Tracking electronic component - Patent Review 6751670

Claims

What is claimed is:

1. A method of tracking electronic content, the method comprising the steps of:

producing a file that includes electronic content, and executable instructions that collect notification information and attempt to transmit notification information to an address when triggered by an event, the executable instructions denying access to the electronic content until the notification information is transmitted; and

transmitting notification information when the electronic content is accessed by a successive recipient to the address,

wherein the address is an address other than that of an immediate sender of the electronic content.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the executable instructions further deny access until an access granting message is received in response to the successful transmission of notification information.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the trigger event comprises an attempt to access the electronic content.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein an attempt to access the electronic content comprises an attempt to view, use, or list the electronic content.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the trigger event comprises an attempt to access the electronic content on a computer that has not previously been used to access the electronic content.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein the trigger event comprises an attempt to access the electronic content by a user who has not previously accessed the electronic content.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the executable instructions that collect notification information comprise instructions for querying a computer for notification information.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the executable instructions that collect notification information comprise instructions for interactively collecting information from a user.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the notification information comprises demographic information.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein demographic information comprises at least one of the following: a name, an e-mail address, and an organization identifier.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the notification information comprises system information.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein system information comprises a network address.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the electronic content comprises compressed electronic content.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the executable instructions comprise instructions that cause the electronic content to be decompressed after successfully transmitting the notification information.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the electronic content comprises encrypted electronic content.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the executable instructions comprise instructions that cause the received electronic content to be decrypted after successfully transmitting the notification information.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the electronic content comprises information included in at least one file of data, text, graphics, audio, video, or an executable program.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising, transmitting the file via e-mail.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein transmitting the file via e-mail comprises transmitting the file as an e-mail attachment.

20. The method of claim 1, further comprising, determining the address.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein determining the address comprises interactively receiving an address from a user.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein determining the address comprises automatically identifying the address as the address of the user creating the file.

23. The method of claim 1, wherein the instructions that transmit notification information comprise instructions that dynamically determine how to transmit the notification information via an intermediate device.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein an intermediate device comprises at least one of the following: a proxy server and a firewall.

25. A method of tracking access to electronic content, the method comprising the steps of:

encrypting electronic content;

determining an address for receipt of notification information; and

producing a file that includes the encrypted electronic content, and executable instructions that collect notification information, and attempt to transmit the notification information to the determined address in response to an attempt to access the electronic content on a computer that has not previously accessed the electronic content, the notification instructions decrypting the encrypted electronic content after transmitting notification information successfully, and transmitting notification information when the electronic content is accessed by a successive recipient to an address other than that of an immediate sender of the electronic content.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein decrypting the encrypted electronic content after transmitting notification information successfully comprises decrypting the electronic content after receiving an access granting message.

27. A method for tracking access to electronic content, the method comprising:

receiving notification information from a recipient of a file including electronic content, the notification information being collected by executable instructions and being transmitted in response to an attempt to access the electronic content, the notification information including an identifier that identifies a user or computer system

transmitting the notification information when the electronic content is accessed by a successive recipient to an address other than that of the immediate sender of the electronic content;

determining an address for receipt of the notification information; and

transmitting the notification information to the determined address, the executable instructions denying access to the electronic content until the notification information is transmitted.

28. The method of claim 27, further comprising transmitting access granting messages.

29. The method of claim 27, further comprising

verifying that the identifier that identifies a user or computer system included in the notification information corresponds to an authorized user of the software for producing the file.

30. The method of claim 27, further comprising

updating information corresponding to the identifier that identifies a user or computer system included in the notification information.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein updating comprises computing a usage charge.

32. A computer-implemented method of regulating access to electronic content, the method comprising:

collecting notification information from a recipient and successive recipients of the electronic content in response to an attempt to access the electronic content;

attempting to transmit the collected notification information to an address other than that of the immediate sender of the electronic content when triggered by an event; and

selectively granting access to the electronic content based on a result of the attempted transmission of the notification information,

wherein executable instructions collect the notification information and selectively deny access to the electronic content until the notification information is transmitted.

33. The method of claim 32 in which access to the electronic content is granted if the attempted transmission is successful and access to the electronic content is denied if the attempted transmission is unsuccessful.

34. The method of claim 32 in which access to the electronic is granted if the attempted transmission results in receipt of an access granting message and access to the electronic content is denied if the attempted transmission does not result in receipt of an access granting message.

35. The method of claim 32 in which access to the electronic content is denied if no notification information is collected.

36. The method of claim 32 in which the electronic content is included in an attachment to an e-mail message.

37. The method of claim 36, in which the attempt to transmit the collected notification information comprises sending the notification information to an address associated with an originator of the e-mail message.

38. The method of claim 36 in which the attempt to transmit the collected notification information comprises sending the notification information to an address other than an address associated with an originator of the e-mail message.

39. The method of claim 38 in which the other address is designated by the originator of the e-mail message.

40. The method of claim 32 further comprising, prior to the collection of notification information, detecting that a user of a computer system is attempting to access electronic content embedded in an e-mail attachment.

41. The method