-per-file
files, and which allows them to be distributed, in a non-streaming
manner, to subscriber members in good standing of the relevant
affinity peer group. File sharing of these files which, in
accordance with the practice now being described, are not in the
pay-per-file category are made directly available for P2P file
sharing within the relevant affinity group.
[0063] Relevant feedback information, represented by block 66 in
FIG. 3, is provided to the so-called industry providers as an
encouragement to continue to grow the contents of song files
available in the music pool represented by block 48 in FIG. 3.
[0064] FIG. 4, in five blocks 68, 70, 72, 74, 76, further
illustrates what has just been described with respect to FIG. 3 in
relation to how the two different categories of files mentioned are
handled for delivery over the Internet.
[0065] Looking now at FIG. 5, six blocks, evenly numbered 78-88,
inclusive, illustrate, in a relatively self-explanatory way, how
practice of the present invention can be visualized as being a
positive feedback commercial methodology in a music-file-based
situation based upon growing the file sharing behavior of peer
members within a P2P file sharing affinity (music) group. Labeling
which is presented in FIG. 5, along with the interconnected blocks
in this figure, clearly illustrate how the invention can be viewed
as being a commercial positive feedback arrangement. Song files in
music file pool 78 which are contributed by copyright rights
holders are made available at an appealing cost to members in good
standing of a subscriber group of peer-to-peer file sharers, and
this attractive pricing for available files incentivizes (block 80)
network growth through addition of members (block 82) within the
relevant P2P file sharing affinity group. Through employing offers
of other deliverables as described with respect to FIG. 1, and in
collaboration with file sharing behavior which takes place within
the appropriate file sharing affinity group, this activity will
generate commercial interest in the purchase of what has been
referred to herein as other deliverables, and will incentivize
(block 86) song-file rights holder to grow the quantity of
media-file information (block 88) made available via music file
pool 78.
[0066] If one simply thinks carefully about the basic mechanism of
this invention as described so far herein, one can readily see how
a positive feedback loop, such as that illustrated in FIG. 5, is
driven to promote commerce not only in distributable music files
but in other deliverables, in a fashion wherein this feedback loop
can be considered to possess two important growth engines which are
represented, as illustrated, at the opposite sides of FIG. 5.
[0067] Turning now to "point-of-view" drawings 6-10, inclusive,
FIG. 6, at 89, generally illustrates the invention as a P2P
business method which includes the steps of (a) IDENTIFYING (block
90) an active P2P network characterized with peers having a defined
affinity interest in the exchange of at least category-A
information (which may be music song files), and (b) EMPLOYING
(block 92) that at-least category-A information-exchange affinity
interest as a carrier vehicle and growth engine for the promotion,
within that network, of collateral income-generating transactions
between a peer and another peer or a party outside the network.
Recalling the discussion given above in relation to FIG. 1 in the
drawings, one can readily appreciate this manner of describing the
present invention.
[0068] FIG. 7, at 93, provides a high-level way of viewing the
invention as a P2P business-growth-enhancing method which is
relevant to the income-generating transactional delivering of goods
and/or services, and which utilizes, as an engine for such
enhancement, the practice of P2P file sharing of selected
information-material (such as music files) which is associated with
possessor-owned relationship rights (e.g., copyright rights), with
this method including the steps of (a) OFFERING (block 94) to
peers, for rights-conflict-free sharing in a P2P
information-sharing network, possessor-rights-sanctioned contents
drawn from such material, and (b) by that act of offering, and
based upon peer initiated affinity behavior within the P2P network
which is stimulated by features associated with the offered
content, and in a manner which is independent of the quantity of
P2P shared material, PROMOTING (block 96) commercial transactional
engagement between a peer in the network and a non-peer
commercially who may be associated with the rights-possessors of
such sanctioned materials.
[0069] The FIG. 8 view of the present invention can be understood
as illustrating it, at 97, to be a broadband, distributed,
goods/services-promotion system which is based upon (a)
ESTABLISHING (block 98) a goods/services-provider
sanctioned-for-delivery offering package, (b) DELIVERING (block
100) that package to at least one selected P2P file-sharing
participant designated to be a sub-delivery host, (c) INCENTIVIZING
(block 102) self-designed sub-delivery by that host to other P2P
file sharing participants by crediting that host with a hit account
specific to the host, and by offering hit-redemption values to the
host, and on the basis of a sub-delivery host's build-up in the
associated hit account, (d) FULFILLING (block 104) host-requested
award redemptions.
[0070] FIG. 9, at 105, illustrates the invention as being a method
for enhancing digital music-industry income relative to the
distribution of copyrighted music files including the steps of (a)
RECOGNIZING (block 106) that P2P network file sharing is a
promising engine of economic growth for the industry, (b) DIVIDING
(block 108) digital music files effectively into at least two
categories including (1) network streamed, non-file-sharable files,
and (2) network non-streamed, file-sharable files, and (c) LINKING
(block 110) differentiated income-producing fees to two such
categories.
[0071] FIG. 10, along with previously discussed FIG. 5, illustrates
the invention at 111 as taking the form of a positive feedback loop
for spurring economic growth in the digital recorded music industry
which, from a methodologic point of view, includes the steps of (a)
ESTABLISHING (block 112) an industry-contributed, ever-growing body
of digital music files, (b) ATTRACTING (block 114) a population of
subscribers who, for paid subscriber membership fees, are given
access to those files for otherwise free P2P membership-only file
sharing, and who, as subscriber members, are identifiably
accessible to contributing industry participants for the
presentation/reception of various permission-based
industry-contributed offerings, (c) ENHANCING (block 116) that
action of attracting in order to promote growth in the mentioned
subscription population through the practice of
industry-characterizing all of such contributed files as
copyright-sanctioned files, and (b) UTILIZING (block 118) such
promoted subscriber-membership growth as feedback encouragement to
incentivize expanded industry participation in the practice of
contributing to, and growing the quantity of, files in the body of
files.
[0072] One will observe that these several ways of viewing the
nature of the present invention fit within different ones of the
general "models" of the invention pictured in FIGS. 1-5,
inclusive.
[0073] FIG. 11, in five blocks, 120, 122, 124, 126, 128, and FIG.
12 in two blocks, 130, 132, collectively, and in a generalized
manner which is relevant to any affinity-interest group and its
associated affinity-interest subject matter, illustrate the present
invention from a point of view which is based upon promoting, among
other things, affinity-interest-subject-matter, such as
electronic-media-subject-matter, financial transactions of various
types by introducing authorized (i.e., entrepreneurially vetted),
catalogue-offering representative behavior into a P2P network.
These two figures illustrate an expression of the invention wherein
a central managing server 120, for example under the control of an
optional group manager, manages both a digital electronic catalogue
122 of affinity-interest goods and services which may be offered
within the practice of a P2P communicant network, as well as the
activities of selected peers 124 in an affinity group 126 who have
been chosen to be designated as entrepreneurially vetted,
authorized representatives for the making of offers for financial
transactions, for example sales, relating to goods and services
from this catalogue. The central managing server, under appropriate
implementation by the optional group manager, may manage, as
ancillary transactions support, fulfillment (such as aggregation
and delivery) of orders from the catalogue with respect to P2P
communicants who respond to vetted-communicant promotional activity
by engaging in financial transactions relative to goods and
services presented in the catalogue. Central management, and the
central managing server, may also (a) variously track, record and
manage (block 128) all promotion and response activities which take
place between authorized sales representatives and other members of
a peer group, (b) assure non-competition protection as between
plural sales representatives who operate within the same
peer-to-peer affinity group, and (c) build relevant databases
regarding promotion and response activities, which databases are
then usable to tailor, modify and control the operation of the
invention so as to maximize the enhanced commercial activity which
takes place in accordance with practice of the invention.
[0074] FIG. 12 specifically, and self-explanatorily, illustrates
(utilizing specific word labeling) several ways in which
non-competition management may be implemented.
[0075] FIG. 13, along with FIGS. 11 and 12, illustrates at 133 an
authorized-sales-representative method for using the network
communication bandwidth of a group of P2P file sharers having an
affinity, for example, for electronically distributable media to
enhance the sales of such media, with this method including the
steps of (a) ESTABLISHING (block 134) a vetted-peer
authorized-access-only catalogue containing identification of such
media, (b) AUTHORIZING (block 135) at least one selected member of
the P2P group to make offers of media sales from the catalogue to
other members of the group, and (c) PROVIDING (block 136) a reward
to that authorized, selected member in relation to the occurrence
of at least one offered and at least partially implemented sale of
media from the catalogue. These three figures taken together also
illustrate this same method which further involves the presence of
an appropriate, but optional, group (or system) manager, and which
includes the additional step of encouraging the entrepreneurially
vetted and authorized group member selectively to couple with such
an offer an independent, approved, non-catalogue offer for sale of
subject matter of the authorized member's choosing.
[0076] FIG. 14, taken along with FIGS. 11 and 12, promotes a view
at 137 of the present invention which is that it takes the form of
a method for promoting the sales, or other commercial transfers, of
rights-associated electronically distributable electronic media
made available by a media-rights authorizing entity, and including
the steps of (a) CREATING (block 138) a catalogue including
electronic media content the presence of which in the catalogue is
supported by media-rights authorizing entities, (b) SELECTING
(block 140), to be authorized as a catalogue sales representative
at least for the media content, an identified participant in a P2P
file-sharing group having an affinity for the catalogue media
content, (c) ENABLING (block 142) the selected, authorized
participant to offer to other participants in the affinity group
media content for purchase, or other acquisition type, from the
catalogue employing marketing strategies that are self-developed
and cleared with advisories from the authorizing entity, (d)
TRACKING (block 144) purchase activities involving such offered
media content, and (e) REWARDING (block 146) the selected,
authorized participant in relation to implemented sales from the
catalogue based upon catalogue-access offers made by that
participant.
[0077] FIGS. 11, 12 and 14 can also be viewed, for example, as
illustrating the invention in the form of being a method for
promoting the sales, or other commercial transfers or arrangements,
of rights-associated electronically distributable electronic media
involving the steps of (a) CREATING (block 138) a
central-server-managed catalogue including electronic media content
the presence of which in the catalogue is supported by media rights
holders, (b) SELECTING (block 140) to be authorized as a
central-server-managed catalogue-sales representative, at least for
the media content, an identified participant in a P2P file sharing
group having an affinity for the catalogue media content, (c)
ENABLING (block 142) the selected, authorized participant to offer
to other participants in the affinity group media content for
purchase, or other useful transference acquisition, from the
catalogue, (d) TRACKING (block 144) purchase activities involving
such offered media content, and (e) REWARDING (block 146) the
selected, authorized participant in relation to implemented sales
(or hits) from the catalogue based upon sales offer made by that
participant.
[0078] FIG. 15, along with FIGS. 11 and 12, can be viewed as
illustrating practice of the present invention at 147 as providing
a method for enhancing the sales, or other commercialization
styles, of electronically distributable media using the network
communication bandwidth of a group of P2P file sharers possessing
an affinity for such media, including the steps of (a) INTRODUCING
(block 148) media-sales-representative behavior into that group
with controlled access provided to a catalogue of such media from
which offers of media sales can be made to members in the group,
and (b) INCENTIVIZING (block 150) such introduced behavior.
[0079] Thus, the present invention can clearly be seen to involve
proposed computer signal-transmission, network methodology and a
system which are based upon a paradigm shift in relation to current
thinking about the nature of a P2P file sharing (or other
affinity-activity) network structure, as well as about like,
various-affinity-interest, network-consumer network structure,
particularly as such a network structure is perceived today in the
context of commerce involving network-deliverable, affinity subject
matter, such as electronic media files, like music song files and
movie files, as well as other forms of affinity-interest subject
matter. There are many attractive and beneficial commercial and
other features which characterize this invention--features which
takes square aim at utilizing the extraordinary power and reach of
P2P file sharing, and like affinity-interest network-consumer
behavior, to promote a very wide range of commercial transactions,
thus to grow and enhance various commercial income streams.
[0080] In accordance with implementation and practice of the
invention, and specifically discussing certain features and
advantages of the invention in the representative context of music
song file sharing, peers in a music affinity group are enticed to
join, and to remain as "good-standing" subscribers with, a service,
such as a subscription service, offered, in accordance with
practice of one form of the present invention. More specifically,
such enticement will be promoted and enhanced (a) by preferably
relatively low subscription fees, (b) by preferably relatively low
(or in some instances no) pay-per-music-file-download fees, (c) by
a blend of (a) and (b), (d) by the opportunity offered to affinity
group peers to participate in rights-related media file sharing
without fear of copyright infringement actions taking place, (e) by
the exposure of peer affinity group members to interesting,
peer-driven offers to acquire, in addition to music song files,
other and ancillary deliverables, (f) by the possibility for peers
in an affinity group to become authorized, and ultimately rewarded,
entrepreneurially vetted-member "offerers" within an affinity
group, (g) and by other attractions which will certainly come to
the minds of those who think about the possibilities offered by the
present invention. These enticement and other advantage factors
which are associated with the present invention will lead
naturally, or should so lead, to significant population growths in
relevant affinity-subject-matter groups, which growths will most
likely expand the commercial enhancement offered by the
invention.
[0081] In the affinity world of music media files, music copyright
rights holders will be attracted by the potential, and the probable
reality, of growing groups of peers whose activities will be
non-infringing in relation to copyright rights, and which growing
may well lead to a significantly enhanced income stream to such
rights holders derived from any one or more of (a) growing, direct,
per-file-download payments from subscription-member peers, (b) a
received share, perhaps, in "peer membership" subscription fees,
and (c) the possibility even of receiving a share in revenues
generated by sales, occurring within an affinity group, of various
deliverables. Appropriate filters may be associated with
rights-controlled media files to protect media rights holders
positively against copyright infringement.
[0082] Rights holders may well discover that implementation of the
present invention may produce revenue streams that clearly
out-distance those generated by classical "sales" of media content.
In fact, one startling effect might be that the nature of such an
enhanced revenue stream could cause media rights holders actually
to promote P2P file-sharing group growth--a promotion behavior
plainly taggable by conventional thinking as being heretical. A
paradigm shift, indeed!
[0083] As has been mentioned earlier herein, of central importance
to the power for enhancing commerce which is offered by the present
invention is the fact that core impetus for growth is driven by
authorized and encouraged affinity-interest-group enthusiasm linked
with imaginative peer (group member) vetted entrepreneurship. The
present invention thus attaches itself in a unique way to the core
sprit, enthusiasm and culture which centrally drives the
extraordinary growth, and ever-present activities, surrounding
bulging network commerce.
[0084] Practice of the invention, as will be readily recognized by
those skilled in the electronic network arts, intimately links with
and utilizes otherwise conventional and well known
electronic-signaling, computer-network hardware machinery (client
computers, and servers), physical electronic databases, firmware
and software which are required for its practice. The term
"electronic" herein takes on it usual broad meaning in the relevant
arts, involving electrical, electrostatic, magnet, and optical
devices and signaling, data-storing and related matters and
practices. It thus encompasses the usual electronic signal
transformation which occurs when, for examples, text, imagery, and
other information which represent electronic and physical objects
become transformed into electronic signals that flow in a network
to enable the communication and storage of information regarding
real world objects.
[0085] A good expression of the nature of the invention flows in
the language describing it as an electronic,
vetted-entrepreneurship-enhancement commerce
(financial-transaction) method implementable by
common-affinity-interest network-communicant parties employing the
structure of an electronic communication network, in association
with a network-connected, limited-access, and specifically an
entrepreneurially-vetted-network-communicant
authorized-access-only, digital-data catalogue of
commercially-transactable affinity-interest-associated
goods-and-services deliverables that are represented by
electronically transformed data stored in the catalogue.
[0086] The invented method includes (1), in relation to intended
catalogue-financial-transactional-access limiting, specifically
basing financial transactional access to catalogue deliverables
focusedly on vetted-network-communicant,
financial-transactional-promotional entrepreneurship, and (2)
limiting financial-transactional-activity access to the catalogue
to (a) only an entrepreneurially vetted, entrepreneurially-talented
network-communicant party, and (b) another party to whom such
access is furnished specifically, and only, by such a vetted
party.
[0087] Enhanced network commerce includes all of the various forms
of financial transactional activities mentioned above herein, as
well as others, not specifically mentioned, that may be generated
involving affinity-group members.
[0088] Those skilled in the art will certainly appreciate all of
the opportunities and advantages that are offered by the present
invention, and may well perceive other features and advantages
which come well within the scope of the present invention, but
which may not have been specifically expressed in this disclosure
text and in the drawings accompanying this text. All such
additional features and advantages are considered, of course, to
come within the scope of the present invention as claimed
hereinbelow.
* * * * *