US Patent:
20020194140, Dec 19, 2002
Inventors:
Keith Makuck - Apex NC, US
International Classification:
H04L009/00
H04K001/00
G06F017/60
Abstract:
A user requesting premium content from a content provider is redirected to a service provider with which the user may have or may create an account. The account is funded with block purchases of sufficient size to justify credit card transaction costs. The service provider then stores a random user ID and password in the content provider's secure authorized user database. The user is redirected to the content provider with the random user ID and password prepended to the redirection URL. The service provider tracks how long the user accesses the premium content and charges the user's account the time multiplied by the rate. Periodically, the service provider pays the content provider based on the charges users have incurred accessing the premium content.