Method and apparatus for collaborative upload of content

摘要

A collaborative cloud DVR system (ccDVR), which includes a cloud storage system and a plurality of participating DVR client devices, acts collaboratively as a single communal entity in which community members authorize each other to upload, remotely store and download licensed content for time shifted viewing, in a manner which rigorously protects legal rights of the content owners while overcoming the potential physical obstacles of limited bandwidth, power failures, incomplete uploads/downloads of content, limited cloud storage capacity, etc. The collaborative cloud DVR community collaboratively shares bandwidth and cloud storage capacity among DVR viewer/users with each owner/user of a DVR client device authorizing his or her individual DVR client device to be utilized by a cloud storage system server and any other owner/user of a DVR client device in the respective service community, and receiving similar permission in return to promote the convenience of cloud storage in an authorized manner.

主权项

1. A non-transitory computer-readable medium streaming of-content instructions stored thereon that when executed by a computer perform a method comprising A) providing plurality of network accessible memory locations for storing data representing a content object; B) receiving into a first of the plurality of network accessible memory locations data representing process portions of the content object from a first viewer device process having access to the content object data from a source; C) receiving into a second of the plurality of network accessible memory locations data representing portions of the content object from at least a second viewer device process having access to the content object data from the same or another source; D) upon receiving a request from the first viewer device process, transmitting the data representing the content object from the first network accessible memory location to the first viewer device process if the data stored in the first network accessible memory location represents a complete copy of the content object, else transmitting data representing the content object from the second network accessible memory location to the first viewer device process; E) receiving, from each of the first and second viewer device processes, authorization for the other of the first and second viewers device processes to transmit data representing a content object to one of the plurality of network accessible memory locations on behalf thereof.