WO2003098407A2

WO2003098407A2 - Collectible content on carrier

Info

Publication number: WO2003098407A2
Application number: PCT/IB2003/001552
Authority: WO
Inventors: Maarten P. Bodlaender
Original assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V.
Priority date: 2002-05-16
Filing date: 2003-04-17
Publication date: 2003-11-27
Also published as: AU2003216676A1; WO2003098407A8; AU2003216676A8; BR0304866A

Abstract

A carrier (100) comprising a content item and a collectible object associated with the content item. The carrier (100) is adapted to allow transfer, but not copying, of the content item together with the collectible object to another medium. The collectible object could be e.g. a portion of a graphical image, such as a photo of the performer, or it could be a portion of an audiovisual recording, or of a computer game. A system (300) arranged for playback of a content item stored on such a carrier (100) presents the collectible object during playback of the content item. If there are plural content items with respective associated collectible objects on the carrier (100), these objects are presented in dependence on their mutual relationship.

Description

Collectible content on carrier

The invention relates to carrier-based distribution of content items, the carrier being adapted to allow transfer, but not copying, of a content item on the carrier to another medium.

One of the most common ways to distribute content items such as music, songs, movies, television programs, pictures and the likes, is based on physical carriers like CDs or DVDs. A number of content items is stored on such a carrier, and the carrier can then be sold in stores. However, recent advances in copying technology, and the gaining popularity of file sharing mechanisms such as Napster or KaZaa, are threatening the business model behind such carrier-based distribution.

To combat unauthorized electronic distribution of content items made available on carriers, several copy protection and/or digital rights management (DRM) mechanisms have been developed. Generally speaking such mechanisms prevent or reduce the production, transportation and/or use of unauthorized copies of content items. The CD2 standard, for example, allows playback of the content items on a CD2 carrier, but not copying to other media such as hard disks or optical discs. This is described in amongst others international patent application WO 02/15184 (attorney docket PHNL000448) by the same applicants as the present application. Various DRM mechanisms do permit the transfer of a content item from a carrier to another medium. Transferring a content item involves copying the content item to the other medium and subsequently erasing the content item from the carrier. This way at all times only one specimen of the content item is available to its owner. The owner can then choose on which apparatus the content item should be played back and transfer the content item to that apparatus, but he cannot make copies for friends.

It is precisely because of these restrictions on copying that such mechanisms are not favored by consumers of these content items. This makes it difficult to sell such protected carriers. It is an object of the invention to provide a carrier according to the preamble, which provides an incentive to potential customers to purchase such a protected carrier rather than an unprotected carrier or downloading an unauthorized electronic specimen. This object is achieved according to the invention in a carrier comprising a content item and a collectible object associated with the content item, the carrier being adapted to allow transfer, but not copying, of the content item together with the collectible object to another medium. It is the collectible object that provides the incentive to the potential customers. By choosing the set from which the collectible object is chosen carefully, the collectible objects can be made highly desirable. This is known in itself from for example trading cards, coin or stamp collecting, and so on.

The collectible object is stored on the carrier together with and associated with the content item. This means that people who want to obtain the collectible object can purchase the carrier and then also come into the possession of the content item. As it is to be expected that these people will not want to have duplicate specimens of the content item, they are less likely to also purchase unprotected carriers or to make electronic downloads of the content item. The presence of the collectible object thus encourages sales of the protected carrier.

Preferably the collectible object comprises a portion of a graphical image, which could for instance comprise a photo of a performer of the content item. Alternatively the collectible object comprises a portion of apiece of music, or a portion of an audiovisual recording such as a recording of a performance by a performer of the content item. It could also comprise a portion of a computer game. Such items are highly desirable for potential purchasers of the carrier. Including portions of the graphical images on the various carriers then encourages these potential purchasers to buy the carriers and collect all portions.

In an embodiment the carrier is adapted to allow storage of plural content items with respective associated collectible objects, in which said collectible objects share a common property. If the carrier allows storing of content items together with their associated collectible objects onto the carrier, a purchaser of the carrier can collect various collectible objects on a single carrier. If the collectible objects share a common property, for example that they are respective parts of a single image, collecting the various objects on the single carrier eventually results in the owner of the carrier having "completed" his collection.

It is a further object of the invention to provide a system arranged for playback of a content item stored on the carrier according to the invention, the system comprising presenting means for presenting the collectible object during playback of the content item. Being presented with the collectible object during playback provides the purchaser of the carrier with the necessary incentive.

Preferably the presenting means are arranged for presenting all collectible objects present on the carrier in dependence on their mutual relationship. For example, if the collectible objects are respective parts of a single image, the presentation would show the reconstructed image. Any "holes" in the reconstructed image provide an incentive to go out and obtain those carriers containing the missing parts.

These and other aspects of the invention will be apparent from and elucidated with reference to the embodiments shown in the drawing, in which:

Fig. 1 schematically shows a protected carrier comprising tracks;

Fig. 2 shows a track in more detail; and Fig. 3 schematically shows a playback system for such a carrier.

Throughout the figures, same reference numerals indicate similar or corresponding features. Some of the features indicated in the drawings are typically implemented in software, and as such represent software entities, such as software modules or objects.

Fig. 1 schematically shows a protected carrier 100 comprising various tracks 110. In this embodiment the carrier 100 has the capacity to store eight tracks, although as shown in Fig. 1 only six tracks 110 are stored on the carrier 100. A recording apparatus can transfer additional content items into the remaining two slots 120. Additionally, the carrier 100 is adapted to allow transfer, but not copying, of the content items in the tracks 110 to another medium, such as a hard disk.

The tracks 110 are shown in more detail in Fig. 2. The track 110 comprises a content portion 111 and an additional portion 112. A content item can be stored in the content portion 111, and the collectible object associated with the content item can be stored in the additional portion 112. This way, when the track 110 is transferred to another medium, the content item and the associated collectible object remain together.

How the content item and the collectible object are stored exactly depends on the format used on the carrier 100. The additional portion 112 could for example be a location where metadata regarding the content item stored in the track 110 is stored. It could also be hidden data.

A single track may comprise multiple channels, for example one for video information and one for each piece of audio accompanying the video information. For instance, the various audio channels could comprise the audio portion of a movie dubbed in various languages. One of these channels can then be designated as the additional portion 112.

In an alternative embodiment the collectible object is embedded in the content item by means of a watermark. This means that the collectible object cannot be very large (in terms of bytes) compared to the size of the content item, but it allows the use of any carrier regardless of whether it supports storing of additional portions as described above.

Preferably the collectible object comprises a portion of a graphical image, which could for instance comprise a photo of a performer of the content item. Alternatively the collectible object comprises a portion of a piece of music, or a portion of an audiovisual recording such as a recording of a performance by a performer of the content item. It could also comprise a portion of a computer game. Such items are highly desirable for potential purchasers of the carrier. Including portions of the graphical images on the various carriers then encourages these potential purchasers to buy the carriers and collect all portions.

As it is the collectible objects that act as the incentive, care should be taken to ensure a proper assignment of collectible objects to content items during production of the carriers. Collectible objects are, generally speaking, elements from a certain set. There are two main incentives for obtaining collectible objects: collectors want to have a "complete" collection (i.e. the entire set), and they want to obtain rare specimens as those represent a high market value. So, it should be possible to purchase a certain number of carriers which results in obtaining all the collectible objects of a particular set, although some collectible objects should be harder to obtain than others.

It may be desirable to not provide any indication of which collectible object is provided on which carrier. This forces collectors to repeatedly purchase carriers in the hopes of obtaining the desired collectible object(s), just like in the field of trading cards one purchases packs of cards in the hopes of finding the one missing part from one's collection. However, if the price of the carriers is substantial, collectors will be hesitant to purchase a large number because they might fear wasting money.

In an advantageous embodiment various content items make up an album, and their respective associated collectible objects make up a cover picture for said album. If collectors know which content items make up one particular album, they know that purchasing carriers comprising those tracks will allow them to reconstruct the cover picture. Of course they do not know which part of the cover picture is associated with which particular track. The creator of the carriers may even associate different parts with one particular track on different carriers. Two purchasers of respective carriers comprising the same particular track thus obtain different parts of the cover picture. At the same time, different tracks may be associated with one and the same collectible object. This way, collecting a complete set becomes much more challenging. Fig. 3 schematically shows a playback system 300 for the protected carrier

100. Although embodied here as an audio playback system, the system 300 can of course equally well be a video playback system. For instance, the system 300 could comprise a general purpose computer running appropriate software.

To play back a content item on the carrier 100, the user inserts the carrier 100 into the disc drive 301 and activates presentation module 302. The content item is then rendered as an audio signal over loudspeakers 303, as this generally known in the art. in accordance with the invention, the activation of presentation module 302 also causes presentation of the collectible object associated with the content item being rendered.

A video presentation module 310 reads the collectible objects from the carrier 100, which in this embodiment are assumed to be portions of a photo of the performers of the content item. The photo is then presented on display 311. As can be seen in Fig. 3, not all portions of the photo are present on the carrier 100. White blocks are displayed where the missing portions are supposed to be shown. Such visible signaling of which portions are missing encourages the owner of the carrier 100 to go out and collect those missing portions. Since these are present on protected carriers, this person will have to purchase those carriers in order to obtain the collectible objects comprising the missing portions.

In this example, the various collectible objects share a common property, namely that they are respective parts of a particular photo. While it is not strictly necessary that the various collectible objects on the carrier 100 shares such a property, this is preferred because it encourages the purchase of additional carriers to "complete the collection" of objects sharing the common property.

A collector can complete his collection by transferring content items and associated collectible objects to the carrier 100. This way, the carrier 100 additionally serves as a binder for the collection. To stress this function even more, the playback system 300 could be configured to refuse to transfer of content items to the carrier 100 if the collectible object associated with the content item being transferred does not share the property common to the collectible objects already present on the carrier 100.

Of course other ways to complete and/or manage the collection of objects also exist. The content item and associated collectible object could be transferred e.g. to a hard disk inside the playback system 300, after which the carrier 100 could be discarded.

It should be noted that the above-mentioned embodiments illustrate rather than limit the invention, and that those skilled in the art will be able to design many alternative embodiments without departing from the scope of the appended claims. For instance, it may or may not be permissible that one person purchases two or more carriers with the same collectible object, and then transfers these two speciments of the object to his collection. This can be useful for trading purposes. However, the carrier which then contains both speciments of the object must be able to handle this.

The collectible objects could also be parts of an electronic coupon. Upon completing the collection, the user could redeem the coupon for a present, for bonus points, for an extra content item, for money or some other item of value. This could be realized e.g. by adding respective parts of a serial number to the respective objects. The serial number is then assembled by collecing the objects, and the coupon can be redeemed by simply presenting the serial number to the entity responsible for redeeming coupons (a store, for example). Having done so, the serial number is marked as redeemed in a central database, so that the user can redeem his coupon only once.

In the claims, any reference signs placed between parentheses shall not be construed as limiting the claim. The word "comprising" does not exclude the presence of elements or steps other than those listed in a claim. The word "a" or "an" preceding an element does not exclude the presence of a plurality of such elements.

The invention can be implemented by means of hardware comprising several distinct elements, and by means of a suitably programmed computer. In the system claim enumerating several means, several of these means can be embodied by one and the same item of hardware. The mere fact that certain measures are recited in mutually different dependent claims does not indicate that a combination of these measures cannot be used to advantage.

Claims

CLAIMS:

1. A carrier comprising a content item and a collectible object associated with the content item, the carrier being adapted to allow transfer, but not copying, of the content item together with the collectible object to another medium.

2. The carrier as claimed in claim 1, in which the collectible object comprises a portion of a graphical image.

3. The carrier as claimed in claim 2, in which the graphical image comprises a photo of a performer of the content item.

4. The carrier as claimed in claim 1, in which the collectible object comprises a portion of a piece of music.

5. The carrier as claimed in claim 1, in which the collectible object comprises a portion of an audiovisual recording.

6. The carrier as claimed in claim 5, in which the audiovisual recording comprises a recording of a performance by a performer of the content item.

7. The carrier as claimed in claim 1, in which the collectible object comprises a portion of a computer game.

8. The carrier as claimed in claim 1, being adapted to allow storage of plural content items with respective associated collectible objects, in which said collectible objects share a common property.

9. A system arranged for playback of a content item stored on the carrier as claimed in claim 1, comprising presenting means for presenting the collectible object during playback of the content item.

10. The system as claimed in claim 9, in which the presenting means are arranged for presenting all collectible objects present on the carrier in dependence on their mutual relationship.