Apple patents involve iTunes and media content
Posted by Dennis Sellers 
Nov 23, 2007 at 1:07pm
Apple patents involving the iTunes store and its content have appeared at the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. Patent number 20070266028 is for processing of metadata content and media content received by a media distribution system. It relates to media asset management, and more particularly, to submission of media assets to a distribution system in a client-server environment.
According to Apple, the disclosed embodiments relate generally to the submission of metadata content and media content to a media distribution system. The media content can include, for example, audio, video, image, or podcast data. In accordance with one embodiment, a client submitting metadata content can validate the metadata content prior to submission of the metadata content and/or associated media content. A media distribution system receiving metadata content can also validate the metadata content.
The inventors are Max Muller and Ricardo Cortes.
Patent number 20070266047 is for submission of metadata content and media content to a media distribution system. It relates to media asset management, and more particularly, to submission of media assets to a distribution system in a client-server environment.
According to Apple, the disclosed embodiments relate generally to the submission of metadata content and media content to a media distribution system. The media content can include, for example, audio, video, image, or podcast data. In accordance with one embodiment, a client submitting metadata content can validate the metadata content prior to submission of the metadata content and/or associated media content. A media distribution system receiving metadata content can also validate the metadata content.
The inventors are, again, Max Muller and Ricardo Cortes.
Patent number 20070271188 is for digital media acquisition using credit. It relates to media acquisition and, more particularly, to acquisition of digital media assets in a client-server environment.
According to Apple, improved techniques and systems to facilitate use of credit to acquire digital media assets from a network-based media server are disclosed. Digital media assets can include media items such as songs, albums, images, slideshows, audiobooks, podcasts, or videos. A user can acquire credit in a variety of different ways including, for example, through redeeming a credit invitation. Once a user has available credit by whatever means, the user can acquire one or more digital media assets from the network-based media server using his/her available credit. In one embodiment, the credit is provided as item credits, whereby each item credit can be used to acquire a selected digital media asset. However, not all of the digital media assets available from the network-based media server are permitted to be acquired using item credits. In some cases, the digital media assets that can be acquired with credit can be designated by their cost. The country of origin of the user and/or the type of media asset can also influence the digital media assets that can be acquired using item credits.
The inventor is Thomas Burkholder.
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Dennis Sellers
Dennis has been a newspaper editor/reporter (seven years) and teacher (seven years). He has over 4,000 magazine, newspaper and online articles to his credit. He has also covered the Mac and tech industries for over a decade for such online publications as MacCentral, MacMinute and now MacsimumNews.
