摘要 |
<p>A bandwidth-on-demand network records connections established by a user (1), and also records calls made by that user using a specific application controller (4) controlling a peer-to-peer file transfer system. Calls may then be charged by a billing engine (7) at different rates according to whether a connection make use of the application (4). The application server (4) monitors the use made of files transferred over the system and charges paymemts according to the nature of the files, for example to extract royalty payments. By charging a high premium for peer-to-peer transfers made other than to an approved application server (4), uncontrolled and unsupervised file transfers can be discouraged, thereby reducing the uncontrolled exchange of copyright material.</p> |