Content distribution system

【0001】

[Technical field to which the invention belongs]

The present invention connects a content provider and a customer via the Internet, the content provider provides content such as a video, and the customer provides comment information such as impressions and opinions and own attribute information, and the information thereof. It relates to a content distribution system that converts the difference in quantity into money.

【0002】

[Conventional technology]

The conventional content distribution system reduces the burden on the content seller by charging for the use of the content, and is a content creator terminal that provides the content and a retailer terminal that distributes the provided content. By registering the copyright fee and sales fee set for each in the billing center and calculating the content usage fee in the selling price calculation department of the billing center based on the registered information, the content creator and The seller does not have to consider the charges set by others in the distribution process, simply decides and registers his own charges, and does not have to distribute the paid charges. (For example, see Patent Document 1).

【0003】

In addition, the content sales system allows the trial of the content to be performed for a fee so that the sales of the content can be promoted and the fee can be reliably collected when the content is used. By trying the content downloaded from the content providing terminal to the purchaser client terminal via the line for a fee, it is possible for the user to check it carefully before purchasing the content, and for the content provider, the content By facilitating sales expansion, it is possible to develop a content sales system that benefits both users and content providers (see, for example, Patent Document 2).

【0004】

[Patent Document 1]

Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2001-005877 (Page 1, Fig. 1) [Patent Document 2]

JP-A-2002-230432 (Page 1, Fig. 1) [0005]

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention]

However, the content distribution system described in Patent Document 1 is useful for reducing the load on the billing system and promoting the content distribution in terms of content sales, but that is from the viewpoint of the sales side and from the user side. I can't feel the benefits. Therefore, there is a problem that it is difficult for the user to be motivated to use it more positively than before. In addition, the content sales system described in Patent Document 2 can be tried for a fee, and the user side can feel the merit, but there is only one direction from the content maker to the user side. There was a problem that there was no interaction (information such as contents can be exchanged with each other). Interactions further increase the motivation of users to use them.

【0006】

[Means for solving problems]

The content distribution system according to the present invention includes a plurality of maker terminals that send content created by a content maker and content information including a usage fee for the content, and a customer obtains the content information and comments on the customer's attribute information or the content. Along with accumulating and storing multiple customer terminals that send information, a database server that acquires and stores customer attribute information or comment information and sends the stored attribute information or comment information, and content created by each content maker. Content management / billing / collection server that accumulates billing information for content usage fees, notifies the customer terminal of billing when the customer acquires the content information, and receives payment notification, and content provided by the content Is a content distribution system in which a web server, a manufacturer terminal, a customer terminal, a database server, a content management / billing / collection server, and a web server are connected to each other via an information transmission network. When the customer terminal sends the customer's attribute information or comment information to the web server with reference to the content presented on the website, the web server sends the attribute information or comment information to the manufacturer terminal and the database server. At the same time, an information provision fee for the attribute information or comment information of the customer is set and sent to the content management / billing / collection server, and the content management / billing / collection server informs the customer terminal from the usage fee of the content. It is configured to notify the billing information minus the provision fee, and the customer terminal notifies the billing payment notification to the content management / billing / collection server.

【0007】

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

Embodiment 1. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a content distribution system according to a first embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a plurality of maker terminals used by content makers. Each content maker creates content on its own maker terminal 1 and transmits the content from the maker terminal 1 to the content management / billing / collection server described later. 2 is a web server that creates a content list by receiving the content created by each content maker, stores the content list in the storage device 2a, and presents the content list on the website. Here, the content refers to video, audio, text information, images, and the like. 3 is a database server in which customer data such as customer attribute information, impressions after the customer refers to the content, and comment information such as opinions are organized and stored in the customer database 3a, and the customer data is distributed. Here, the attribute information of the customer is information useful for marketing, for example, gender, age, occupation, place of residence, hobby, and the like. The price of the attribute information is OO yen for the gender information, OO yen for the age information, and so on. The price table of each information is created, and the web server 2 automatically determines the price by collating it.

【0008】

In addition, the price of comment information is prepared in a table according to the length of the comment so that the website 2 automatically attaches it on the website. 4 is a plurality of customer terminals for receiving and using the content, 5 is storing the content transmitted from each manufacturer terminal 1 in the content storage device 5a, and storing the billing information in the billing information storage device 5. Content management / billing / collection server that manages content and charges / collects for content usage, 6 is a financial institution terminal that makes payments for billing, 7 is a manufacturer terminal 1, web server 2, database server 3 , An information transmission network such as the Internet connected to the customer terminal 4, the content management / billing / collection server 5, and the financial institution terminal 6.

【0009】

The operation of the content distribution system according to the first embodiment of the present invention will be described. First, the case where the customer refers to the content will be described based on the flowcharts of FIGS. 1 and 2. When the customer operates the customer terminal 1 to access the web server 2 via the Internet 7 and reaches the website of the content distribution system (step S1), the customer views the content list (step S2). Then, the desired content is selected from the content list (step S3). If not selected, the process returns to step S2. Then, the web server 2 accesses the content management / billing / collection server 5 via the Internet 7, and the content management / billing / collection server 5 accesses the database server 3 to verify whether or not the customer is a registered customer. Later, the selected content is read from the content storage device 5a, and the content is distributed / received to the web server 2.

【0010】

The selected content is presented on the website of the web server 2, and the customer refers to the selected content on the customer terminal 4 (step S4). Here, the reference of the content means "see" when the content is an image or a video, and means "listen" when the content is audio. Next, when the customer who referred to the content writes a comment on the content (step S5), the written comment is sent from the customer terminal 1 to the website server 2 and entered in the storage device 2a (step S6), and the web server 2 Then, from the table where the price is set according to the length of the comment, the information provision fee according to the length of the comment is attached and sent to the content management / billing / collection server 5. In addition, the comment is sent from the website server 2 to the database server 3 and written to the customer database in 3a.

【0011】

Then, the content management / billing / collection server 5 determines the usage fee of the content selected from the content price list, and if there is a comment, the billing information of the amount after deducting the information provision fee of the comment is sent to the web server 2. If there is no comment, the billing information of the usage fee of the selected content is sent to the web server 2, and the customer sees the billing information on the website of the web server 2 and confirms it (step S7). The customer who confirmed the billing information accesses the financial institution terminal 6 from the customer terminal 4 to make a transfer, the financial institution terminal 6 sends a notification of the transfer completion to the customer terminal 4, and the customer terminal 4 manages the billing payment notification. The collection is completed by sending to the billing / collection server 5 (step S8).

【0012】

Next, the case where the customer as seen from the content distribution system refers to the content and reaches the collection of money will be described in detail based on the flowcharts of FIGS. 1 and 3. If the website 2 of the content distribution system is accessed from the customer terminal 1 (step S11), the content list is displayed on the website of the web server 2 (step S12). Then, when the customer selects the desired content from the content list on the customer terminal 1, the web server 2 receives the content selection, and if the content is not selected, the content list remains displayed (step S13).

【0013】

At this time, in order to refer to the content, the customer must send at least the attribute information of his / her name from the customer terminal 4 to the web server 2. This is to confirm whether the customer is a registered customer. Web server 2 accesses the content management / billing / collection server 5 via the Internet 7, and the content management / billing / collection server 5 accesses the database server 3 and is the customer registered based on the attribute information. After collating and determining that the registered customer is correct, the content selected from the content storage device 5a is read, the content is distributed to the web server 2, and the content is presented on the website of the web server 2. (Step S14).

【0014】

The customer refers to the content presented on the customer terminal 1 (step S15), sends a confirmation of the reference to the web server 2, and then attribute information such as address, gender, age, occupation, hobby, etc. other than the name. (Step S16), the web server 2 sends a confirmation of the reference to the content management / billing / collection server 5. Then, the content management / billing / collection server 5 checks how many times the reference confirmation is received for a certain period of time, for example, every month, and if it is not twice or more, proceeds to the next step (step S17). ). In addition, unless the customer who referred to the content writes a comment for the content (step S18), the information provision fee for the comment is not received from the web server 2, so the content selected in the content management / billing / collection server 5 is selected. The billing information of the usage fee is sent to the web server 2, and the customer sees the billing information on the website of the web server 2 on the customer terminal 1 and knows that the billing has been made (step S19).

【0015】

Also, when the customer who referred to the content writes a comment on the content (step S18), the written comment is sent from the customer terminal 1 to the web server 2 and entered in the storage device 2a, and the web server 2 has the length of the comment. From the table where the corresponding price is set, the information provision fee according to the length of the comment is attached and sent to the content management / billing / collection server 5 (step S20). In addition, the comment is sent from the website server 2 to the database server 3 and written to the customer database in 3a. In addition, the comment is sent to the maker terminal 1. Then, the content management / billing / collection server 5 performs billing measurement by subtracting the comment information provision fee from the content usage fee (step S21), and the billing information of the amount obtained by subtracting the billing measurement amount is sent to the web server 2. Send and know that the customer has been charged by looking at the billing information on the website of Web Server 2 (step S19).

【0016】

In step S15, after the customer refers to the content presented on the customer terminal 1 and sends the confirmation of the reference to the web server 2, attribute information such as address, gender, age, occupation, hobby, etc. other than the name is further added. Is sent to the web server 2, the web server 2 confirms the reference and sends it to the content management / billing / collection server 5 with an information provision fee by a table in which the price is set according to the content of the attribute information. .. In addition, the attribute information is sent from the web server 2 to the database server 3 and written to the customer database in 3a. The content management / billing / collection server 5 performs billing measurement by subtracting the information provision fee of attribute information from the content usage fee (step S21), sends the billing information of the measured amount to web server 2, and the customer sends the billing information to the web server 2. See the billing information on the website of 2 to know that you have been billed (step S19).

【0017】

In addition, in step S17, the content management / billing / collection server 5 looks at how many times the reference confirmation is received for a certain period of time, for example, every month, and refers to the content in the case of two or more times. Unless the customer writes a comment on the content (step S22), the content management / billing / collection server 5 does not receive information on the comment information provision fee from the web server 2, so the number of times the content is referenced and the type of content. The billing measurement of the content usage fee according to the content is performed (step S23), the billing information of the measured amount is sent to the web server 2, and the customer is charged by looking at the billing information on the website of the web server 2. To know (step S19).

【0018】

Also, when the customer who referred to the content writes a comment on the content (step S22), the written comment is sent from the customer terminal 1 to the web server 2 and entered in the storage device 2a, and the web server 2 has the length of the comment. From the table where the corresponding price is set, the information provision fee according to the length of the comment is attached and sent to the content management / billing / collection server 5 (step S23). In addition, the comment is sent from the website server 2 to the database server 3 and written to the customer database in 3a. Then, in the content management / billing / collection server 5, billing measurement is performed by subtracting the comment information provision fee from the usage fee of the content (step S24), and the billing information of the amount obtained by subtracting the billing measurement amount is used as the web server 2. To know that the customer has been charged by looking at the billing information on the website of Web Server 2 (step S19).

【0019】

After the customer refers to the content presented on the customer terminal 1 and sends the confirmation of the reference to the web server 2, the web server 2 further provides attribute information such as address, gender, age, occupation, and hobbies other than the name. When sent to, the web server 2 confirms the reference and sends it to the content management / billing / collection server 5 with an information provision fee based on the table in which the price is set according to the content of the attribute information, and the content management / The billing / collection server 5 performs billing measurement by subtracting the information provision fee of attribute information from the content usage fee (step S24), sends the billing information of the measured amount of billing to the web server 2, and the customer sends the billing information to the web server 2. See the billing information on the site to know that you have been billed (step S19).

【0020】

A customer who knows the billing accesses the financial institution terminal 6 from the customer terminal 4 to make a transfer, the financial institution terminal 6 sends a transfer completion notification to the customer terminal 4, and the customer terminal 4 manages and charges the staff payment notification. -The collection has been performed by sending it to the collection server 5 (step S25). The money collected on the content management / billing / collection server 5 will be paid to the content maker at a later date according to the number of times the provided content is referenced. If the comment information provided by the customer is more valuable, the customer can get money on the contrary. The customer is free to choose how much comment information to provide.

【0021】

In addition, the customer attribute information and comment information obtained from the customer are organized and stored in the customer database 3a of the database server 3. Then, the organized customer attribute information and comment information are fed back to the maker terminal 1 by e-mail every month, for example, and the customer attribute information and comment information information provision fee billing information is also notified. .. Then, the content maker pays the consideration to the content management / billing / collection server 5. For example, in the case of statistical data of customer attributes, the database server 3 automatically aggregates and organizes the attribute information referred to here by a statistical program and stores it in the customer database 3a. The consideration for the organized information is decided by the person who operates the content management / billing / collection server 5 and made into a table.

【0022】

In addition, the customer provides the content created by the customer from the customer terminal 4 to the content management / billing / collection server 5 via the Internet 6, displays the content list on the web server 2, and the content maker displays the content from the maker terminal 1. You can also access Web Server 2 and browse the content provided. The content in this case is, for example, to provide a television station with what was shot by a home video. The customer sets a charge for the content created by the customer, and the content is sent to the content management / billing / collection server 5 together with the content. Then, the content maker who refers to the content pays the fee. In addition, the customer receives the consideration according to the number of times the provided content is referred to.

【0023】

As described above, according to the first embodiment of the present invention, the customer attribute information or comment information is transmitted to the web server 2 by referring to the content presented on the website of the web server 2 on the customer terminal 4. When sent, the web server 2 sends the attribute information or comment information to the maker terminal 1 and the database server 3, and sets an information provision fee for the customer's attribute information or comment information to the content management / billing / collection server 5. The content management / billing / collection server 5 notifies the customer terminal 4 of the billing information obtained by subtracting the information provision fee from the usage fee of the content, and the customer terminal 4 sends the billing / payment notification to the content management / billing / collecting server. Since the content is notified to 5, the content is supplied from the content maker, and it is not only a one-way service that refers to the customer and pays the price, but also comments such as attribute information from the customer and impressions / opinions on the content. There is also a reverse service flow of returning information to the content maker, which enables flexible content distribution and promotes bidirectional distribution of content.

【0024】

Embodiment 2. FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a content distribution system according to a second embodiment of the present invention. In the second embodiment of FIG. 4, the same configurations as those of the first embodiment shown in FIG. 1 are designated by the same reference numerals, and the description of the duplicated configurations will be omitted. In the second embodiment, the editing information database 3b in which the editing information is stored is newly added, and is connected to the database server 3. The editing information here is a method that is often used in non-linear editing software for video, for example, but the original content and the content itself such as "blurring the whole" or "cutting from the Xth sheet to the Yth sheet" It has an editing function of editing without processing. The history edited by the edited information is saved separately, and the next time the content is handled, the original content and the edited state are restored from the edited state. This is an attempt to achieve this on the website.

【0025】

In the second embodiment, when the customer accesses the web server 2 from the customer terminal 4, selects the content from the content list, and the content is presented, the customer enters the database from the customer terminal 4 via the web server 2. The editing information stored in the editing information database 3b of the server 3 is taken out, the presented content is edited using the editing information, and the edited content is referred to. In this case, the charge to the customer includes the usage fee of the editing information in addition to the usage fee of the content. In this way, the appearance of the same content is different depending on the addition of editing information. In addition, instead of storing the edited content in the content storage device 5a of the content management / billing / collection server 5 as it is, the content storage device 5a of the content management / billing / collection server 5 is combined with the original content and the editing information. By storing in, the amount of accumulation can be small.

【0026】

For example, let's say you have the content of a certain video, and a person named A edits it and saves it. And suppose that a person named B edits the same video differently from A and saves it. Accumulating the video edited in this way will result in a huge amount of data, but in the form of the original video + editing information, the original video is common to both A and B, so the original video + A This is because the editing information of is + B editing information, and the amount of accumulation is smaller than that of the original original video + the video edited by A + the video edited by B. Further, when the edited content is presented again, the edited content is reconstructed and presented by combining the original content and the editing information. Then, when the edited content is reconstructed and presented, the customer is charged according to the accumulated amount of the edited information in addition to the price of the content.

【0027】

According to the second embodiment of the present invention, in addition to the first embodiment, the editing information of each customer is enabled by enabling editing and accumulating the editing information in the database 3b of the database server 3. It is possible to retain a small amount of stored content according to the above. In addition, each customer can have their own original content and can refer to it at any time.

【0028】

As described above, in the first embodiment and the second embodiment described above, the content created by the content maker is stored in the content storage device 5a of the content management / billing / collection server 5 and is stored in the content storage device 5a of the content management / billing / collection server 5. Is trying to retrieve the content from the content storage device 5a of the content management / billing / collection server 5, but the content may be stored in the storage device 2a of the web server 2, and the location of the content is not particularly particular. Absent.

【0029】

[Effect of the invention]

As described above, according to the present invention, when the customer's attribute information or comment information is sent to the web server by referring to the content presented on the website on the customer terminal, the web server sends the attribute information or comment information. In addition to sending to the manufacturer terminal and database server, an information provision fee for customer attribute information or comment information is set and sent to the content management / billing / collection server, and the content management / billing / collection server sends the content to the customer terminal. Since the billing information obtained by subtracting the information provision fee from the usage fee of the content is notified and the customer terminal notifies the billing payment notification to the content management / billing / collection server, the content is supplied from the content maker and the customer. There is not only a one-way service that refers to the content and pays the price, but also a reverse service flow that returns the attribute information from the customer and the comment information such as impressions and opinions about the content to the content maker. , It is possible to realize free content distribution, and there is an effect that bidirectional distribution of content is promoted.

[Simple explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a content distribution system according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart when a customer refers to a content.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart when a customer of a content distribution system refers to a content and reaches a collection of money.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a content distribution system according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Manufacturer terminal, 2 Web server, 3 Database server, 3a Customer database, 4 Customer terminal, 5 Content management / billing / collection server, 5a Content storage device, 5b Billing information storage device, 6 Financial institution terminal, 7 Internet (information transmission network) ).