MULTIMEDIA MESSAGING SYSTEM (MMS) BILLING SYSTEM AND METHOD OF OPERATION

摘要

A multimedia message billing system (200) comprises a multimedia messaging controller (240) operably coupled to a multimedia messaging server (220) that distributes multimedia message content (100). One or more multimedia messaging clients (210, 230, 410) accesses, receives or distributes the multimedia message content (100). The multimedia message content (100) contains an embedded copyright notice (140) that is extracted to trigger a billing event to charge a user of a multimedia messaging client (210, 230, 410) for accessing, receiving or distributing the multimedia message content (100). In this manner, a billing mechanism enables legitimate distribution and/or editing and/or forwarding of multimedia message content, with implicit approval from the content owner. A charge can be levied on the user of the multimedia-messaging client based on the extracted copyright notice.