Sony filed two patent applications for complementary inventions.
One describes a means of exchanging information between computers
or other devices in a network. The other describes ways of using
that information.
The application for the "system and method for reviewing
received digital content" describes building a web community.
When a P2P user
downloads a piece of content from another user's computer, be it a
song or a game or a movie, he normally knows nothing about that
user – or where that user obtained the content. Sony's proposal
would change that experience.
Sony describes a method for attaching a user history to content
when it is shared among computers or other devices. When one user
downloads a song, he can see who had it last and what he thought
about it.
The patent application explains: "For example, the user, Clark
Kent, may give a classic jazz music file a rating of '7' and
include the user comment 'like cool man.' Also, instead of using
his true identity ('Clark Kent'), Clark uses an alias, 'Superman.'"
Clark may also choose to supply his email address.
Unlike social networking websites, Sony's proposal does not rely
upon a centralised server. The thinking is that an accumulated
history of users of the digital content could add value to the
digital content itself, without requiring the file to be available
for download from only one location. A user may also receive a
credit towards the purchase of music when a subsequent user of an
exchanged music file plays the song.
"Over time," suggests the application, "if a particular user
consistently recommends interesting content before other users,
then they will emerge as a kind of expert recommender."
Other possibilities include your PC determining which song to
play based on a favourite list of another user having a common
interest in music. And the user history information could be sold
to marketers.
Sony-BMG has embraced P2P before: it partnered with
a British broadband-provider called Playlouder MSP last year to
make its catalogue available on a P2P network in which subscribers
can exchange music from participating record labels freely within
the walled garden. A portion of the subscription fees compensates
the rights holders.
The decision
Patent examiners initially objected that the inventions
described computer programs and were not eligible for patent
protection in the UK. Sony's patent agent, Dr Jonathan DeVile,
challenged this before Patent Office Hearing Officer Bruce
Westerman. Dr DeVile said the examiners were wrong, that the
inventions cannot be a program for a computer because, in
operation, there are at least two computers involved, communicating
over a network. Westerman disagreed.
"To be a participating member of the peer-to-peer community
within which these inventions work, it would seem to me clear that
each data processing device must contain all the functionality
to act as a 'first user' and as a 'second user' or 'previous
user'," wrote Westerman. "Therefore, in reality, each device has
all of the software, whether or not all of it is in use at any one
time."
The view of the patent examiners was upheld.
