A PIRACY IMPEDING PROCESS AND SYSTEM, LINK SORTING PROCESSES AND SYSTEMS, NOTICE PROCESSES AND SYSTEMS, PROCESS AND SYSTEM FOR DETERMINING THE NUMBER OF ACTIVE LEECH PEERS, PROCESS AND SYSTEM FOR OBTAINING INFORMATION INDICATIVE OF THE DAMAGE RESULTING FROM COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT

Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to processes, programs and computer systems for reducing piracy of media online.

The invention has been developed primarily for use with reducing piracy of music, videos and computer applications and will be described hereinafter with reference to these applications. However, it will be appreciated that the invention is not limited to this particular field of use.

Background of the Invention

Copyright protects the original expression of ideas and safeguards original works of art, literature, music, films, sound recording, broadcasts and computer programs. It is the copyright owner's exclusive right to reproduce or perform the work and to make a derivative work that builds upon it. In this way, copyright law protects the copyright creator's investment and talent in creating their work.

Copyright is particularly important in relation to the production, sale, distribution and screening/performance of films and music due to the significant investment in bringing films and music to market. In this way, copyright effectively protects the livelihood of people involved in the film and music industries. Furthermore, the film and music industries rely on profits to invest in future productions. Since piracy can have a huge negative impact on profitability, piracy reduces the capital available for investment in future productions.

Media piracy over the internet has been a huge problem for developers of intellectual property for over 10 years. Online media piracy typically takes the form of downloading and distribution of intellectual property including films, TV shows, music, literature, software applications and video games via websites, file sharing networks and pirate servers. Media files posted on the Internet can be illegally downloaded thousands and in some cases millions of times without any recompense to the owner of the copyrighted material.

Two common ways in which film piracy starts online include:

1. The film is illegally recorded in a cinema, hardcopies are distributed then the film is uploaded to top sites.

2. Promotional screener DVDs distributed by movie studios (e.g. for consideration at awards) are copied and uploaded to top sites.

Once the film has made it's way onto a top site, the most prolific form of media piracy normally occurs - the media file is shared over peer-to-peer networks. Such networks allow computers to connect directly to each other over the internet for the purpose of distributing and copying files.

The present invention seeks to provide a piracy impeding process and system, link sorting processes and systems, notice processes and systems, process and system for determining the number of active leech peers and a process and system for obtaining information indicative of the damage resulting from copyright infringement which will overcome or substantially ameliorate at least some of the deficiencies of the prior art, or to at least provide

It is to be understood that, if any prior art information is referred to herein, such reference does not constitute an admission that the information forms part of the common general knowledge in the art, in Australia or any other country.

Summary of the Invention

According to one aspect of the present invention, a piracy impeding process is provided for impeding the downloading of a file subject to copyright protection via one or more BitTorrent trackers, comprising the following steps:

- sending a scrape request using the scrape function of the BitTorrent protocol including an information hash key data to the one or more BitTorrent trackers thereby obtaining in response a scrape data from each BitTorrent tracker;

- identifying a total number of peers from the scrape data;

- generating a number of artificial peer IP addresses as a function of the number of peers; and

- announcing the plurality of artificial peer IP addresses with the information hash key data to the one or more BitTorrent trackers using the announce function of the BitTorrent protocol such that it is possible that a peer attempting to download the file subject to copyright protection might be directed by the BitTorrent tracker to one or more of the artificial peer IP addresses, thus impeding the downloading of the file subject to copyright protection by the peer.

Advantageously, illegal downloading of content subject to copyright via peer-to-peer networks is impeded. This advantage can arise for the following reasons:

(i) A peer attempting to download the file is directed by a tracker to an artificial IP address - that is an IP address that does not exist or actually contain the or a part of the file that the peer is attempting to download; or

(ii) When a peer is unable to download the file or file part from the artificial IP address they will be redirected by their software back to the tracker to obtain another IP address to replace the artificial IP address - this results in additional requests being made to the tracker and thus additional tracker processing requirements, slowing down the tracker; or

(iii) both (i) and (ii).

Preferably, the piracy impeding process further comprises the following step before the step of sending the scrape request:

- receiving a .torrent file corresponding to the file subject to copyright protection;

- extracting a tracker data from the .torrent file, the tracker data identifying the one or more BitTorrent trackers associated with the .torrent file; and

- extracting the information hash key data from the .torrent file.

Advantageously, the tracker data and information hash key data are simply obtained from the .torrent file and thus files being shared using the .torrent protocol can be tracked. Preferably, the .torrent file is received by downloading it from a server.

Preferably, the number of artificial peer IP addresses generated is greater than 1 for every 50 peers.

Advantageously, since some BitTorrent programs pull 50 peers at a time from a tracker, adding one artificial peer for every 50 peers pulled will impede, although only to a small extent, downloading of the file subject to copyright.

Preferably, the number of artificial IP addresses generated is greater than 1 for every 1 peer.

Advantageously, this provides a number of artificial peers that is equal to the number of real peers providing a greater impediment to downloading of the file subject to copyright.

Preferably, the number of artificial IP addresses generated is greater than 5 for every 1 peer.

Advantageously, 80% or greater of the total number of peers will be artificial peers.

Preferably, the number of artificial IP addresses generated is greater than 100 for every 1 peer.

Advantageously, almost all of the peers are artificial peers.

Preferably, the number of artificial IP addresses generated is greater than 1,000 for every 1 peer.

Advantageously, this slows download through the one or more trackers to such a point that a complete download would generally not be plausible as the number of seeds would have generally reached 0 or close to 0 before download had finished.

Preferably, the number of artificial IP addresses generated is greater than 1,000,000 for every 1 peer.

Advantageously, the number of artificial IP addresses generated would significantly slow down or shut down operation of the tracker. This would also place the .torrent as the top torrent in most torrent ranking sites and attract the attention of torrent downloaders, further overloading the tracker with requests.

Preferably, in the step of announcing the plurality of artificial peer IP addresses, metadata associated with each artificial peer IP address is also announced and this metadata designates the artificial peer IP address as either a leech or a seed address.

Advantageously, announcement of the artificial peer IP addresses replicates more closely announcement of real peer IP addresses.

Preferably, if the artificial peer IP address is a leech address, metadata associated with the leech address indicates that download of the file subject to copyright has already started and that a specified amount of data has been downloaded, the specified amount of data being randomly generated and being greater than 1 byte of data.

Preferably, if the artificial peer IP address is a seed address, metadata associated with the seed address indicates that download of the file subject to copyright is completed.

Advantageously, announcement of the artificial peer IP addresses replicates more closely announcement of real peer IP addresses.

Preferably, each artificial peer IP address is an Internet Protocol Version 4 IP addresses. Preferably, not every artificial peer IP address falls within the same privately owned IP address range. Advantageously, it is more difficult to block the artificial IP addresses since there is no single, privately owned, IP range containing all the artificial IP addresses.

Preferably, each artificial peer IP address is randomly generated such that it can lie anywhere within the full spectrum of Internet Protocol Version 4 IP addresses.

Advantageously, it is impossible to block the artificial IP addresses since there is no single, privately owned, IP range containing all the artificial IP addresses.Preferably, the piracy impeding process further comprises the following step after the step of announcing the plurality of artificial peer IP addresses:

- Receiving in response an announce data from each BitTorrent tracker;

- Identifying and collecting the IP addresses of the peers from the announce data;

- Determining ranges of IP addresses the IP addresses of the peers fall within;

- Determining owners of the ranges of IP addresses; and

- Sending a legal notice to the owners of the IP addresses of the peers advising that the IP addresses were downloading the file subject to copyright protection.

Advantageously, a legal notice regarding breach of copyright can be sent directly to the owners of IP addresses that have been seen to have performed an act of copyright infringement.

According to another aspect of the present invention, computer executable steps are provided that are adapted to carry out the abovementioned process when run on one or more computers.

Advantageously, the above processes can be performed in an automated or semi-automated fashion by a computer.

According to another aspect of the present invention, computer readable code is provided that is adapted to carry out the abovementioned computer executable steps when run on the one or more computers.

According to another aspect of the present invention, one or more computer readable mediums are provided comprising the abovementioned computer readable code.

According to another aspect of the present invention, a computer is provided that is adapted for impeding the downloading of a file subject to copyright protection comprising:

- a processor;

- computer readable memory operatively connected to the processor and holding the abovementioned computer readable code; and

- a network device operatively connected to the processor for connecting the computer to the internet

- such that when the computer readable code is run by the processor, downloading of the file subject to copyright protection by the peer is impeded.

According to another aspect of the present invention, two or more connected computers are provided that are adapted for impeding the downloading of a file subject to copyright protection, each computer comprising:

- a processor; and - computer readable memory operatively connected to the processor and holding a component of the abovementioned computer readable code, the components of the abovementioned computer readable code of the two or more connected computers performing the same process as the abovementioned computer readable code,

- wherein at least one of the two or more computers comprises a network device operatively connected to the processor of the respective computer for connecting the computer to the internet such that when the computer readable code components are run by the processors of the respective computers, downloading of the file subject to copyright protection by the peers is impeded.

According to another aspect of the present invention, a first link sorting process is provided for determining whether a link to a file should be added to a review database, comprising the following steps:

- Providing one or more blacklisted words;

- Providing one or more exception words; and

- Adding the link to the review database if the link includes one or more blacklisted words and does not include one or more exception words.

Advantageously, the links can be sorted on the basis of words the link includes or doesn't include. This allows, inter alia, matching of links to intellectual property assets and exclusion of non-relevant links, respectively.

According to another aspect of the present invention, computer executable steps are provided that are adapted to carry out the abovementioned first link sorting process when run on a computer.

Advantageously, the above process can be performed in an automated or semi-automated fashion by a computer.

According to another aspect of the present invention, computer readable code is provided that is adapted to carry out the abovementioned computer executable steps when run on a computer.

According to another aspect of the present invention, a computer readable medium is provided comprising the abovementioned computer readable code.

According to another aspect of the present invention, a computer is provided that is adapted for sorting a link comprising:

a processor;

computer readable memory operatively connected to the processor and holding the abovementioned computer readable code; and

a network device operatively connected to the processor for connecting the computer to the internet such that when the computer readable code is run by the processor, the link is sorted.

According to another aspect of the present invention, a second link sorting process is provided for determining whether a link to a file should be added to a review database, comprising the following steps:

- Providing one or more positive filter file extensions;

- Providing one or more negative filter file extensions; and - Adding the link to the review database if the link has a file extension being one of the one or more positive filter file extensions and not being one of the one or more negative filter file extensions.

Advantageously, links can be sorted on the basis of the file extension of the links. This allows, inter alia, inclusion of links related to intellectual property assets known to be only or mainly available in particular formats and the exclusion of links with irrelevant file extensions.

Preferably, at least one of the one or more relevant file extensions is a file extension corresponding to a compressed file format.

According to another aspect of the present invention, computer executable steps are provided that are adapted to carry out the abovementioned second link sorting process when run on a computer.

Advantageously, the above process can be performed in an automated or semi-automated fashion by a computer.

According to another aspect of the present invention, computer readable code is provided that is adapted to carry out the abovementioned computer executable steps when run on a computer.

According to another aspect of the present invention, a computer readable medium is provided comprising the abovementioned computer readable code.

According to another aspect of the present invention, a computer is provided that is adapted for sorting a link comprising:

- a processor;

- computer readable memory operatively connected to the processor and holding the abovementioned computer readable code; and

- a network device operatively connected to the processor for connecting the computer to the internet such that when the computer readable code is run by the processor, the link is sorted.

According to another aspect of the present invention, a third link sorting process is provided for determining whether a link to a file should be added to a review database, comprising the following steps:

- Providing a numerical range of relevant file sizes; and

- Adding the link to the review database if the link links to a file having a size within the numerical range of relevant file sizes.

Advantageously, links can be sorted on the basis of the numerical range of relevant file sizes. This allows links with file sizes outside the range of that of an intellectual property asset being tracked to be disregarded. Thus, sorting by file size adds an additional filter to obtain the links sought after.

According to another aspect of the present invention, computer executable steps are provided that are adapted to carry out the abovementioned third link sorting process when run on a computer.

Advantageously, the above process can be performed in an automated or semi-automated fashion by a computer. According to another aspect of the present invention, computer readable code is provided that is adapted to carry out the abovementioned computer executable steps when run on a computer.

According to another aspect of the present invention, a computer readable medium is provided comprising the abovementioned computer readable code.

According to another aspect of the present invention, a computer is provided that is adapted for sorting a link comprising:

- a processor;

- computer readable memory operatively connected to the processor and holding the abovementioned computer readable code; and

- a network device operatively connected to the processor for connecting the computer to the internet such that when the computer readable code is run by the processor, the link is sorted.

According to another aspect of the present invention, computer readable code is provided for sending a legal notice to owners of servers regarding copyright infringement when run on a computer, the computer readable code being adapted to carry out the following steps:

- crawling servers for links;

- validating the links are live;

- sorting the live links according to the abovementioned first sorting process to create a first review database of links;

- sorting the first review database of sorted links according to the sorting process of one or more of the following sorting processes:

o the abovementioned second link sorting process; and

o the abovementioned third link sorting process

to create a second review database; and

- sending a legal notice to owners of any servers having a link in the second review database.

Advantageously, possible assets files can be identified by crawling through servers and looking for relevant links, the links are then validated to check whether they are live. The links are sorted by whether they contain a relevant descriptor and by either or both of a file size and file extension filter. This allows links that represent a copyright breach to be more easily identified and a legal notice to be sent to the parties breaching copyright. Advantageously, the above process can be performed in an automated or semi-automated fashion by a computer.

According to another aspect of the present invention, a computer is provided that is adapted for sending a legal notice to owners of servers, comprising:

a processor;

computer readable memory operatively connected to the processor and holding the abovementioned computer readable code; and a network device operatively connected to the processor for connecting the computer to the internet such that when the computer readable code is run by the processor, legal notices are sent to relevant owners of servers.

According to another aspect of the present invention, computer readable code is provided for sending a legal notice to owners of servers regarding copyright infringement when run on a computer, the computer readable code being adapted to carry out the following steps:

- crawling one or more servers for .torrent links;

- sorting the .torrent links according to the first link sorting process to create a first review database of links;

- determining whether each of the .torrent links in the first review database connects to a .torrent file available for download;

- for each .torrent link that does connect to a .torrent file available for download, downloading that .torrent file from the respective server;

- extracting the information hash key data from the .torrent file;

- extracting a tracker data from the .torrent file, the tracker data identifying one or more

BitTorrent trackers associated with the .torrent file;

- sending a scrape request using the scrape function of the BitTorrent protocol including the information hash key data to the one or more BitTorrent trackers;

- adding the .torrent link to the .torrent file to a second review database if any of the BitTorrent trackers respond with a scrape data; and

- sending a legal notice to the owners of any server hosting or website displaying a .torrent link in the second review database.

Advantageously, possible asset files can be identified by crawling through servers and looking for .torrent links with relevant descriptors, then determining whether the link is live (i.e. whether it connects to a file available for download). Then via the scrape request, relevant servers can be identified and the the owners of any servers hosting the .torrent link can be sent a legal notice regarding copyright infringement. Advantageously, this process can be automated or semi- automated on a computer.

According to another aspect of the present invention, a computer is provided that is adapted for sending a legal notice to owners of servers, comprising:

- a processor;

- computer readable memory operatively connected to the processor and holding the abovementioned computer readable code; and

- a network device operatively connected to the processor for connecting the computer to the internet such that when the computer readable code is run by the processor, legal notices are sent to relevant owners of servers.

According to another aspect of the present invention, computer readable code is provided for sending a legal notice to owners of one or more BitTorrent trackers that are tracking an information hash key corresponding to a file subject to copyright when run on a computer, the computer readable code being adapted to carry out the following steps: - obtaining an information hash key data from a database, the information hash key data corresponding to a .torrent link;

- sending a scrape request using the scrape function of the BitTorrent protocol including the information hash key data to the one or more BitTorrent trackers;

- adding the .torrent link to a review database if any of the BitTorrent trackers respond with a scrape data; and

- sending a legal notice to the owners of any BitTorrent trackers hosting a .torrent link in the review database.

Advantageously, owners of BitTorrent trackers tracking an information hash key corresponding to a file subject to copyright can be sent a legal notice.

Advantageously, since BitTorrent trackers are a file distribution hub, stopping trackersfrom facilitating distribution of copyrighted material has a significant effect on the level of copyright infringement that takes place.

Advantageously, this process can be automated or semi-automated on a computer.

Preferably, the .torrent link to be reviewed is selected according to the following process:

- crawling one or more servers for .torrent links;

- sorting the .torrent links according to the link sorting process of claim 22 to create a pre-review database of links;

- determining whether each of the .torrent links in the pre-review database connects to a .torrent file available for download; and

- for each .torrent link that does connect to a .torrent file available for download, downloading that .torrent file from the respective server.

Advantageously, possible asset files can be identified by crawling through servers and looking for .torrent links with relevant descriptors, then determining whether the link is live (i.e. whether it connects to a file available for download). Then via the scrape request, relevant tracker servers can be identified and the owners of the tracker servers tracking the relevant information hash key can be sent a legal notice regarding copyright infringement.

According to another aspect of the present invention, a computer is provided that is adapted for sending a legal notice to owners of servers, comprising:

- a processor;

- computer readable memory operatively connected to the processor and holding the computer readable code as claimed in claim 42; and

- a network device operatively connected to the processor for connecting the computer to the internet such that when the computer readable code is run by the processor, legal notices are sent to relevant owners of servers.

According to another aspect of the present invention, a process is provided for determining the number of active leech peers in the act of downloading a file subject to copyright protection via one or more BitTorrent trackers, comprising the following steps: - obtaining an information hash key data from a database, the information hash key data corresponding to a .torrent link;

- sending a scrape request using the scrape function of the BitTorrent protocol including the information hash key data to the one or more BitTorrent trackers thereby obtaining in response a scrape data from each BitTorrent tracker; and

- identifying the total number of active leech peers in the process of downloading the file subject to copyright protection from the scrape data.

Advantageously, the amount of copyright infringement taking place at any point in time can be identified and reported on via an automated or semi-automated process.

According to another aspect of the present invention, computer executable steps are provided that are adapted to carry out the abovementioned process for determining the number of active leech peers when run on a computer.

According to another aspect of the present invention, computer readable code is provided that is adapted to carry out the abovementioned computer executable steps when run on a computer.

According to another aspect of the present invention, A computer readable medium comprising the computer readable code of claim 44.

According to another aspect of the present invention, a computer is provided that is adapted for determining the number of active leech peers in the act of downloading a file subject to copyright protection via one or more BitTorrent trackers comprising:

- a processor;

- computer readable memory operatively connected to the processor and holding the abovementioned computer readable code; and

- a network device operatively connected to the processor for connecting the computer to the internet such that when the computer readable code is run by the processor, the number of active leech peers in the act of downloading the file subject to copyright protection via one or more BitTorrent trackers is identified.

According to another aspect of the present invention, a process is provided for determining a value indicative of the damage resulting from copyright infringement of a file resulting from illegal downloading of the file by copyright infringers via one or more BitTorrent trackers, comprising the following steps:

- obtaining an information hash key data from a database, the information hash key data corresponding to a .torrent link;

- sending a scrape request using the scrape function of the BitTorrent protocol including the information hash key data to the one or more BitTorrent trackers thereby obtaining in response a scrape data from each BitTorrent tracker;

- identifying the total number of downloads of the file from the scrape data; and

- calculating a value indicative of the damage resulting from copyright infringement of the file as a function of the total number of downloads of the file from the scrape data. Advantageously, the volume of copyright infringement taking place in respect of an intellectual property asset can be determined and reported on. This can be particularly useful in court proceedings where a copyright infringement has taken place and damages need to be calculated. Advantageously, this process is automated or semi- automated on a computer.

According to another aspect of the present invention, computer executable steps are provided that are adapted to carry out the abovementioned process for obtaining information indicative of the damage resulting from copyright infringement of a file when run on a computer.

According to another aspect of the present invention, computer readable code is provided that is adapted to carry out the abovementioned computer executable steps when run on a computer.

According to another aspect of the present invention, a computer readable medium is provided comprising the abovementioned computer readable code.

According to another aspect of the present invention, a computer is provided that is adapted for determining a value indicative of the damage resulting from copyright infringement of a file resulting from illegal downloading of the file by copyright infringers via one or more BitTorrent trackers, comprising:

- a processor;

- computer readable memory operatively connected to the processor and holding the abovementioned computer readable code; and

- a network device operatively connected to the processor for connecting the computer to the internet such that when the computer readable code is run by the processor, the value indicative of the damage resulting from copyright infringement of the file is calculated.

Other aspects of the invention are also disclosed. Brief Description of the Drawings

Notwithstanding any other forms which may fall within the scope of the present invention, preferred embodiments of the invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a system for impeding the downloading of a file subject to copyright protection in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram showing two connected servers of the system of Fig. 1; and Fig. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a piracy impeding process carried out by the system of Fig.l.

Detailed Description of Specific Embodiments

It should be noted in the following description that like or the same reference numerals in different embodiments denote the same or similar features.

Referring to Figs 1 - 3 & 5, a piracy impeding process and system 10 is provided. The system 10 can be used to identify and track assets 1000 (e.g. a music or film file) or portions of assets 1000 and then impede illegal online distribution or downloading of the assets 1000 or portions of the assets 1000. The system 10 is specifically adapted to handle assets made available for download on public access servers (via the http or ftp protocols), locker sites and via peer-to-peer distribution. Illegal peer-to-peer distribution of a copyrighted asset 1000 typically starts with the downloading of a .torrent file 1010 corresponding to the asset 1000 from a torrent server. When the assets 1000 are made available via peer-to-peer distribution, the system 10 can impede the downloading of the asset 1000 subject to copyright protection by submitting artificial IP addresses to BitTorrent trackers 1020 associated with the relevant .torrent files 1010.

The piracy impeding system 10 comprises a plurality of functional servers 15 connected to a database 20. The plurality of functional servers 15 include:

- A download link crawler server 25;

- A torrent crawler server 30;

- A European torrent crawler server 32;

- A European torrent processor server 33

- A torrent processor server 35;

- A torrent impeding server 40;

- A notice mailer server 45;

- A tracker notice mailer server 46;

- A torrent tracker server 50;

- A load balancer / scaling server 55;

- A website server 60; and

- A memcache server 61.

In this embodiment, the database 20 is a common database that is accessed by the plurality of servers 15 and is facilitated on cloud storage (that is, the data in the database 20 is stored on multiple virtual servers). Thus, the common database 20 takes the form of a number of database servers 62 which have various read/write roles. This allows for an extremely large number of connections and queries at any time.

The plurality of functional servers 15 and the database 20 are thus in communication and adapted such that only one of the functional servers 15 can write to the database 20 at any one time but all of the functional servers 15 can read from the database 20 directly and/or one of a plurality of read mirror databases. Each server role is scripted and built to allow scaling to up to hundreds or even thousands of identical servers.

The database 20 comprises a plurality of tables 70 including:

- A Users/Admins table 75;

- An Email List table 80;

- A Companies table 85;

- An Assets table 90;

- A Blacklisted Words table 95;

- An Asset Links table 100;

- A Locker Site Schemas table 105;

- An Asset Torrents table 110;

- A Torrent Trackers table 115; - A Torrent Site Schemas table 120;

- A Torrent Peers 125 table; and

- A Torrent Impeders table 130.

Referring specifically to Fig. 2 which shows two of the plurality of functional servers 15 only (for clarity of illustration), each server 15 has a processor 135 and computer readable memory 140 operatively connected to the processor 135. The computer readable memory 140 holds software 145 (or computer readable code) for the particular function the server 15 is to perform. Each server 15 also comprises a network card 150 operatively connecting the processor 135 to the internet 5000 and to the database 20.

Each server 15 can be run periodically or in the desired sequence at predetermined intervals. For example, the download link crawler server 25 and the notice mailer server 45 may be run at short intervals e.g. every lOsec - 10 minutes in respect of assets 1000 that are pre-release. In another example, the torrent crawler 30, the European torrent crawler 32, the torrent processor server 35, the European torrent processor server 33 and the torrent impeding server 40 are run at short intervals e.g. every lOsec - 10 minutes in respect of assets 1000 that are pre-release. Thus, asset tracking can occur at whatever intervals the customer desires.

Each of the servers of the plurality of functional servers 15 will now be described in particular relation to the computer executable steps they perform (by execution of corresponding computer code) and the information they access and write to the database 20. DOWNLOAD LINK CRAWLER SERVER 25

In this embodiment, the download link crawler server 25 carries out the steps that follow.

1. Obtains a list of known locker sites, link aggregator sites, public sites and associates schemas from the locker site schemas table 105.

2. Counts the number of assets 1000 in the assets table 90 that are to be monitored / are

active (e.g. those assets 1000 that have been paid for).

3. Goes through each asset 1000, pulling the asset 1000 which is longest since last link

checked and immediately updates the status in the assets table 90 to "now being checked".

4. For each asset 1000, the download link crawler server 25 loops through each known

locker site, link aggregator or public site in the table 105 in the locker site schemas table

105 and searches for every link which matches the asset 1000. It does this by parsing the contents of the known sites using the corresponding site schema stored in the table 105. This schema tells the download link crawler server 25 the layout of the search results pages and URLs. The schemas flag to the server 25 the places on pages/sites where it will find the content related to potential assets 1000.

5. Every link found is then validated for relevancy against a list of blacklisted words and exception words stored in the blacklisted words table 95. That is, if the link includes one or more blacklisted words and does not include one or more exception words, it is added to a first review database and the server 25 progresses to Step 6. In this embodiment, blacklisted words are generally those that are a descriptor of an asset 1000. Exception words are those that denote a link that is allowed to be distributed. Examples of exception words include, for:

a. Film links - links which include the words:

i. Sample; or

ii. Trailer; and

b. Music links - the words: i. Cover; or

ii. Remix.

6. Each link in the first review database is then validated for relevancy in relation to the file extension of the link. Specifically, the file extension of the link is reviewed against positive and negative filters. That is, if the file extension is in a list of positive extension types (e.g. a .mp3 extension for music) and not in a list of negative extension types (e.g. a .exe extension for film) then the link is added to a second review database. Positive extension types are those that could possibly or are likely to contain the asset 1000 and negative extension types are those that could not or are not likely to contain the asset 1000. In this embodiment, the code allows for files to be in a compressed format and hence have a differing extension to native formats.

7. Each link in the second review database is then validated for relevancy in relation to the file size of the file to which the link points. Specifically, if the file size is within a numerical range of relevant file sizes (e.g. a music file will not be 700mb in size, it should be less than 20mb) then the link and link info is added to a third review database. In this embodiment, the process does allows for large files to be split into smaller files, such as movie files which are commonly split into < lOOmb .rar packages.

8. Each link in the third review database is then added to table 100 in the database 20, if not already present, with the following relevant asset information:

a. Asset ID

b. Asset type

c. Information page URL

d. File Name

e. File Extension

f. File Size

g- File Downloads

h. Time found

i. Site link was found on, and

j- Base domain of site offering file for download.

Advantages of the process carried out by the crawler server 25 include:

1. The links are sorted on the basis of words the link includes or doesn't include. This allows, inter alia, matching of links to intellectual property assets 1000 and exclusion of non-relevant links, respectively.

2. The links are sorted on the basis of their file extension. This allows, inter alia, inclusion of links related to intellectual property assets 1000 known to be only or mainly available in particular formats and the exclusion of links with irrelevant file extensions.

3. The links are sorted on the basis of the numerical range of relevant file sizes. This allows links with file sizes outside the range of that of intellectual property assets 1000 being tracked to be disregarded. Thus, sorting by file size adds an additional filter to obtain the links sought after.

4. Possible asset files 1000 can be identified by crawling through servers and looking for relevant links, the links are then validated to check whether they are live. The links are sorted by whether they contain a relevant descriptor and by either or both of a file size and file extension filter. This allows links that represent a copyright breach to be more easily identified and a legal notice to be sent to the parties breaching copyright.

5. The process can be performed in an automated or semi-automated fashion by the system lOto obtain and review a large number of links to assets 1000 of interest. TORRENT CRAWLER SERVER 30

In this embodiment, the torrent crawler server 30 carries out the steps that follow.

1. A list of torrent aggregator sites and schemas is obtained from the torrent site schemas table 120.

2. The number of assets 1000 in the assets table 90 that are to be monitored / are active

(e.g. those assets 1000 that have been paid for) are counted.

3. The code loops through each asset 1000, and pulls the asset 1000 which is longest since last torrent checked, immediately updates the status of that asset in the assets table 90 to "now being checked";

4. The torrent crawler server 30 then, for each asset, loops through each known torrent aggregator site listed in the torrent site schemas table 120 and searches for every .torrent file which matches the asset 1000.

5. Filters are then used to obtain closely matched results (e.g. checking the name of the link is similar enough to the name of the asset.)

6. For every .torrent file found, the linkis validated for accuracy against a list of

blacklisted words and exception words stored in the blacklisted words table 95. That is, if the link includes one or more blacklisted words and does not include one or more exception words it is added to a first review database and the code progresses to Step 7. Blacklisted words are generally those that are a descriptor of an asset 1000.

Exception words include those that denote a link that is allowed to be distributed.

Examples of exception words include, for:

a. Film links - links which include words:

i. Sample; or

ii. Trailer; and

b. Music links - the words:

i. Cover; or

ii. Remix.

7. Each .torrent file in the first review database is then added to the assets torrent table 105 in the database 20, if not already present, and flagged as needing to be processed with the following asset information:

a. Asset ID

b. Asset type

c. Info page URL

d. Torrent Name

e. .torrent location

f. Base domain of site link was found on

Since torrent aggregator sites sometimes do not allow access from IP addresses from certain countries, the system 10 provides a foreign torrent crawler server. In one example European torrent aggregator sites do not allow access to United States IP addresses and thus the system 10 provides a European torrent crawler server 30 so that the European torrent aggregator sites can be accessed and reviewed (in cases where this is legal to do) in the same manner as the process carried out by the torrent crawler server 30. Other foreign torrent crawler servers can be provided for other countries or regions.

TORRENT PROCESSOR SERVER 35

Referring to Fig. 3, in this embodiment, the torrent processor server 35 gets all unprocessed .torrent files from the assets torrent table 105 in the database 20 and for each .torrent file carries out the following steps:

1. Obtains the .torrent file location from the assets torrent table 105

a. Extracts an information hash key data 160 (or info_hash); and b. Extract tracker data regarding trackers 1020 that are monitoring the information hash key data 160.

2. For each tracker 170 monitoring the information hash key data 160, the server:

a. Sends a scrape request 180 using the scrape function of the BitTorrent

protocol including the information hash key data 160 to the tracker 1020, thereby obtaining in response a scrape response information 190; b. Adds the scrape response information 190 to the torrent trackers table 115 in the database 20 including the tracker URL, the information hash key 160 and download statistics for the tracker 1020 if it is found to exist and be tracking the information hash key data 160; and

c. Obtains, from the scrape response information 190, the following statistics: o Number of downloads in progress (by leechers or leech peers)

o Number of Completed downloads

o Number of peers data 200 (i.e. the number of users sharing the file (seeds or seed peers)).

Each peer is identified in Fig. 3 by a reference number between 2001 to 2003 and the peers are identified collectively by the reference number 2000.

Advantageously, the torrent processor server 35 provides information regarding the extent of copyright infringement of relevant assets 1000 and prepares the information required by the torrent impeding server 40 to impede offending .torrent files. Advantageously, the tracker data and the information hash key data 160 are simply obtained from the .torrent file and thus files being shared using the .torrent protocol can be tracked.

Advantageously, possible asset files 1000 can be identified by crawling through servers and looking for .torrent links with relevant descriptors, then determining whether the link is live (i.e. whether it connects to a file available for download). Then via a BitTorrent Protocol announce request, relevant torrent aggregator servers can be identified and the owners of any server hosting or website displaying the .torrent link can be sent a legal notice regarding copyright infringement. Advantageously, this process is automated or semi-automated by the system 10.

Since torrent aggregator sites sometimes do not allow access from IP addresses from certain countries, the system 10 provides a foreign torrent processor server(s). In one example European torrent aggregator sites do not allow access to United States IP addresses and thus the system 10 provides a European torrent processor server 33 so that the European torrent aggregator sites can be accessed and reviewed (in cases where this is legal to do) in the same manner as the process carried out by the torrent processor server 35. Other foreign torrent processor servers can be provided for other countries or regions.

TORRENT IMPEDING SERVER 40

In this embodiment, the torrent impeding server 40 gets all tracker URLs and information hash keys 190 from the torrent trackers table 115 in the database 20 for assets 1000 whose copyright owners have paid for the impeding process to take place and for each of these .torrent files, carries out the following steps:

1. The torrent impeding server 40 calculates the total number of peers 200 (i.e. the

swarm size) for the .torrent file by adding the number of downloads (leechers) and the number of users sharing the file (seeds).

2. The torrent impeding server 40 generates a number of artificial peer IP addresses identified in Fig. 3 by reference numerals between 3001 and 3003 (identified as 3000 collectively) as a function of the number of peers 200. The number of artificial peer IP addresses 3000 generated can be selected according to the desired effect (i.e. a light or heavy impediment to the downloading of the files subject to copyright). For example:

In one embodiment, the number of artificial peer IP addresses 3000 generated is greater than or equal to 1 for every 50 peers. Advantageously, since some BitTorrent programs pull 50 peers at a time from a tracker, adding one artificial peer 3000 for every 50 peers 2000 pulled will impede, although only to a small extent, downloading of the file subject to copyright.

In another embodiment, the number of artificial IP addresses 3000 generated is greater than 1 for every 1 peer 2000. Advantageously, this provides a number of artificial peers 3000 that is equal to the number of real peers 2000 providing a greater impediment to downloading of the file subject to copyright.

In another embodiment, the number of artificial IP addresses 3000 generated is greater than 5 for every 1 peer 2000. Advantageously, 80% or greater of the total number of peers will be artificial peers 3000.

In another embodiment, the number of artificial IP addresses 3000 generated is greater than 100 for every 1 peer 2000. Advantageously, almost all of the peers are artificial peers.

In another embodiment, the number of artificial IP addresses 3000 generated is greater than 1,000 for every 1 peer. Advantageously, this slows download through the one or more trackers 1020 to such a point that a complete download would generally not be plausible as the number of seeds would have generally reached 0 or close to 0 before download has finished.

In another embodiment, the number of artificial IP addresses 3000 generated is greater than 1,000,000 for every 1 peer. Advantageously, the number of artificial IP addresses 3000 generated would significantly slow down or shut down operation of the trackers 1020. This would also place the .torrent as the top torrent in most torrent ranking sites and attract the attention of torrent downloaders, further overloading the tracker 1020 with requests.

For each artificial peer 3000:

a. The IP address is generated randomly and can fall anywhere in the global spectrum of ipv4 or ipv6 addresses;

b. Each peer is randomly assigned as a seed or a leech when it is announced. c. If the artificial peer is a leech, the amount of data the artificial peer IP address 3000 appears to have already downloaded is assigned to it. The amount of data can be assigned in the metadata associated with the peer when it is

announcedlt should be noted that the amount of data can be randomly generated but is greater than 1 byte of data; and

d. If the artificial peer 3000 is a seed, metadata associated with the seed indicates that download of the file subject to copyright has completed.

The torrent impeding server 40 announces the artificial peer IP addresses 3000 with the information hash key data 160 to the trackers 1020 in an announcement 210 using the announce function of the BitTorrent protocol.

The torrent impeding server 40 updates the torrent impeders table 130 in the database 20 showing the .torrent file has been impeded and to what extent.

The torrent impeding server 40 adds the artificial IP addresses 3000 used to the torrent impeders table 130 in the database 20 to allow enforcement agencies to cross reference with their IP address tracking, if requested, to ensure that no redundant or incorrect tracking takes place.

The Torrent Impeding Server 40 offers a number of advantages including:

1. It makes it possible that a peer 2000 attempting to download the file subject to copyright protection might be directed by the trackers to artificial peer IP addresses 3000, thus impeding the downloading of the file subject to copyright protection by the peer. In this way, illegal downloading of content subject to copyright via peer-to-peer networks can be impeded. This advantage can arise for the following reasons:

(i) A peer 2000 attempting to download the file is directed by a tracker 1020 to an artificial IP address 3000 - that is an IP address that does not exist or actually contain the or a part of the file that the peer is attempting to download; or

(ii) When a peer is unable to download the file or file part from the artificial IP address 3000 they will be redirected by their torrent software back to the tracker to obtain another IP address to replace the artificial IP address 3000 - this results in additional requests being made to the tracker 1020 and thus additional tracker processing requirements, slowing down the tracker; or

(iii) both (i) and (ii).

2. In accordance with one embodiment where the number of artificial peers 3000 is much greater than the number of real peers, servers hosting .torrent links and information hashes relevant to the assets 1000 can be rendered virtually unusable if the owners of the servers fail to comply with legal notices.

3. In some cases, the following equation describes the impeding effect as a function of the original average speed by adding artificial peers:

New Average Speed = Original Average Speed x Original No. of Peers

Artificial No. of Peers

For example:

New Average Speed = 5kb/s x 5

25

= lkb/s

In another embodiment, the IP addresses are chosen such that they do not all lie within a specific IP address range (for example, a privately owned IP address range). For example, if the artificial IP address 3000 generated is 120.120.132.20 then another artificial address generated could not be 120.XXX.XXX.XX or XXX.XXX.132.XX where X is any number.

In yet another embodiment, the artificial IP addresses 3000 generated can fall anywhere in the global spectrum of ipv6 addresses.

NOTICE MAILER SERVER 45

In this embodiment, the notice mailer server 45 carries out the following steps:

For locker sites and other websites:

1. Queries the database 20 for a list of all links for each paid asset 1000 (i.e. from assets table 90), on a per company and per locker site basis that has either: a. Not had a legal notice sent; or

b. Had a legal notice sent longer than 24 hours ago but is still active. The download link crawler server 25 check for relevant links on a regular basis.

2. Constructs and sends a legal notice email to each site with the relevant links using the email list table 80; and

3. Updates the links status' in the assets links table 100 in the database 20 to show that a legal notice has been sent.

For .torrent file hosting sites:

1. Queries the assets table 90 in the database 20 for a list of all .torrents for each paid asset 1000, on a per company and per .torrent hosting site basis that has either:

a. Not had a legal notice sent; or

b. Had a legal notice sent longer than 24 hours ago but is still active. The torrent crawler server 30 and European torrent crawler server 32 check for relevant links on a regular basis.

2. Constructs and sends a legal notice email to each site using the email list table 80 with the relevant .torrent links; and

3. Updates the links status' in the assets links table 100 in the database 20 to show that a legal notice has been sent.

In order to determine the correct addressee of the legal notice the following process can be used once the artificial IP address 3000 has been announced to each BitTorrent tracker:

- Receiving in response an announce data from each BitTorrent tracker;

- Identifying and collecting the IP addresses of the peers 2000 from the announce data;

- Determining ranges of IP addresses the IP addresses of the peers fall within;

- Determining owners of the ranges of IP addresses; and

- Sending email legal notices to the owners of the IP addresses of the peers advising that the IP addresses were downloading the file subject to copyright protection.

Advantageously, a legal notice regarding breach of copyright can be sent directly to the owners of IP addresses that have been seen to have performed an act of copyright infringement.

An example of a relevant type of legal notice is a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) notice or any other type of legal notice taking the same substantive format.

It should be noted that in other embodiments notices may be sent by means other than email (e.g. by short message service, fax or post) and/or be served according to a legal process.

TRACKER NOTICE MAILER SERVER 46

In this embodiment, the tracker notice mailer server 46 carries out the steps that follow.

1. Query the torrent trackers table 115 in the database 20 for a list of all trackers 1020 for each .torrent file for each paid asset 1000 that:

a. Has not had a legal notice sent, or

b. Had a legal notice sent longer than 24 hours ago but where the tracker 1020 is still tracking the relevant information hash key 160 (i.e. it responds with scrape data to a scrape request).

2. Construct and send legal notice emails using the email list table 80 to each tracker 1020 including a list of the relevant information hash keys 160 and corresponding .torrent files. 3. Update the trackers table 115 in the database 20 to advise legal notices sent.

Advantageously, owners of tracker servers 1020 tracking an information hash key corresponding to a file subject to copyright can be sent a legal notice. Advantageously, since tracker servers 1020 are a file distribution hub, stopping tracker servers 1020 from facilitating distribution of copyrighted material can have a significant effect on the level of copyright infringement that takes place in respect of the relevant assets 1000.

PROCESS FOR DETERMINING THE NUMBER OF ACTIVE LEECH PEERS

In one embodiment of the invention, a process and system is provided for determining the number of active leech peers in the act of downloading a file subject to copyright protection via one or more BitTorrent trackers, comprising the following steps:

- downloading a .torrent file corresponding to the file subject to copyright protection from a server;

- extracting the information hash key data of the .torrent file and thereby determining the one or more BitTorrent trackers associated with the .torrent file;

- sending a scrape request using the scrape function of the BitTorrent protocol including the information hash key data to the one or more BitTorrent trackers thereby obtaining in response a scrape data from each BitTorrent tracker; and

- identifying the total number of active leech peers in the process of downloading the file subject to copyright protection from the scrape data.

Advantageously, the amount of copyright infringement taking place at any point in time can be identified and reported on via an automated or semi-automated process.

PROCESS FOR OBTAINING INF ORMATION INDICATIVE OF THE DAMAGE RESULTING FROM COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT

In another embodiment of the invention, a process and system is provided for determining a value indicative of the damage resulting from copyright infringement of a file resulting from illegal downloading of the file by copyright infringers via one or more BitTorrent trackers, comprising the following steps:

- downloading a .torrent file corresponding to the file subject to copyright protection from a server;

- extracting the information hash key data of the .torrent file and thereby determining the one or more BitTorrent trackers associated with the .torrent file;

- sending a scrape request using the scrape function of the BitTorrent protocol including the information hash key data to the one or more BitTorrent trackers thereby obtaining in response a scrape data from each BitTorrent tracker;

- identifying the total number of downloads of the file from the scrape data; and

- calculating a value indicative of the damage resulting from copyright infringement of the file as a function of the total number of downloads of the file from the scrape data.

Advantageously, the volume of copyright infringement taking place in respect of an intellectual property asset can be determined and reported on. This can be particularly useful in court proceedings where a copyright infringement has taken place and damages need to be calculated. Advantageously, this process is automated or semi-automated by a computer system. LOAD BALANCER / SCALING SERVER 55

The load balancer / scaling server 55 is adapted to scale each server role (e.g. of the other of the plurality of functional servers 15) to an indefinite amount by adding duplicate servers. In this embodiment, no redundancy occurs as each server constantly picks only the asset which was checked the longest ago, and then reports immediately back to the database 20. Hence, the more server roles added to the plurality of functional servers 15 (i.e. the server farm) simply speeds the rate of which the list of assets 1000 is processed.

In this embodiment, the system 10 is hosted on a cloud computing infrastructure allowing for a virtually unlimited number of servers 15 to be added almost instantly to account for a growing client base and to speed up the rate at which pirated content can be found, reported, and removed.

WEBSITE SERVER 60

In this embodiment, the website server 60 hosts a browser-based online application that allows a user to input:

- New assets 1000 into the assets table 90;

New locker site schemas into the locker site schemas table 105;

New torrent site schemas into the torrent site schemas table 120;

Email addresses for new and previously un-encountered locker sites, torrent trackers, and torrent hosting sites into the email list table 80;

- Companies into the companies table 85; and

Users/administrators into the users/administrators table 75.

The website server 60 also allows reports to be created and exported into a desired format (e.g. .csv or .pdf). The following reports can be created:

1. Company report

2. Asset report

3. Direct link report

a. Per asset

b. Per company

4. Torrent report

a. Per asset

b. Per company

5. Torrent tracker report

a. Per asset

b. Per company

MEMCACHE SERVER 61

This server 61 caches reports and other information that does not change often and thus frees up the database servers 62 and website server 60 for processing more data.

In other embodiments of the invention:

1. The database 20 may take other forms and be stored on a single server.

2. The software code run by the plurality of functional servers 15 may be divided out and run on more servers or run in parallel on multiple servers for greater processing capacity. Conversely, the software code run by the plurality of functional servers 15 may be combined and run on fewer or a single server.

3. Links can be verified by other link properties such as when they were created or last modified. Interpretation

Processes:

Unless specifically stated otherwise, as apparent from the following discussions, it is appreciated that throughout the specification discussions utilizing terms such as "processing", "computing", "calculating", "determining", "analysing" or the like, refer to the action and/or processes of a computer or computing system, or similar electronic computing device, that manipulate and/or transform data represented as physical, such as electronic, quantities into other data similarly represented as physical quantities.

Processor:

In a similar manner, the term "processor" may refer to any device or portion of a device that processes electronic data, e.g., from registers and/or memory to transform that electronic data into other electronic data that, e.g., may be stored in registers and/or memory. A "computer" or a "computing device" or a "computing machine" or a "computing platform" may include one or more processors.

The methodologies described herein are, in one embodiment, performable by one or more processors that accept computer-readable (also called machine-readable) code containing a set of instructions that when executed by one or more of the processors carry out at least one of the methods described herein. Any processor capable of executing a set of instructions (sequential or otherwise) that specify actions to be taken are included. Thus, one example is a typical processing system that includes one or more processors. The processing system further may include a memory subsystem including main RAM and/or a static RAM, and/or ROM.

Computer Readable Medium:

Furthermore, a computer readable carrier medium may form, or be included in a computer program product. A computer program product can be stored on a computer usable carrier medium, the computer program product comprising a computer readable program means for causing a processor to perform a method as described herein. An example of a computer readable medium is an external hard drive or USB stick.

Networked or Multiple Processors:

In alternative embodiments, the one or more processors operate as a standalone device or may be connected, e.g., networked to other processor(s), in a networked deployment, the one or more processors may operate in the capacity of a server or a client machine in server-client network environment, or as a peer machine in a peer-to-peer or distributed network environment. The one or more processors may form a web appliance, a network router, switch or bridge, or any machine capable of executing a set of instructions (sequential or otherwise) that specify actions to be taken by that machine.

Note that while some diagram(s) only show(s) a single processor and a single memory that carries the computer-readable code, those in the art will understand that many of the components described above are included, but not explicitly shown or described in order not to obscure the inventive aspect. For example, while only a single machine is illustrated, the term "machine" shall also be taken to include any collection of machines that individually or jointly execute a set (or multiple sets) of instructions to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein.

Additional Embodiments:

Thus, one embodiment of each of the methods described herein is in the form of a computer- readable carrier medium carrying a set of instructions, e.g., a computer program that are for execution on one or more processors. Thus, as will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, embodiments of the present invention may be embodied as a method, an apparatus such as a special purpose apparatus, an apparatus such as a data processing system, or a computer- readable carrier medium. The computer-readable carrier medium carries computer readable code including a set of instructions that when executed on one or more processors cause a processor or processors to implement a method. Accordingly, aspects of the present invention may take the form of a method, an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects. Furthermore, the present invention may take the form of carrier medium (e.g., a computer program product on a computer-readable storage medium) carrying computer-readable program code embodied in the medium.

Carrier Medium:

The software may further be transmitted or received over a network via a network interface device. While the carrier medium is shown in an example embodiment to be a single medium, the term "carrier medium" should be taken to include a single medium or multiple media (e.g., a centralized or distributed database, and/or associated caches and servers) that store the one or more sets of instructions. The term "carrier medium" shall also be taken to include any medium that is capable of storing, encoding or carrying a set of instructions for execution by one or more of the processors and that cause the one or more processors to perform any one or more of the methodologies of the present invention. A carrier medium may take many forms, including but not limited to, non-volatile media, volatile media, and transmission media.

Implementation :

It will be understood that the steps of methods discussed are performed in one embodiment by an appropriate processor (or processors) of a processing (i.e., computer) system executing instructions (computer-readable code) stored in storage. It will also be understood that the invention is not limited to any particular implementation or programming technique and that the invention may be implemented using any appropriate techniques for implementing the functionality described herein. The invention is not limited to any particular programming language or operating system.

Means For Carrying out a Method or Function

Furthermore, some of the embodiments are described herein as a method or combination of elements of a method that can be implemented by a processor of a processor device, computer system, or by other means of carrying out the function. Thus, a processor with the necessary instructions for carrying out such a method or element of a method forms a means for carrying out the method or element of a method. Furthermore, an element described herein of an apparatus embodiment is an example of a means for carrying out the function performed by the element for the purpose of carrying out the invention.

Connected Similarly, it is to be noticed that the term connected, when used in the claims, should not be interpreted as being limitative to direct connections only. It means that there exists a path between an output of A and an input of B which may be a path including other devices or means. "Connected" may mean that two or more elements are either in direct physical or electrical contact, or that two or more elements are not in direct contact with each other but yet still co-operate or interact with each other.

Embodiments:

Reference throughout this specification to "one embodiment" or "an embodiment" means that a particular feature, structure or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the present invention. Thus, appearances of the phrases "in one embodiment" or "in an embodiment" in various places throughout this specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment, but may. Furthermore, the particular features, structures or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner, as would be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art from this disclosure, in one or more embodiments.

Similarly it should be appreciated that in the above description of example embodiments of the invention, various features of the invention are sometimes grouped together in a single embodiment, figure, or description thereof for the purpose of streamlining the disclosure and aiding in the understanding of one or more of the various inventive aspects. This method of disclosure, however, is not to be interpreted as reflecting an intention that the claimed invention requires more features than are expressly recited in each claim. Rather, as the following claims reflect, inventive aspects lie in less than all features of a single foregoing disclosed embodiment. Thus, the claims following the Detailed Description of Specific Embodiments are hereby expressly incorporated into this Detailed Description of Specific Embodiments, with each claim standing on its own as a separate embodiment of this invention.

Furthermore, while some embodiments described herein include some but not other features included in other embodiments, combinations of features of different embodiments are meant to be within the scope of the invention, and form different embodiments, as would be understood by those in the art. For example, in the following claims, any of the claimed embodiments can be used in any combination.

Specific Details

In the description provided herein, numerous specific details are set forth. However, it is understood that embodiments of the invention may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known methods, structures and techniques have not been shown in detail in order not to obscure an understanding of this description.

Terminology

In describing the preferred embodiment of the invention illustrated in the drawings, specific terminology will be resorted to for the sake of clarity. However, the invention is not intended to be limited to the specific terms so selected, and it is to be understood that each specific term includes all technical equivalents which operate in a similar manner to accomplish a similar technical purpose. Terms such as "forward", "rearward", "radially", "peripherally", "upwardly", "downwardly", and the like are used as words of convenience to provide reference points and are not to be construed as limiting terms.

Different Instances of Objects As used herein, unless otherwise specified the use of the ordinal adjectives "first", "second", "third", etc., to describe a common object, merely indicate that different instances of like objects are being referred to, and are not intended to imply that the objects so described must be in a given sequence, either temporally, spatially, in ranking, or in any other manner.

Comprising and Including

In the claims which follow and in the preceding description of the invention, except where the context requires otherwise due to express language or necessary implication, the word "comprise" or variations such as "comprises" or "comprising" are used in an inclusive sense, i.e. to specify the presence of the stated features but not to preclude the presence or addition of further features in various embodiments of the invention.

Any one of the terms: including or which includes or that includes as used herein is also an open term that also means including at least the elements/features that follow the term, but not excluding others. Thus, including is synonymous with and means comprising.

Scope of Invention

Thus, while there has been described what are believed to be the preferred embodiments of the invention, those skilled in the art will recognize that other and further modifications may be made thereto without departing from the spirit of the invention, and it is intended to claim all such changes and modifications as fall within the scope of the invention. For example, any formulas given above are merely representative of procedures that may be used. Functionality may be added or deleted from the block diagrams and operations may be interchanged among functional blocks. Steps may be added or deleted to methods described within the scope of the present invention.

Although the invention has been described with reference to specific examples, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the invention may be embodied in many other forms.

Industrial Applicability

It is apparent from the above, that the arrangements described are applicable to entertainment and intellectual property policing industries amongst many others.