KR20010068040A - Method for digital contents circulation via a communication network - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A method for distributing digital contents through a network is provided to receive and secure digital contents from users at on-line and to sell the digital contents through a plurality of on-line sellers by using a computer system. CONSTITUTION: A contents provider terminal(10) is a client system of a contents provider for providing the possessed contents to a contents distribution server(20). The contents distribution server(20) obtains and manages contents from a plurality of contents providers and sells the contents through a plurality of contents sellers. The profit of the selling is allocated to the corresponding contents provider and the seller. A contents seller terminal(30) is a client system of a contents seller for selling contents secured by the contents distribution server(20) through a web site. A contents customer terminal(40) is a client of a customer for requesting a purchase with respect to specific contents in a contents selling web site of a contents seller. A network(50) connects the terminals(10, 30, 40) to the server(20) and performs a data communication between the terminals(10, 30, 40) and the server(20). As the network(50), a wire/wireless Internet network, a PSTN or a mobile communication network are provided.

Description

Method for digital contents circulation via a communication network}

The present invention relates to a method for distributing digital content through a network, and more particularly, to obtain digital content from an unspecified number online through a computer system, to sell it through a plurality of online sellers, and to generate a profit from the content provider. And to assign to the seller to provide.

Recently, the Internet, which can use various digitalized information and contents online, has been in the spotlight through a computer system, and in particular, the wireless Internet, which can use the Internet as a user interface of a mobile communication terminal, has been rapidly emerging.

In general, content is used in a very broad sense, meaning digital content, and includes various images, videos, music, text, etc., which are digitized and produced, distributed, and consumed for information devices such as computers.

Recently, content monetization and copyright issues are a social concern, and content syndication, which provides a content marketplace for distributing content between content providers and consumers, has emerged as a new e-business field.

As a typical example, when the mobile phone ringtone content is provided online, the mobile phone ringtone content is roughly classified into an offer through the ARS 700 service and an internet homepage. It sells the ringtone content to an unspecified number of consumers accessed through the homepage, and transmits the ringtone content to the mobile communication terminal, the system of the corresponding consumer, in response to the purchase request of the consumer. In this case, most of the content sold by the seller is self-produced, which limits its kind and originality.

On the other hand, the environment is easily accessible to the Internet and various information devices, and thanks to the strong desire for expression of each individual, numerous contents are produced by individuals each day, and the produced contents are the web of each individual or others. It is sold through the site.

In such a situation, if a method of collectively collecting and selling original contents produced by a large number of individuals is activated, it may be very convenient to collectively identify and purchase a plurality of original contents from the consumer side.

Meanwhile, even if the content to be sold is secured, if the sale of the content is not activated, proper distribution of the content will not be realized, and thus the produced content may not be usefully used.

In the conventional general online sales, most of the sales are implemented in one sales website, and thus fail to implement professional sales and sales promotion through multiple sellers, such as offline franchising or multi-level sales.

Therefore, if a content provider (copyright owner), a content distributor, and a content seller have a division of labor and professionally deal with their respective roles to promote the sale of the content and allocate and receive the revenue, the new product has a new product value. Smooth distribution of digital content will be guaranteed.

The present invention has been made in view of the above, and provides a digital content distribution method for receiving and securing digital content from an unspecified number of individuals online using a computer system and selling the same through a plurality of online sellers. The purpose is to.

In addition, a content provider and a content seller allocate and provide revenue generated when the corresponding content is sold, and also have a purpose to realize a profit on its own.

Furthermore, there is another object to implementing sales through a number of online sales agents, overcoming the limitations of online sales through a single conventional website.

Finally, there is a core object of the present invention to provide a method for providing a distribution system that professionally handles the acquisition, mediation, promotion, and sale of sales content, so that the created content can be usefully distributed and utilized. .

Other objects and advantages of the invention will be described below and will be appreciated by the practice of the invention. Furthermore, the objects and advantages of the present invention can be realized by means and combinations indicated in the appended claims.

The following drawings, which are attached to this specification, illustrate exemplary embodiments of the present invention, and together with the detailed description of the present invention, serve to further understand the technical spirit of the present invention. It should not be construed as limited to.

1 is a diagram showing the configuration of a network system in which a digital content distribution method through a network according to the present invention is performed.

2 is a diagram illustrating a functional configuration of a content distribution server in the network system of FIG. 1 according to the present invention.

3 is a view for explaining a digital content distribution method via a network according to the present invention as a whole.

4 is a flowchart illustrating a process of providing content held by a content provider to a content distribution server through data communication according to the present invention.

5 is a flowchart illustrating a process in which a content distributor server registers a content seller through data communication according to the present invention.

6 is a flowchart illustrating a process of processing a content purchase request of a consumer through a content seller's website according to the present invention.

<Description of main reference numerals in the drawings>

10: content provider terminal 20: content distribution server

30: content seller terminal 40: content consumer terminal

50: network

Digital content distribution method through a network according to the present invention for achieving the above object, (a) a content distribution server for storing the content provided from the content provider via the network; (b) a content seller selling and promoting the content stored in the content distribution server through a network; (c) a content consumer requesting to purchase specific content that the content seller sells and promotes through a network; And (d) the content distribution server processing payment of a purchase price for the purchase request, and providing the purchased content to the content consumer through a network. It includes.

Preferably, the content distribution server allocates and provides revenue generated as the content is sold to a corresponding content provider and a content seller.

The sales promotion of the contents is performed through a web page, and the web page is displayed by displaying a list of the contents.

The content may in particular be ringtone content for mobile or music letter content for mobile.

The content seller may be configured in the form of a hierarchical network in which the content sellers of the lower level depend on the content seller of the higher level.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Prior to this, terms or words used in the present specification and claims should not be construed as being limited to the common or dictionary meanings, and the inventors should properly explain the concept of terms in order to explain their invention in the best way. Based on the principle that can be defined, it should be interpreted as meaning and concept corresponding to the technical idea of the present invention.

Therefore, the embodiments described in the specification and the drawings shown in the drawings are only the most preferred embodiment of the present invention and do not represent all of the technical idea of the present invention, various modifications that can be replaced at the time of the present application It should be understood that there may be equivalents and variations.

1 shows a configuration of a network system in which a digital content distribution method through a network according to the present invention is performed.

The network system includes a content provider terminal 1 to N 10, an online content distribution server 20, a content seller terminal 1 to N 30, a content consumer terminal 1 to N 40, and a network 50 for connecting them in common. ).

The content provider terminal 10 is a client system on the content provider's side providing the content to the content distribution server 20.

The content distribution server 20 obtains contents from a plurality of content providers and manages them as a database. The contents distribution server 20 is a server system that sells the contents through a plurality of contents sellers. to provide.

The content seller terminal 30 is a client system of the content seller that sells the content secured by the content distribution server 20 through a website, and is used by the content seller to access the content distribution server 20.

The content consumer terminal 40 is a client system on the consumer side that requests a purchase of specific content from a content seller's website for content sale.

The above-described terminals 10, 30, and 40 may be a personal computer capable of data communication, a mobile communication terminal capable of wireless communication including a cellular phone, a PCS, a portable personal terminal (PDA), and an IMT-200 terminal. have.

On the other hand, the network 50 is to connect the terminals 10, 30, 40 and the server 20 in common to perform data communication between each other, wired / wireless Internet network, public telephone network (PSTN), mobile A communication network or the like can be used.

However, hereinafter, for convenience of explanation, the present invention will be described by taking the case where the network 50 is a wired Internet network based on the World Wide Web and the terminals are personal computers. However, it is a matter of course that the present invention is not necessarily limited to these examples.

2 schematically shows a functional configuration of a content distribution server according to the present invention.

The content distribution server 20 provides a server engine 22, a plurality of web pages 24, a content provider management module 26a, a content acquisition module 26b, a content seller management module 26c, and a content list. Module 26d, purchase request acquisition module 26e, purchase request processing module 26f, revenue management module 26g, content provider information database (Data-Base: DB) 28a, content DB 28b, content The seller information DB 28c, the purchase request DB 28d, the payment processing history DB 28e, the content providing history DB 28f, the profit management DB 28g, and the like.

The server engine 22 presents various web pages 24 to the accessing terminals 10 and 30, and is a platform for server-side programs such as the modules 26a to 26g. ). Here, the web page 24 is preferably written in HTML (Hyper-text Markup Language) format, but may be written in any format as long as it can be read by a computer system.

The content provider management module 26a is a program that obtains information of a plurality of content providers connected through the network 50, stores the information in the content provider information DB 28a, and manages the information.

The content obtaining module 26b is a program for obtaining content provided from a content provider to be connected. The content obtaining module 26b stores and manages the obtained content in the content DB 28b. According to the present invention, the content distribution server 20 also stores and manages its own content, which is produced and held in the content DB 28b.

The content seller management module 26c is a program for acquiring information of a plurality of content sellers connected through the network 50 and storing the content seller information in the content seller information DB 28c.

The content list providing module 26d is a program for providing a content list for sale to a content seller, and extracts a content list from the above-described content DB 28b.

The purchase request acquisition module 26d is a program for acquiring a content purchase request of a consumer transmitted from the content seller, and stores and manages the acquired purchase request related information in the purchase request DB 28d.

The purchase request processing module 26e is a program for processing the obtained purchase request in real time. The purchase request processing module 26e processes payment of a purchase price from a consumer who has made a purchase request, and transmits and provides the purchased content to the requested consumer system. Here, the payment processing details are stored in the payment processing details DB 28e, and the details provided with the contents are stored and managed in the content providing details DB 28f, respectively.

The revenue management module 26f is a program that provides the content provider and the seller with the revenue generated by selling the content, and stores the details in the revenue management DB 28g.

Hereinafter, the digital content distribution method through the network according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 3 to 6.

3 is a diagram illustrating the present invention as a whole, and FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a process of providing a content distribution server with contents held by a content provider through a network according to the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 4, a content provider who wants to profit by providing content may use an online content distribution server (ie, content distribution) using a computer 10 equipped with data communication means such as a web browser. Site) 20 (step S100).

With respect to the access, the content distribution server 20 may request execution of member registration and login, and the content provider connected thereto selectively executes member registration and login.

Meanwhile, in the technology of the present specification, an operation performed by each subject, which is a content provider, a content seller, and a content consumer, is strictly performed by using a computer system, and the operation is implemented through data communication through a network. However, for the sake of convenience of explanation, the operation performed by each subject will be briefly described below, but it should be understood to contain the meanings strictly described above.

The content distribution server 20 transmits and provides a web page on which various service menus are posted to the logged-in content provider, and the content provider selects a "content provision registration" menu from the service menu to register the content provision (step) S102). In the content providing registration, the content provider registers the name of the content to be provided, the classification of the content (for example, "mobile content → ringtone content"), location information of the content file, and the like. The location information of the content file is system location information on the network where the content is located.

In response to this, the content distribution server 20 receives the registered information, and accesses the system where the content is located according to the received location information to acquire the content (step S104).

Alternatively, the content provider may upload the content directly. As such, the technology in which the content file is transferred from one system to another is a very general technical matter, and it will be easily recognized by those skilled in the art.

Next, the content distribution server 20 stores the obtained content in the content DB 28b (step S106), whereby the process of providing and obtaining the content is completed.

Through the above-described process, the content distribution server 20 acquires a plurality of contents from a plurality of content providers to build a content database pool, and through a plurality of sellers registering the acquired contents as described below. Will be sold.

Of course, the content distribution server 20 may check the acquired content to determine its sales suitability, and build a content database pool using only high quality content.

As described above, the content distribution server 20 may store the content produced and held by itself in the content DB 28b to be sold.

5 is a flowchart illustrating a process in which a content distribution server registers a content seller according to the present invention.

The person who wants to earn money by selling contents online is connected to the content distribution server (ie, content distribution site) 20 using the computer 30 equipped with data communication means (step S200).

With respect to the access, the content distribution server 20 may request execution of member registration and login, and a user who accesses it selectively executes member registration and login.

After the login is completed, the content distribution server 20 transmits and provides a web page on which various service menus are posted, and the accessor selects a "content seller registration" menu to register as a content seller (step S202). On the other hand, the content distribution server 20 receives the registration (step S204). Here, the content distribution server 20 may register the website information to be used for selling the content from the content seller to register.

Next, the content distribution server 20 will provide a list of content for sale to the registered content seller (step S206).

As a result, the content seller registration process through the connection with the content distribution server 20 is completed.

Meanwhile, the content distribution server 20 may provide a list of contents newly acquired from the content provider to the content seller through e-mail or the like.

The registered content seller publishes the provided content list on the web page of the website to be used for selling the content (step S208), and places the corresponding web site on the network to sell the content (step S210). Of course, the content seller may select and publish only a list of desired contents from the provided content list. That is, the content seller may configure a content selling website as desired, for example, a ringtone content selling specialized website.

Of course, each content seller will promote their content sales website through activities such as conventional web-promotion.

Meanwhile, the content distribution server 20 may allow a registered content seller to produce a homepage (website) for selling content in a predetermined form. For this purpose, the content distribution server 20 may provide a homepage production program on the web. In addition, the content distribution server 20 may provide a content seller with a domain for a content selling website.

Through the above-described process, the content distribution server 20 secures a plurality of content sellers, and sells the contents provided from the content provider.

Here, a plurality of content sellers can be viewed as an online sales agent for the content distribution server 20 in concept, and the content sellers sell the contents through their own web-promotion activities and earn profits from the sales. You will be provided.

According to the present invention, a plurality of content sellers registered in the content distribution server 20 may be configured in a hierarchical network form like a conventional multi-stage selling method. That is, there are a plurality of seller hierarchies, and the content sellers of the higher level may be configured in the form of subordinate content sellers, and the higher level sellers may attract a plurality of lower level sellers, Receive a portion of the revenue according to the content sales of the content seller in the step.

To this end, the content distribution server 20 may configure the content sellers to register themselves in a hierarchical network form. Alternatively, the content distribution server 20 receives the network layer information of its or other content sellers from the content sellers and hierarchies the hierarchical network. It can also be configured in the form.

6 is a flowchart illustrating a process of processing a content purchase request of a consumer through a content seller's website according to the present invention.

Websites for content sales of content sellers exist on the network, and a number of consumers access the content sales website through the network 50 (step S300).

The connected consumer checks the list of contents sold through the website inquiry (step S302), and registers a purchase request for the desired specific content (step S304).

This process is the same as the product purchasing process of the general e-commerce, the consumer registers information for payment of the purchase price and location information of the system to receive the content requested to purchase.

In response, the web site for content sales transmits the corresponding purchase request to the online content distribution server 20 in real time (step S306), and the content distribution server 20 obtains this information (step S308).

To this end, a web page of a website for content sale includes a program in a web page code for transmitting a purchase request of a consumer to a content distribution server 20 online in real time.

Of course, the acquired purchase request information includes all necessary information related to the purchase request, and the information includes purchase requested content information, payment information, location information of a consumer system for receiving corresponding content, and identification information of the corresponding content seller. Etc. are included.

Next, the content distribution server 20 processes the obtained purchase request, that is, after receiving the purchase price from the consumer according to the consumer's payment information, and transmits the requested content to the system of the requested consumer. To provide (step S310).

Thus, the process of processing the content purchase request through the online content seller of the consumer is completed.

Meanwhile, before registering a purchase request for a specific content, the consumer may first request confirmation of the corresponding content (eg, "listen" to the ringtone content), and in this case, the content selling website may request the content to be requested. It is provided from the distribution server 20 so that consumers can check. To this end, a content selling website has a program embedded in a web page code for processing a content confirmation request of a consumer.

As described above, when the content is sold through the content seller, the content distribution server 20 allocates and provides the revenue generated according to the provider and the seller of the corresponding content.

The present invention can be applied to the sale of general digital content such as ringtones for mobile, various music, characters, images, videos, texts, etc. Herein, a case where the content is a ringtone content for mobile will be described as a representative embodiment.

Many individuals who produce and hold ringtone content of a mobile phone provide their ringtone content to the content distribution server 20. Accordingly, the content distribution server 20 is provided with a plurality of ringtone contents to build a ringtone content database pool, and provides a list of the ringtone contents to a plurality of content sellers to be sold through a content selling website.

A plurality of content sellers sell ringtone content to an unspecified number of consumers through a website, and a consumer requests a purchase of a specific ringtone content on the website, and the purchase request is a content distribution server 20 in real time. Is sent to. The purchase request includes payment information of the purchase price of the consumer and mobile communication number information for receiving the purchased ringtone content.

Therefore, the content distribution server 20 receives the purchase price from the corresponding consumer according to the payment information, and then transmits the purchased specific ringtone content to the mobile terminal of the requested consumer. Of course, the content distribution server 20 is provided with a means for outputting (pushing) the ringtone content to the mobile communication terminal.

Meanwhile, the content distribution server 20 allocates and provides revenue from the sale to the provider and the seller of the ringtone content, respectively.

As such, the content applicable to the present invention may include the mobile ringtone content and mobile music letter content similar to the above.

In addition, the content distribution server 20 may also sell content on its own, that is, use its own content distribution website for the purpose of self-sale of content other than the content provider registration and content seller registration. have.

As mentioned above, although this invention was demonstrated by the limited embodiment and drawing, this invention is not limited by this, The person of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs, Of course, various modifications and variations are possible within the scope of equivalent claims.

According to the digital content distribution method through the network of the present invention, a new content distribution method for securing digital content from an unspecified number of individuals using a computer system and selling it through a plurality of online sellers is provided.

Thus, the content provider is profitable by providing the content produced and held, while the content seller is only profited by promoting and selling the content.

In addition, the consumer who purchases the content can easily purchase the necessary content by receiving the content from the content seller at a glance without performing the web surfing for the content purchase.

Furthermore, the content distribution server secures the contents online and generates profits through selling the contents through multiple content sellers and selling the contents themselves.

The present invention does not end with only the mobile ringtone content shown in the embodiment, but can be utilized for distribution of all digital content, thereby implying the possibility of creating a new online business form.

Claims (5)

(a) storing, by the content distribution server, content provided from the content provider through a network; (b) a content seller selling and promoting the content stored in the content distribution server through a network; (c) a content consumer requesting to purchase specific content that the content seller sells and promotes through a network; And (d) the content distribution server processing payment of a purchase price for the purchase request, and providing the purchased content to the content consumer through a network; Digital content distribution via a network comprising a. The method of claim 1, The content distribution server is a digital content distribution method through a network, characterized in that for providing the content providers and content sellers generated revenue generated by the sale of the content. The method of claim 1, The sales promotion of the content is made through a web page, wherein the web page is a digital content distribution method through a network, characterized in that by displaying the list of the content. The method of claim 1, The content is a digital content distribution method over a network, in particular characterized in that the mobile ringtone content or mobile music letter content. The method of claim 1, The content seller is a digital content distribution method over a network, characterized in that the content seller in the form of a hierarchical network in which subordinate content sellers are dependent.