METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR ACCESSING MEDIA

摘要

A system controls access to a group of media items. A client device is operable by a user. A media server is coupled to at least one media data source, wherein the at least one media data source stores one or more media items for supply, by the media server, to the client device over a network. An authorization server is coupled to an authorization data source. The authorization data source stores data identifying a group of media items of fixed group size N that are accessible by the user, each media item in said group having a different associated availability parameter value indicating a number of time periods M within which access to the media item is available, wherein the authorization server is arranged to authorize the media server to supply a media item to the client device if said media item belongs to the group of media items.

主权项

1. A computer-implemented method of controlling access to a media item over an electronic communications medium, comprising:
providing, to an electronic device, access to a group of media items having a fixed group size N, a media item having an availability parameter, the availability parameter indicating a number of time periods M within which access to the media item is available, each media item in the group having a different availability parameter value; and, for a transition to a new time period, removing a first media item from the group of media items whose availability parameter indicates that the time within which access to the media item is available has expired for the new time period; and adding a second media item to the group of media items, the availability parameter for the second media item being set such that the number of time periods M is equal to the fixed group size N.