BROWSER BASED PEER TO PEER DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM

1 . A method of operating a peer to peer media distribution system comprising:

streaming a media object from a target system via a first browser, the first browser being an application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web (WWW);

receiving a media request from a viewer device;

determining a confirmation of whether the media request is for the media object; and

serving a portion of the media object from a sandboxed memory of the first browser for presenting on a second browser of the viewer device in response to the confirmation.

2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising verifying the viewer device is registered at a distribution server.

3 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising downloading an in-browser distribution application for execution on the first browser, the in-browser distribution application for streaming the media object and serving the portion of the media object.

4 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

determining an attribute of the viewer device; and

determining whether to respond to the viewer device based on the attribute.

5 . The method of claim 4 , wherein the attribute includes available bandwidth, available processing power, available memory, functional capability, geographical location, Internet service provider identity, or any combination thereof.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the media object is a stream-enabled media that has a sequential property, wherein the media object has a set duration of time and where portions of the media object correspond to pieces within a sequence in the set duration.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein streaming the media object includes downloading different time chunks of the media object in parallel from different sources.

8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the media request is a digital package that specifies the media object and a portion of the media object that the viewer device is requesting.

9 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising selecting the target system as a source of said streaming, wherein said selecting is based on an attribute of target system.

10 . The method of claim 9 , further comprising receiving the attribute from a distribution server.

11 . The method of claim 9 , further comprising traversing a peer to peer network to identify the attribute of the target system.

12 . A computing device comprising:

a non-transitory memory including a browser application and a sandboxed memory of the browser application, the browser application being an application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web (WWW);

a processor for executing the browser application;

an in-browser distribution application for execution in the browser application comprising:

a stream module configured to stream, via the browser application, a media object from an external system;

a communication module configured to receive a media request from a viewer device;

a confirmation module, coupled to the stream module and the communication module, configured to determine a confirmation of whether the media request is for the media object; and

a service module, coupled to the confirmation module, the communication module, and the stream module, configured to serve, in response to the confirmation, a portion of the media object from the sandboxed memory of the browser application for presenting on another browser application running on the viewer device.

13 . The computing device of claim 12 , wherein the communication module is configured to verify with a server system that the viewer device is registered with the server system.

14 . The computing device of claim 12 , wherein the browser application is configured to download and execute the in-browser distribution application.

15 . The computing device of claim 12 , wherein the confirmation module is configured to determine a functional capability, an available memory space, processing power, available bandwidth, an operating system type, or any combination thereof, of the viewer device.

16 . The computing device of claim 12 , wherein the in-browser distribution application is restricted from scanning, reading, or writing to the non-transitory memory aside from the sandboxed memory.

17 . The computing device of claim 12 , wherein the in-browser distribution application is a run-time instance of a browser-based application that is terminated when a run-time instance of the browser application is terminated or halted by the processor.

18 . The computing device of claim 17 , wherein the in-browser distribution application is implemented as an application based on Flash, JavaScript, Java applet, HTML 5, or any combination thereof.

19 . The computing device of claim 12 , wherein the in-browser distribution application further comprises a topology management module configured to determine which viewer device to connect with for the stream module to stream the media object.

20 . The computing device of claim 19 , wherein the topology management module is configured to determine whether to reject the media request.

21 . The computing device of claim 19 , wherein the topology management module is configured to receive a list of target device candidates from a media server.

22 . The computing device of claim 19 , wherein the topology management module is coupled to a request module; and wherein the request module is configured to discover neighboring device candidates from a peer to peer network as a potential source for the stream module to stream the media object.

23 . The computing device of claim 12 , wherein the media request includes a request for the in-browser distribution application to report an available bandwidth, processing power, available memory, a functional capability, an operating system type, or any combination thereof, of the computing device.

24 . The computing device of claim 12 , further comprising a play module configured to play the media object on the computing device via the browser application.

25 . A computer readable data memory storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a computer system, cause the computer system to perform a computer-implemented method, the instructions comprising:

instructions for streaming a media object from an external system via a first browser, the first browser being an application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web (WWW);

instructions for receiving a media request from a viewer device;

instructions for determining a confirmation of whether the media request is for the media object; and

instructions for serving a portion of the media object from a sandboxed memory of the first browser for presenting on a second browser of the viewer device in response to the confirmation.

26 . A distribution node system comprising:

processing means for streaming a media object from an external system via a first browser;

communication means for receiving a media request from a viewer device;

control means, coupled to the processing means and the communication means, for determining a confirmation of whether the media request is for the media object; and

data output means, coupled to the control means, for serving a portion of the media object from a sandboxed memory of the first browser for presenting on a second browser of the viewer device in response to the confirmation.