Digital content distribution
A manifest is created that represents a created work in electronic form. The manifest may reference multiple digital resources that together make up the good, as well as related resources not originally a part of the good. For example, an electronic version of a music album may include image files for the cover art, audio files for the songs, and text files for the lyrics. The manifest may include structured meta-data to facilitate finding, obtaining, exchanging the digital content. The manifest and referenced content may have associated meta-data describing, for example, manifest contents or distribution rules. A receiver of the manifest may apply global and/or user rules or policies to meta-data to determine what portions of the manifest, if any, comply thereto, and to edit or delete the manifest accordingly.
1. A method for processing a collection of digital content received by a receiver having at least one policy affecting receipt of collections, comprising:
receiving a manifest for a work comprising a description of data stored by the collection, a reference to a first digital resource, and meta-data describing the first digital content, wherein the manifest comprises a relationship between the reference and said meta-data so that the manifest includes structure corresponding to the work;
testing compliance of the description with the policy;
determining if the manifest can be edited to comply with the policy; and
responsive to determining the manifest cannot be edited, disposing of the manifest.
2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
providing a search query for locating digital content to a search agent; and
receiving the manifest in response to the search query.
3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
the manifest further comprising a second reference to second digital content, second meta-data describing the second digital content, and purchasing data for said first and second digital content;
deciding to obtain the collection;
determining the first digital content was not previously obtained;
determining the second digital content has been previously been obtained; and
purchasing only the first digital content in accord with said purchasing data.
4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
the manifest further comprising a second reference to second digital content, second meta-data describing the second digital content;
deciding to obtain the first collection;
determining the second digital content has been previously been obtained, said determining being based on the second digital content already being present in a selected one of: a cache, another collection, or a local storage device; and
obtaining only the first digital content.
5. A digital content management system, comprising:
a storage for storing digital content collections, wherein a collection comprises a link reference to digital content, and meta-data describing selected ones of said digital content and the collection;
a communication agent communicatively coupled to the storage;
a receiver communicatively coupled to the communication agent, said receiver configured to inspect said meta-data and process the collection accordingly;
a transmitter communicatively coupled to the communication agent, said transmitter configured to inspect the reference to digital content to confirm retrievability of the digital content, and to make the collection available to other digital content management systems;
a policy checker configured to check digital content collections received by the communication agent against a policy of the receiver;
a digital content collection editor, communicatively coupled to the policy checker, said editor configured to change digital content collections to comply with the policy; and
a digital content collection rejecter, communicatively coupled to said editor, said rejecter configured to reject received digital content collections;
wherein said digital content collection rejecter is configured to reject digital content collections that cannot be edited to comply with the policy.
6. The system of claim 5 , further comprising:
a search agent configured to locate digital content satisfying search criteria, said locating including searching the storage for satisfying digital content.
7. The system of claim 6 , wherein the storage is communicatively coupled to the system through a network connection.
8. The system of claim 5 , further comprising:
a creation tool for creating the collection; and
a user interface communicatively coupled to the creation tool, said user interface having a first interface tool to facilitate selection of the digital content, and a second interface tool to facilitate entering said meta-data.
9. The system of claim 5 , further comprising:
a search agent configured to receive search criteria and search for digital content collections satisfying said search criteria; and
a commerce agent comprising a purchasing tool configured to determine purchasing requirements for received digital content collections, and a payment tool configured to purchase digital content in accord with said purchasing requirements.
10. The system of claim 5 , wherein digital content collections are encoded with a hierarchical tag based markup language.
11. An article comprising a machine accessible medium having instructions encoded thereon for processing a collection of digital content received by a receiver having at least one policy affecting receipt of collections, said instructions, which when executed by a machine, result in the machine performing:
receiving a manifest for a work comprising a description of data stored by the collection, a reference to a first digital resource, and meta-data describing the first digital content, wherein the manifest comprises a relationship between the reference and said meta-data so that the manifest includes structure corresponding to the work;
testing compliance of the description with the policy;
determining if the manifest can be edited to comply with the policy; and
responsive to determining the manifest cannot be edited, disposing of the manifest.
12. The article of claim 11 , wherein the instructions further result in the machine performing:
providing a search query for locating digital content to a search agent; and
receiving the manifest in response to the search query.
13. The article of claim 11 , the manifest further comprising a second reference to second digital content, second meta-data describing the second digital content, and purchasing data for said first and second digital content, and wherein the instructions further result in the machine performing:
deciding to obtain the collection;
determining the first digital content was not previously obtained;
determining the second digital content has been previously obtained; and
purchasing only the first digital content in accord with said purchasing data.
14. The article of claim 11 , the manifest further comprising a second reference to second digital content, and second meta-data describing the second digital content, and wherein the instructions further result in the machine performing:
deciding to obtain the first collection;
determining the second collection has been previously obtained, said determining being based on the second digital content already being present in a selected one of: a cache, another collection, or a local storage device; and
obtaining only the first digital content.