Useful, affordable electronic devices that present DC to the user in the form of text, audio, image, video and games are available to almost everyone in wealthy countries and to a significant portion of the population in countries where money is scarce for most.
Users of PEDs that present DC want to easily acquire fresh content for their own use. A personal computer with a connection to the Internet is most often used for this purpose. Under the heading of digital rights management (DRM), various methods have been proposed to ensure that those who are the owners of copyrighted material get paid by those who consume it. Examples can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 7,191,346 issued to Abe et al. on Mar. 13, 2007 entitled “Data transfer system, data transfer apparatus, data recording apparatus, edit controlling method and data processing method” and U.S. Pat. No. 7,000,144 issued to Takata on Feb. 14, 2006 entitled “Information management apparatus, information management system, and information management software”. In some such methods, specially prepared recording media are used to receive the downloaded DC, as is taught in U.S. Pat. No. 7,216,228 issued to Sako et al. on May 8, 2007 entitled “Recording medium recording and/or reproduction apparatus, recording and/or reproduction method”.
Not everyone who has an electronic device used to play DC, however, has a computer at home or even ready access to one elsewhere. Among those who do, many do not have an Internet connection with the capacity to download the desired quantities of DC. Moreover, some Internet service providers impose a surcharge if the amount of data received exceeds the monthly amount that is allowed for in the subscription contract.
Some methods of automated DC distribution provide a vending machine that offers DC such as video on standard media, such as DVDs, that are ready for use at home and in portable DVD players. Vending machines that offer an assortment of titles of DC preloaded on storage media may be more convenient for some than, for instance, using the Internet to download films, but the owners of such vending machines must contend with restocking them together with the cost and security issues that arise when physical inventory is stored, shipped and handled. The security issues are addressed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,234,609 issued to DeLazzer et al. on Jun. 26, 2007 entitled “Article dispensing system and method for same”. The choice of titles available in such a vending system, however, is clearly quite limited.
To serve those who, for the reasons previously stated, are not prepared to download DC via a home Internet connection, a variety of other methods are described in previous art to provide DC to users for use in their PEDs. One alternative means to update DC is to download it to the device in question via a direct or indirect connection to the Internet at a point-of-sale kiosk or terminal that provides such a connection, usually in exchange for direct or indirect payment. An example of such known art is taught by U.S. Pat. No. 6,594,548 issued to Bagnordi on Jul. 15, 2003 entitled “Portable digital assistant” that describes a vending machine that downloads DC to a customer's attached PED or to a memory card that can be used in such a device using a variety of different electrical connectors to suit different PEDs and memory modules.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,748,539 issued to Lotspiech on Jun. 8, 2004 entitled “System and method for securely checking in and checking out digitized content” describes a method that provides for the controlled rental of DC by means of a system that employs a vending machine that copies desired DC onto a flash memory device that the consumer will use in his DC player. That same machine is used to receive the same memory card when it is returned after the rental period has ended. A method in the same area, and likewise addressing concerns for DRM, is taught by U.S. Pat. No. 7,209,893 issued to Nii on Apr. 24, 2007 entitled “Method and a system for distributing electronic content” in which a second means is used to receive codes on a multimedia cell phone that will unlock access to certain portions of the DC on a memory card inserted into the cell phone. The user has previously downloaded DC into that same memory card via a personal computer connected to the Internet.
Another limitation of some automated methods of distributing DC is the length of time that it takes to load a large quantity of DC onto a flash memory device or other form of data storage such as an optical disk. If implemented in a public area kiosk or vending machine, such inefficient methods cannot be used by large numbers of people each hour.
Moreover, the use of easily duplicated standard storage media to deliver copyrighted digital content is of great concern to content publishers. Despite the existence of laws in some jurisdictions that forbid the creation or use of methods that overcome copyright protection technologies, such methods are widely available. The same kind of high-level skills that are used by some to develop encryption means and content locking schemes are used by others to devise way to defeat such security measures.
Many other methods known to previous art store DC on a local or remote computer and transfer the DC to magnetic, optical or electronic storage media that the user must then insert into his electronic device.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,381,513 issued to Takase, et al. on Apr. 30, 2002 entitled “Electronic information distributing terminal equipment” proposes a vending machine that enables consumers to purchase a memory card, with the most commonly desired content being available from a stock of such cards. The method of content distribution taught by Takase shares two other disadvantages that constrain all known methods that use a vending machine to dispense standard memory cards.
The proliferation of different memory card format in the market is an issue that makes the implementation of such a system very difficult, as different card formats must be maintained to satisfy the market.
A second constraint follows from the need, as stated in the Takase patent, for the machine to read user information from a memory card that the user must first insert into the machine and then must write user information to the memory card that will be distributed. In a high traffic context where users will be waiting in line to use the machine, the two steps add time to the process that can seriously constrain efficiency and reduce user satisfaction.
Summary of the Disadvantages of the Known Art of Automated Digital Content Distribution                (a) Methods that download DC by means of a personal computer are of no use to those who do not use a computer or who find it inconvenient to do so.        (b) Because, in many locations in the world, a high-speed connection to the Internet is not available, and even where it is available, it may be unaffordable to many, methods that require the use of high-speed Internet are of no help to many people who want to acquire DC.        (c) Methods that require the distribution of physical media to kiosks or vending machines incur significant costs.        (d) Methods that require purchasers of DC at a vending machine or kiosk to wait while an automated or attended means is used to load digital content onto physical media or to a PED are impractical for DC that is large in size, such as films, as the significant wait time will be an inconvenience to the DC purchasers and will constrain the number of purchasers who can be served each day.        (e) Vending machine that dispenses memory modules have been proposed that maintain a stock of memory modules with preloaded content to avoid requiring purchasers to wait, and require the purchaser to insert a “used” card. Because there is no one kind of memory module that is universally used, it will be very difficult to handle the variety of memory module formats that must be maintained for each specific selection of digital content that is in high demand. The vending machine's internal handling of such varied media is highly problematic, as different kinds are of different size and have differently placed contacts. In effect, there needs to be different slots to insert the different card types, and there must be a different handling mechanism for each.        (f) Proposed vending machine methods that dispense memory cards, must read user data from the card that is inserted by the user and write user data to the second card that is dispensed, adding significant time to the process        (g) Many devices that play music or video do not use easily removable memory modules.        (h) Methods that use standard physical media, despite the use of sophisticated means to encrypt the DC and lock access to it, are vulnerable to the unauthorized copying of the DC they contain.        
Many DC consumers would accordingly prefer a system that: is as simple as possible to use; requires neither an Internet connection nor the handling of storage media; and would enable them to very quickly load their PED with large amounts of DC and use that PED to deliver DC to many other players.