摘要 |
A local area pay-per-use system comprises user nodes coupled together via a local network, each user node receiving a program content selectable from a menu of program contents. A source node is coupled to said user nodes to provide the selectable program contents contained within a signal stream transmitted to each of the user nodes. An accounting module is coupled to the local area pay-per-use system, and is configured to track usage of the selectable program contents by each one of the user nodes. The user nodes include a variety of media systems, such as a televison, a personal computer, an MP3 format digital audio recorder, and a digital video arcade, and the like. Furthermore, a decoding key module is configured to store a plurality of decryption keys corresponding to each one of the program contents contained in the transmitted signal stream, and is provided to a user node upon request. |