System and methods for the production, distribution and flexible usage of electronic content in heterogeneous distributed environments

摘要

A system to support creation, distribution and flexible usage of electronic content in distributed environments where users may have access to multiple rendering systems. The invention comprises a packaging system, a distributed network of content management servers and personal content managers. The packaging system enables a content creator to create and associate sphere of fair use and content modulation rules definitions with content. The sphere of fair use allows a content creator to define content usage boundaries that account for the availability of multiple rendering systems. The content modulation rules provide a content creator with creative control over potential content transformations for transfer to alternative rendering systems. The personal content manager allows the user to process electronic content purchases from different sources and to transform and transfer the content to additional approved rendering systems while enforcing the creative boundaries specified by a content creator.