Method and system for supplying products from pre-stored digital data in response to demands transmitted via computer network

摘要

The present invention relates to a digital data duplication system that utilizes one or more computer networks to automate the process from order-taking to delivery, eliminating the need for human supervision. Customers enter requests for a given number of machine-readable articles containing digital data, typically compact disks. The requests are transferred to a website, which sends to a server electronic mails containing the details of the requests. Upon receiving an electronic mail, the server directs a printing device to produce mailing labels for shipment. The server has an internal archive of all data it uses to convert blank CD-Rs into the requested CDs, and is connected to a series of CD-R writing machines. The server schedules each request, downloads necessary data onto the CD-R writing machine that is assigned a particular request, and sends a write command. The CD-R writing machine subsequently transfers the data in its cache onto the pre-loaded CD-Rs. After the data transfer is complete, the CDs embodying the requested information are automatically placed in a bin for shipment.