Digital Reg of Texas, LLC v. Adobe Systems Incorporated et al

Filing 1

COMPLAINT against AVG Technologies USA, Inc., Adobe Systems Incorporated, Electronic Arts, Inc., Symantec Corporation, UbiSoft Entertainment, Inc., Valve Corporation, Zynga Game Network Inc., Zynga, Inc. ( Filing fee $ 350 receipt number 0540-3078865.), filed by Digital Reg of Texas, LLC. (Attachments: # 1 Exhibit 1, # 2 Exhibit 2, # 3 Exhibit 3, # 4 Exhibit 4, # 5 Exhibit 5, # 6 Exhibit 6, # 7 Exhibit 7, # 8 Civil Cover Sheet)(Albritton, Eric)

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USOO7562150B2

(54)

United States Patent

(10)

Patterson

(12)

(45)

DELIVERING ELECTRONIC CONTENT

4,888,798
4,999,806
5,023,907
5,033,084
5,057,935
5,103,476
5,113,518
5,191,611
5,204,897
5,319,705

Patrick E. Patterson, Arlington, VA
(US)

(75)

Inventor:

(73)

Assignee: DRM Technologies, LLC, Tucson, AZ
(US)

( *)

Notice:

Subject to any disclaimer, the term of this
patent is extended or adjusted under 35
U.S.c. 154(b) by 0 days.

A
A
A
A
A
A
A
A
A
A

12/1989
3/1991
6/1991
7/1991
10/1991
4/1992
5/1992
3/1993
4/1993
6/1994

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.
(21)

Filed:

Earnest et al.
Chernow et al.
Johnson et al.
Beecher
Williams
Waite et al.
Durst, Jr. et al.
Lang
Wyman
Halter et al.

FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS

Aug. 15, 2007

CA

2220457

5/1998

Prior Publication Data

(65)

US 2007/0288643 Al

Dec. 13, 2007

(Continued)

Related U.S. Application Data
(63)

*Jul. 14,2009

(Continued)

Appl. No.: 11/889,610

(22)

US 7,562,150 B2

Patent No.:
Date of Patent:

Continuation of application No. 111412,827, filed on
Apr. 28, 2006, now Pat. No. 7,272,655, which is a
continuation of application No. 09/231,714, filed on
Jan. 15, 1999, now Pat. No. 7,127,515.

(51)

Int. Cl.

(52)
(58)

U.S. Cl. ....................................... 7091229; 709/206
Field of Classification Search ......... 709/202-203,

(2006.01)

G06F 15116

709/206-207,229,225,223

See application file for complete search history.

References Cited

(56)

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Browser
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(Continued)

Primary Examiner-Paul H Kang
(74) Attorney, Agent, or Firm-McGuireWoods LLP
ABSTRACT

(57)

Delivering electronic content includes providing instructions
that might cause a computer to collect information including
a network address and transmitting the collected information
to a receiving computer. The computer that receives the transmitted information selects electronic content based on the
received information and sends the selected electronic content to the network address included in the received information. Access to the electronic content might be selectively
granted based on criteria.

40 Claims, 14 Drawing Sheets

126

124

128

132

104

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138
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US 7,562,150 B2
Page 2
U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS
5,337,357
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5,963,915
5,982,889
6,014,688
6,021,491
6,035,329
6,041,411
6,055,570
6,067,526
6,067,622
6,073,124
6,073,256

A
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A
A
A
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A
A
A
A
A
A
A
A
A
A
A
A
A
A
A
A
A
A
A
A
A
A
A
A
A
A
A
A
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811994
911994
211995
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411996
311997
511997
811997
911997
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911997
1011997
1211997
1211997
111998
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211998
311998
611998
711998
711998
711998
811998
811998
811998
811998
311999
311999
411999
411999
511999
711999
911999
911999
911999
911999
1011999
1111999
112000
212000
3/2000
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Chou et al.
Michener et al.
Barber et al.
Richardson, III
Schull
Kazmierczak et al.
Stefik et al.
McMullan, Jr. et al.
McCarty
Eyer et aI.
Elgamal
Auerbach et al.
Dolphin
Igura et al.
Dolphin
Rose
Levergood et al.
Payne et aI.
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Erickson
Apte
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6,098,056
6,134,592
6,138,149
6,144,942
6,178,442
6,192,396
6,205,485
6,253,193
6,256,672
6,266,692
6,288,738
6,289,461
6,304,897
6,314,454
6,332,156
6,385,596
6,389,541
6,449,719
6,484,156
6,567,793
6,684,248
6,751,670

A
A
A
A
A
Bl
Bl
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Bl
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Bl
Bl
2005/0021633 Al

6/2000 Yoshida et al.
8/2000 Rusnak et al.
10/2000 Montulli
10/2000 Ohmura

1112000 Ruckdashel
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2/2001 Kohler
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7/2001 Redpath
7/2001 Greenstein
9/2001 Dureau et al.
9/2001 Dixon
10/2001 Venkatraman et al.
1112001 Wang etal.
12/2001 Cho et al.
5/2002 Wiser et aI.
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5/2003 Hicks et al.
112004 Janacek et al.
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0717338
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OTHER PUBLICATIONS
U.S. Appl. No. 111400,394 filed Apr. 10,2006.
Mark A Kaplan "IBM Cryptolopes, SuperDistribution and Digital
Rights Management" Dec. 30, 1996, pp. 1-9.
"Ziplock White Paper" Jan. 27, 1997, pp. 1-12.
Information Sciences Institute, University of Southern California
"Transmission Control Protocol DARPA Internet Program Protocol
Specification" Sep. 1981, preface to p. 85.
Butler Lampson "Anti-Piracy" Oct. 26, 1997, pp. 1-9.
Steve R. White and Liam Comerford "ABYSS: An Architecture for
Software Protection" IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering.
vol. 16 No.6 Jun. 1990, pp. 619-629.
TragoeS FAQ-"Right Market Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)"
Jun. 30, 1997, pp. 1-5.
PR Newswire "Silver Bullet for Digital Publishing Arrives TragoeS
Announces General Availability of RightsMarket (TM)" Dec. 2,
1997, pp. 1-4.

u.s. Patent

Jul. 14,2009

US 7,562,150 B2

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US 7,562,150 B2

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US 7,562,150 B2
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DELIVERING ELECTRONIC CONTENT

In general, in another aspect, a method of delivering electronic content includes providing web-page form instructions
that cause a first computer to interactively collect an e-mail
address from a user and transmit information including the
collected address information to a second computer. The
method further includes processing the transmitted information at the second computer by using the transmitted information to select electronic content and e-mailing the selected
electronic content to the transmitted e-mail address.
In general, in another aspect, a method of delivering electronic content includes storing electronic content corresponding to different sets of instructions, receiving a request for
electronic content produced by one of the sets of instructions,
the request including a network address, and selecting electronic content from the stored electronic content based on the
received request. The selected electronic content is transmitted to the network address included in the request.
In general, in another aspect, a computer-implemented
method of providing access to electronic content includes
displaying in a browser a web-page that includes a link corresponding to electronic content and in response to a user's
selection of the link, collecting information without modifYing the web-page displayed in the browser. The collected
information is transmitted to a remote server, and electronic
content from the remote server is sent to the e-mail address
based on the collected information.
In general, in another aspect, a computer program, disposed on a computer readable medium, includes instructions
for causing a first computer's processor to receive information collected by instructions at a second computer, and based
on the received information, select electronic content and
transmit the electronic content to an e-mail address included
in the received information.
Advantages may include one or more of the following. By
linking an e-mail based electronic content delivery system to
a web-page, businesses can enjoy the benefits of reaching
"web-surfers" without the cost and/or computer resources
needed to maintain a web-site. Linking in this manner also
provides Internet users with the ability to get more information about a topic without leaving a web-page and without
waiting for graphics and other information to be transmitted
to their browser. A business providing electronic content can
not only receive demographic data describing interested
users, but also can determine which web-pages are most
effective in producing requests for information.
Other advantages of the invention will become apparent in
view of the following description, including the figures, and
the claims.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELAYED
APPLICATIONS
This is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.
111412,827 filed Apr. 28, 2006, which is a continuation of
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/231,714 filed Jan. 15,
1999, the disclosures of which are incorporated by reference
in their entirety.

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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to delivering electronic
content.
2. Related Art
The Internet offers a tremendous amount of information on
a wide range of subjects. Many businesses and organizations
offerworld-wide-web sites that promote products, offer technical assistance, and provide other useful information. Search
engines (e.g., Yahoo™) typically can provide lengthy lists of
sites related to any topic of interest. Users typically do not
want to take the time to investigate more than a handful of
these sites. As a result, the vast number of web-sites makes it
difficult for web-site providers to lure Internet users to their
respective sites.
Since the inception of the web, web-pages have featured
links to other sites. A link can appear as underlined text (e.g.,
"please visit deskgate"), as a picture, or as a sequence of
images. Each link has an associated URL (universal resource
locator) that identifies a web-site. A link can be programmed
to transport a user to a link's associated URL when a user
selects the link (e.g., by clicking a mouse button).
To attract users to a site, some businesses rent space on
other web-pages. For example, as shown in FIG. 1, a newspaper web-page 100 includes a variety oflinks to other sites.
As shown, the web-page includes a banner 102 (i.e., a picture
link in the shape ofa banner) linked to a resort's web-site. By
selecting the link, the user is transported to the resort's webpage as shown in FIG. 2.

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SUMMARY
In general, in one aspect, a method of delivering electronic
content includes providing instructions that cause a first computer to collect information including an e-mail address, and
transmitting the collected information to a second computer.
The second computer processes the transmitted information
by selecting electronic content for transmission to the e-mail
address and e-mailing the selected electronic content.
Embodiments may include one or more of the following.
The instructions can be web-page instructions such as
HTML. The instructions can be of a form. The instructions
can collect the information by querying the computer or by
receiving user input. The information can include demographic information and/or system information.
The processing can be done by a program such as a script
(e.g., a CGI script). A URL (universal resource locator) displayed at a browser using the instructions may not be altered
by the transmitting of the collected information. The processing can select electronic content based on the transmitted
information. The electronic content can include text, graphics, audio, video and/or executable instructions.
The information transmitted can include identification of
the instructions that transmitted the information and/or identification of a site that transmitted the information.

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DRAWING DESCRIPTIONS
FIG. 1 is a screenshot of web-page that includes a banner,
according to principles of the invention.
FIG. 2 is a screenshot of a web-page reached via the banner
of FIG. 1.
FIG. 3 is a screenshot of a web-page that includes a link,
according to principles of the invention.
FIG. 4 is a screenshot of a submission confirmation window, according to principles of the invention.
FIG. 5 is a screenshot of an e-mail message including
electronic content, according to principles of the invention.
FIG. 6 is a listing of web-page instructions, according to
principles of the invention.
FIGS. 7A-7C are diagrams illustrating delivery of electronic content, according to principles of the invention.
FIG. 7D is a block diagram of an embodiment of electronic
content, according to principles of the invention.

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FIG. 7E is a flow diagram showing steps of processing
notification instructions, according to principals of the invention.
FIG. 8 is a flow chart of distribution software, according to
principles of the invention.
FIG. 9 is an exemplary diagram of a computer system,
according to principles of the invention.

to the user's computer for processing by the user's browser.
The instructions 104 describe the appearance and behavior of
web-page elements. For example, the instructions describe
the form 106, the graphic image 112, the text control 108, and
submit button 110. The instructions 104 include instructions
120 for transmitting collected information to the remote webserver for processing. As shown, the instructions 106 identifY
a program 122 at a remote web-server and specifY values for
different parameters 124a-124c. The remote server program
processes the parameters to select electronic content to
deliver to a specified e-mail address 108. As shown, the program is a CGI (Common Gateway Interface) script, however,
programs written in other progrannning languages can also
process the collected information (e.g., a Perl script or a Java
or C++ program).
As shown, the instructions 106 transmit the e-mail address
124c interactively collected from a user and an identification
of the electronic content 124b to deliver to the e-mail address
specified 124c. Instead of hard-coding the content to deliver
124b, the instructions 120 can transmit an I.D. that identifies
electronic content to transmit. For example, different I.D.s
can be assigned to different sets of instructions 120. That is,
an I.D. for the golf promotion form may be "001" while the
I.D. for a car promotion form may be "002". Though the same
instructions 120 can be incorporated into different webpages, the remote server can use the I.D. to select the electronic content to transmit (e.g., information on the golf or car
promotion). By using an I.D. instead of hard-coding a reference to electronic content, electronic content transmitted to a
user can be easily altered.
The instructions 106 can be copied into different webpages to reach more web users. To identifY the site that produced a request for electronic content, the instructions 106
can transmit a site identification token 124a of the site transmitting the information. This information can be hard-coded
(as shown) or dynamically determined by interacting with a
browser's API (Application Programming Interface). By
transmitting the site token 124a, the remote web-server can
identify which web-pages produced the most number of
requests for content.
The instructions 106 can be configured to interactively
collect a wide variety of information from a user in addition to
an e-mail address. Such information can include demographic information (e.g., name, address, and age) or information describing a user's interests. The electronic content
transmitted by the remote server can be selected based on this
information.
Additionally, the instructions 106 can dynamically access
a body of information stored, for example, on the user's
computer, and then transmit that information to the remote
web-server. For example, the instructions can access a Windows™ registry on the user's computer to collect user and
system information relating to the computer executing the
instructions.
Though the instructions 106 shown produce a form, the
instructions 1 06 that collect an e-mail message by querying a
user's computer (e.g., by accessing the Windows™ registry)
could instead present a simple picture or text (e.g., "Click here
for e-mail information on golf'). When a user clicks on the
picture or text, the instructions 106 dynamically collect the
user's e-mail address and other information from the system
and transmit the collected information to the remote server
without requiring any data entry by the user.
Referring to FIG. 7A-7C, a remote web-server 132 delivers
electronic content 138 based on a user's interaction with a
web-page 104. As shown in FIG. 7A, a user's computer 126
runs browser software 128. When the user navigates (e.g., by

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
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Referring to FIG. 3, a web-page 104 viewed by a network
browser (e.g., Netscape™ Navigator) uses text and graphics
to present information to a user. As shown, the text and
graphics include information related to a business enterprise.
The web-page 104 also includes a form 106 that accepts user
input. As shown, the form 106 includes a text entry control
108, and a submit button 110. The form 106 also provides a
graphic image 112 designed to attract attention. As shown, the
form assumes the shape traditionally associated with bannerlinks (e.g., a bordered rectangle) but other shapes or formats
could be used. The banner shape can communicate to a user
that the form 106 is associated with a web-site other than the
site the user is currently visiting. The form 106 can include
other user input controls (not shown), for example, checkboxes that identify different areas of interest (e.g., "send me
information on golf clubs" and "send me information on golf
vacations").
Unlike a conventional banner-link, interaction with the
form 106 does not transport the user to a different web-site.
Instead, submitting entered information into the form (e.g.,
by typing information into the text box and then clicking the
submit button 110) transmits the information entered by the
user to a remote web-server without changing the current
URL being displayed by the browser. The remote web-server
uses the transmitted information to select and deliver electronic content (e.g., text, graphics, audio, video, and executable instructions) via e-mail. Co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 091199,150 entitled "Tracking Electronic
Content" filed Nov. 24, 1998, now issued as U.S. Pat. No.
6,751,670, describes an electronic content delivery system,
and is incorporated by reference.
Referring to FIG. 4, as shown, a user has entered a network
e-mail address into the text field 108 and clicked the submit
button 110. This action initiates transmission of the entered
information to the remote web-server. After submitting the
information, a window 114 appears informing a user that the
information has been transmitted. The feedback provided by
the window 114 prevents users from making repeated submissions in the mistaken belief their request failed.
FIG. 5 shows the interface for an e-mail client. After the
remote web-server has received the transmitted information,
it selects the appropriate electronic content and e-mails the
selected electronic content to the specified e-mail address.
The requester then can view or otherwise access the delivered
content using the e-mail client. As shown, the electronic
content may be transmitted as an e-mail attachment 120. By
delivering electronic content via e-mail, users can request
information without interrupting their use of a currently displayed web-page 104 and without waiting for a linked site's
web-page to load. Additionally, a business can deliver the
content to an Internet user without the cost and expense of
maintaining a web-site or reserving an Internet address.
Referring to FIG. 6, a network browser constructs a webpage's appearance from web-page instructions 104. These
instructions 104 can be expressed in HTML (Hypertext
Markup Language), Java, or other formats. When a user visits
a web-page, the instructions 104 for the page are transmitted

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following a link or entering a URL) to a web-site, the web
server 130 for that web-site transmits web-page instructions
104 to the user's computer 126. The user's browser 126
processes the web-page instructions 104 for display (as
shown in FIG. 3).
Referring to FIG. 7B, the web-page 104 includes instructions 106 for collecting and transmitting information to the
remote server 132. When a user submits a request for electronic content (e.g., clicking the submit button 11 0), the information 124 collected from a user and/or system is transmitted
to the remote web-server 132. As described above, the information 124 includes an e-mail address and can include other
information such as an I.D. and/or the address of the site 126
producing the request 124.
Referring to FIG. 7C, the remote web-server 132 includes
a program 134 for processing the transmitted infonnation
124. The program 134 can be a CGI script or alternatively a
Perl, Java, or c++ program. The remote web-server also
stores electronic content 138 for transmission to a requesting
user. The remote web-server 132 also may include a table 136
that stores the electronic content 138 that should be sent in
response to an I.D. included received infonnation. The
remote web-server 132 selects and transmits the electronic
content 138a via e-mail to the e-mail address specified in the
received infonnation 124.
The remote web-server 132 produces reports based on
requests that indicate which addresses received content,
which web-pages produced content requests, and demographic infonnation describing the user's requesting information. Thus, businesses can closely track their efforts at
reaching users.
The remote web-server 132 can store electronic content
138 corresponding to any number of different sets of instructions 106 (e.g., different fonns). Thus, a single web-server
132 can provide electronic content delivery for a large number of different businesses or organizations. Processing
requests for content typically consumes considerable computational resources on the processing computer. In addition,
storing the content 138 typically requires a large volume of
non-volatile storage. By letting a remote web-server dedicated to processing requests handle delivery and storage of
content, the computers associated with the various enterprises
will not be slowed or otherwise burdened by the processing of
requests during business hours.
Referring to FIG. 7D, the electronic content 138 may
include electronic content 138b such as text, graphics, audio,
video, and/or executable files. Electronic content 138 may
also include notification instructions 138c that may be executable instructions that collect and transmit notification information. The notification instructions 138c may be configured
to control access to the electronic content 138b. Further,
different electronic content may use different file fonnats.
When executed, notification instructions 138c can determine
whether a previous attempt to access the electronic content
138b resulted in success (e.g., successful transmission of
notification information or receipt of an access granting message). The notification instructions 138c may interactively
collect notification information from a recipient. The notification instructions 138c may interactively collect notification
information from a recipient. The notification instructions
138c may also collect infonnation by querying the recipient's
computer system.
FIG. 7E is a flow diagram showing steps of processing the
notification instructions, according to principles of the invention, starting at step 700. At step 705, a check is made whether
notification infonnation was transmitted successfully previously. If successful, then the process continues at step 730.

Otherwise, if the notification infonnation has not been successfully transmitted, then at step 710, notification infonnation may be collected. At step 715, an attempt to transmit the
notification information may be made. At step 720, a check
may be made to determine if the transmission of notification
information was successful. If not successful, then at step
722, access is denied to the electronic content. If, however, the
transmission of notification infonnation was successful, then
at step 725, an indicator may be stored indicating successful
transmission. At step 730, a prompt for a password may occur.
At step 735, a check may be made whether a correct password
was entered. If the password was not correctly entered then, at
step 750, an attempt to transmit notification infonnation may
occur. At step 755, access to electronic content may be
denied. If, however, a correct password was entered, or, if
prompted for, then at step 740, access may be granted to the
electronic content (e.g., decompress and decrypt). At step
745, an attempt to transmit notification infonnation may
occur.
Referring to FIG. 8, the program 134 running on the remote
web-server 132 processes infonnation to select and e-mail
electronic content to a specified e-mail address. After receiving a request for electronic content (140), the program 134
may repress transmission of information to a user's browser
(e.g., for example by issuing an "echo status: 202 No
Response" command). This command prevents a user's display from being altered.
The program 134 can use the I.D. to determine which
electronic content to send to a specified address (142). The
program 134 can also analyze demographic data included in
the received infonnation 124 to select electronic content for
delivery. After selecting the electronic content, the program
134 can e-mail the determined content (144) to the e-mail
address specified in the request 124.
Referring to FIG. 9, a computer platfonn 146 includes a
monitor 148, input devices such as a keyboard 150 and mouse
151, and a digital computer 152. The digital computer 152
includes memory 154, a processor 156, a mass storage device
164a (e.g., a hard disk) and a network connection 160 for
transmitting and receiving data. The mass storage device
164a includes instructions for an operating system 162 (e.g.,
Windows™ 98), distribution software 134, and electronic
content 138. These instructions can be stored in other computer readable mediums such as a floppy disk 164b, a CDROM drive 164c, or other hardware such as an EPROM 164d.
In the course of operation, the stored instructions are transferred to memory 154 and the processor 156 for execution.
The techniques described here are not limited to any particular hardware or software configuration. The techniques
may be implemented in hardware or software, or a combination of the two. Preferably, the techniques are implemented in
computer programs executing on programmable computers
that each include a processor, a storage medium readable by
the processor (including volatile and non-volatile memory
and/or storage elements), at least one input device, and one or
more output devices. Program code is applied to data entered
using the input device to perfonn the functions described and
to generate output information. The output infonnation is
applied to one or more output devices.
Each program is preferably implemented in a high level
procedural or object oriented progranlilling language to communicate with a computer system. However, the programs
can be implemented in assembly or machine language, if
desired. In any case, the language may be a compiled or
interpreted language.
Each such computer program is preferably stored on a
storage medium or device (e.g., CD-ROM, hard disk or mag-

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netic diskette) that is readable by a general or special purpose
progrannnable computer for configuring and operating the
computer when the storage medium or device is read by the
computer to perform the procedures described in this document. The system may also be considered to be implemented
as a computer-readable storage medium, configured with a
computer program, where the storage medium so configured
causes a computer to operate in a specific and predefined
manner.
Other embodiments are within the scope of the following
claims.

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identification of an electronic device that transmitted the
notification information.
16. A computer-implemented method of delivering electronic content, the method comprising the steps of:
providing web-page instructions that induces a first computer to dynamically transmit an network address to a
second computer in response to a request for data;
processing the request at the second computer to select
electronic content and transmitting the electronic con10
tent to the network address;
receiving notification information from the network
address triggered by an event; and
What is claimed is:
wherein the instructions include executable instructions
1. A computer-implemented method of delivering elecare configured to: a) attempt to transmit the notification
tronic content, the method comprising the steps of:
information based on the event, and b) selectively grant
providing instructions that causes a first computer to 15
or deny access to the electronic content based on results
dynamically transmit a network address to a second
of the attempt to transmit.
computer in response to a request for data;
17. The computer-implemented method of claim 16,
processing the request for data at the second computer;
wherein the executable instructions are configured to collect
transmitting the requested data to the network address;
receiving notification information from across a network 20 the notification information.
18. The computer-implemented method of claim 16,
as a result of an attempt to access the requested data; and
wherein the network address is associated with a user requestwherein the instructions include executable instructions
ing the data.
configured to: a) attempt to transmit the notification
19. The computer-implemented method of claim 17,
information based upon the attempt to access the
requested data, and b) grant or deny access to the 25 wherein the requested data comprises at least anyone of: text,
video, computer instructions and audio information.
requested data based on the results of the attempt to
20. A computer-implemented method of providing access
transmit.
to electronic content, the method comprising the steps of:
2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein
initiating a display in a browser of a web-page that includes
the executable instructions collect the notification informa30
a link corresponding to electronic content;
tion.
receiving, in response to a selection of the link, dynami3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein
cally transmitted information including a network
the step for providing instructions comprises providing webaddress at a server;
page instructions.
initiating transmission of the electronic content to the net4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, wherein
work address, wherein the electronic content includes
the web-page instructions comprise at least one of: HTML 35
executable instructions;
instructions and form instructions.
receiving notification information as a result of an attempt
5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein
to access the electronic content; and
the instructions comprise instructions that query the comwherein the executable instructions are configured to: a)
puter for information.
attempt to transmit the notification information based on
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6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein
a triggering event, and b) selectively grant or deny access
the instructions comprise instructions that receive user input.
to the electronic content based on results of the attempt
7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein
to transmit.
the requested data comprises demographic information.
21. The computer-implemented method of claim 20,
8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein 45 wherein the executable instructions are configured to collect
the requested data comprises system information.
the notification information.
9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein
22. The computer-implemented method of claim 21,
the network address identifies the first computer.
wherein the initiating transmission step initiates transmission
10. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, further
of the electronic content from the server.
comprising the step of presenting an invitation to request the 50
23. The computer-implemented method of claim 22,
data, prior to the providing step.
wherein the network address is associated with a selector of
11. The computer-implemented method of claim 1,
the link.
wherein the network address comprises an identifier associ24. The computer-implemented method of claim 20,
ated with a user using the first computer.
wherein the electronic content comprises at least anyone of:
12. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, 55 text, video, computer instructions and audio information.
wherein the requested data comprises at least anyone of: text,
25. The computer-implemented method of claim 20,
video, computer instructions and audio information.
wherein the network address comprises an email address.
13. The computer-implemented method of claim 1,
26. A computer program, disposed on computer readable
wherein the requested data comprises graphics information.
storage medium, the computer program including computer
14. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, 60 interpretable logic to cause execution of the steps for:
wherein the step of processing comprises selecting the elecproviding instructions that causes a first computer to
tronic content based on the received notification information.
dynamically transmit a network address to a second
15. The computer-implemented method of claim 1,
computer in response to a request for data;
wherein the notification information includes at least anyone
processing the request for data at the second computer;
of:
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transmitting the requested data to the network address;
identification of the instructions that transmitted the notireceiving notification information from across a network
fication information, and
as a result of an attempt to access the requested data; and

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wherein the instructions include executable instructions
configured to: a) attempt to transmit the notification
information based upon an attempt to access the
requested data, and b) grant or deny access to the
requested data based on the results of the attempt to
transmit.
27. The computer program product of claim 26, wherein
the instructions collect the notification information.
28. The computer program product of claim 26, wherein
the step for providing instructions comprises providing webpage instructions.
29. The computer program product of claim 28, wherein
the web-page instructions comprise at least anyone of:
HTML instructions and fonn instructions.
30. The computer program product of claim 26, wherein
the instructions comprise instructions that query the computer for infonnation.
31. The computer program product of claim 26, wherein
the instructions comprise instructions that receive user input.
32. The computer program product of claim 26, wherein
the requested data comprises demographic infonnation.
33. The computer program product of claim 26, wherein
the requested data comprises system information.
34. The computer program product of claim 26, wherein
the network address identifies the first computer.
35. An apparatus for delivering access to electronic content, comprising:
means for initiating a display in a browser of a web-page
that includes a link corresponding to electronic content
in a computer system;

means for receiving at a server, in response to a selection of
the link, dynamically transmitted infonnation including
a network address;
means for initiating transmission of the electronic content
to the network address, wherein the electronic content
includes executable instructions;
means for receiving notification infonnation as a result of
an attempt to access the electronic content; and
wherein the executable instructions are configured to: a)
attempt to transmit the notification infonnation based on
a triggering event, and b) selectively grant or deny access
to the electronic content based on results of the attempt
to transmit.
36. The apparatus of claim 35, wherein the executable
instructions are configured to collect the notification information.
37. The apparatus of claim 35, wherein the means for
initiating transmission initiates transmission of the electronic
content from the server.
38. The apparatus of claim 35, wherein the network address
is associated with a selector of the link.
39. The apparatus of claim 35, wherein the electronic content comprises at least anyone of: a text file, a video file, a
computer instructions file and an audio infonnation file.
40. The apparatus of claim 35, wherein the network address
is an email address.

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