PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To solve the problem, wherein it is impossible for an electronic content information provider to provide commercially secure and effective method, for a configurable general-purpose electronic commercial transaction/distribution control system. SOLUTION: In this system, having at least one protected processing environment for safely controlling at least one portion of decoding of digital information, a secure content distribution method comprises a process for encapsulating digital information in one or more digital containers; a process for encrypting at least a portion of digital information; a process for associating at least partially secure control information for managing interactions with encrypted digital information and/or digital container; a process for delivering one or more digital containers to a digital information user; and a process for using a protected processing environment, for safely controlling at least a portion of the decoding of the digital information. COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a423264.pdf

Systems and Methods for Secure Transaction Management and Electronic Rights Protection

Methods and apparatuses for targeting the delivery of advertisements over a network such as the Internet are disclosed. Statistics are compiled on individual users and networks and the use of the advertisements is tracked to permit targeting of the advertisements of individual users. In response to requests from affiliated sites, an advertising server transmits to people accessing the page of a site an appropriate one of the advertisement based upon profiling of users and networks.

Method of delivery, targeting, and measuring advertising over networks

The present invention is a method and apparatus for effectuating bilateral buyer-driven commerce. The present invention allows prospective buyers of goods and services to communicate a binding purchase offer globally to potential sellers, for sellers conveniently to search for relevant buyer purchase offers, and for sellers potentially to bind a buyer to a contract based on the buyer's purchase offer. In a preferred embodiment, the apparatus of the present invention includes a controller which receives binding purchase offers from prospective buyers. The controller makes purchase offers available globally to potential sellers. Potential sellers then have the option to accept a purchase offer and thus bind the corresponding buyer to a contract. The method and apparatus of the present invention have applications on the Internet as well as conventional communications systems such as voice telephony.

Method and apparatus for a cryptographically assisted commercial network system designed to facilitate buyer-driven conditional purchase offers

A method and system for placing an order to purchase an item via the Internet. The order is placed by a purchaser at a client system and received by a server system. The server system receives purchaser information including identification of the purchaser, payment information, and shipment information from the client system. The server system then assigns a client identifier to the client system and associates the assigned client identifier with the received purchaser information. The server system sends to the client system the assigned client identifier and an HTML document identifying the item and including an order button. The client system receives and stores the assigned client identifier and receives and displays the HTML document. In response to the selection of the order button, the client system sends to the server system a request to purchase the identified item. The server system receives the request and combines the purchaser information associated with the client identifier of the client system to generate an order to purchase the item in accordance with the billing and shipment information whereby the purchaser effects the ordering of the product by selection of the order button.

Method and system for placing a purchase order via a communications network

Disclosed is an Internet-based referral system that enables individuals and other business entities ("associates") to market products, in return for a commission, that are sold from a merchant's Web site. The system includes automated registration software that runs on the merchant's Web site to allow entities to register as associates. Following registration, the associate sets up a Web site (or other information dissemination system) to distribute hypertextual catalog documents that includes marketing information (product reviews, recommendations, etc.) about selected products of the merchant. In association with each such product, the catalog document includes a hypertextual "referral link" that allows a user ("customer") to link to the merchant's site and purchase the product. When a customer selects a referral link, the customer's computer transmits unique IDs of the selected product and of the associate to the merchant's site, allowing the merchant to identify the product and the referring associate. If the customer subsequently purchases the product from the merchant's site, a commission is automatically credited to an account of the referring associate. The merchant site also implements an electronic shopping cart that allows the customer to select products from multiple different Web sites, and then perform a single "check out" from the merchant's site.

Internet-based customer referral system

A network-based sales system includes at least one buyer computer for operation by a user desiring to buy a product, at least one merchant computer, and at least one payment computer. The buyer computer, the merchant computer, and the payment computer are interconnected by a computer network. The buyer computer is programmed to receive a user request for purchasing a product, and to cause a payment message to be sent to the payment computer that comprises a product identifier identifying the product. The payment computer is programmed to receive the payment message, to cause an access message to be created that comprises the product identifier and an access message authenticator based on a cryptographic key, and to cause the access message to be sent to the merchant computer. The merchant computer is programmed to receive the access message, to verify the access message authenticator to ensure that the access message authenticator was created using the cryptographic key, and to cause the product to be sent to the user desiring to buy the product.

Network sales system

This invention relates to methods for controlling and monitoring access to network servers. In particular, the process described in the invention includes client-server sessions over the Internet. In this environment, when the user attempts to access an access-controlled file, the server subjects the request to a secondary server which determines whether the client has an authorization or valid account. Upon such verification, the user is provided with a session identification which allows the user to access to the requested file as well as any other files within the present protection domain.

Internet server access control and monitoring systems

A method of delta-encoding and compressing a table containing 6-byte MAC addresses is provided. The MAC addresses are sorted, a first MAC address is stored, and only the binary differences between succeeding MAC addresses are stored. A method of reading a delta-encoded and compressed MAC address table is provided. A first unencoded MAC address is read. The remaining MAC addresses are generated by successively adding stored binary differences to the result of the previous addition. A method of encoding and compressing a location table is provided. A reference latitude and longitude is selected and stored. The offsets from the reference latitude and longitude are stored for the remaining locations. A method of reading an encoded location table is provided. A stored reference latitude and longitude is read. Stored offsets are read and applied to the reference latitude and longitude to generate a set of latitude and longitude locations.

Encoding and compression of a location beacon database

AudioFile is a portable, device-independent, network-transparent system for computer audio systems. Similar to the X Window System, it provides an abstract audio device interface with a simple network protocol to support a variety of audio hardware and multiple simultaneous clients. AudioFile emphasizes client handling of audio data and permits exact control of timing. This paper describes our approach to digital audio, the AudioFile protocol, the client library, the audio server, and some example client applications. It also discusses the performance of the system and our experience using standard networking protocols for audio. A source code distribution is available by anonymous FTP.

/pdf/audiofile-a-network-transparent-system-for-distributed-audio-3oyiwyvhru.pdf

Audiofile: a network-transparent system for distributed audio applications

We describe the first operational Internet payment switch that provides real-time authorization suitable for direct use by merchant servers. A payment switch is a server that creates digital representations of conventional financial instruments, and forwards authentic payment orders on these instruments to their corresponding conventional financial networks and institutions. Our payment switch provides support for time-based and item-based pricing, implements switch based authorization and settlement aggregation for micropayments, and includes an extensive customer support system in order to provide a high level of customer confidence in electronic commerce. Fraud control is based on a transaction-specific multi-level security model that accommodates existing Internet browsers. Multiple authentication technologies are applied to every transaction.

Andrew C. Payne

Papers

Network sales system

Internet server access control and monitoring systems

Encoding and compression of a location beacon database

Audiofile: a network-transparent system for distributed audio applications

Payment switches for open networks