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NORD could be very grateful to Gabriele Richard, MD, FACMG, Chief Medical Officer, GeneDx, Gaithersburg, Maryland, for assistance within the preparation of this reportrt. We can't reply to health questions or offer you medical advice. The affected pores and skin is often red, scaly, and very itchy. Carbuncles often respond well to medical therapy. Moles don't have any symptoms, however ought to be commonly checked in the event that they grow bigger, appear abnormal, or change in coloration. Small, red scratch or bump that eventually begins to protrude.
Papulopustular rosacea causes redness, swelling, and is accompanied by breakouts that appear like pimples. Folks should work carefully with a dermatologist to diagnose and treat any pores and skin situation to make sure that their lifestyle just isn't affected. Others require medical attention throughout pregnancy. Commonly discovered on the tops and sides of toes and soles of ft.
Measles mostly impacts kids and pregnant girls, and symptoms could also be a brown or crimson rash. Join our Wellness Wire e-newsletter for all types of nutrition, fitness, and wellness wisdom. Squamous cell carcinoma: red, scaly, rough pores and skin lesions, sometimes on sun-uncovered areas such as the arms, head, neck, lips, and ears. Rosacea, which is characterised by small, purple, pus-stuffed bumps on the face.
Sure pores and skin disorders aren't preventable, including genetic circumstances and some skin problems resulting from different illnesses. Cysts are the sometimes bigger painful, pus-stuffed infections that lie beneath the skin. Erythematotelangiectatic rosacea causes the typical redness, seen blood vessels, and flushing. The situation is commonly present in infants and younger youngsters, though it continues into maturity as well.
Therapy is often an anti-fungal cream or other fungal treatment. All varieties of acne are generally treated with creams, and sometimes medication is necessary. Don't share private items, such as blankets, hairbrushes, or swimsuits. Since youngsters have more frequent exposure to other youngsters and germs, they might also develop pores and skin disorders that not often happen in adults.


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Every girl wants an inviting bedroom where she can dream (a lot), study (a little) and hang out with her friends (most of all). S4H Editor, Liz Johnson had a project in mind: her fourteen-year-old daughter, Lydia's room. After the jump, we'll show you the BEFORE photo that caused us to take this project on. Whoa! Get set for eight easy projects your teen can help with, and a finished result that reaped 'oohs and aahs' from Lydia's friends at her inaugural sleepover.
The Challenge
The room has good bones, but clutter overwhelmed everything. It quickly became obvious to Lydia's parents that she simply didn't have enough storage for all the clothes and accessories a teen collects. And, the childhood bunk beds, which had been un-bunked, just looked wacky. Overall, the room lacked any cohesive sense of style and color.
The Solution
It's interesting how taking a photo and staring at it for awhile helps you find solutions. This is where S4H stepped in to assist with a step-by-step makeover plan.
Step One: Add storage and replace the bed
Mom and Dad headed to IKEA and solved the storage and kids' bunk bed problems super cost-effectively with: a new bed frame, two shelving units, a low chest of drawers for the foot of the bed, a couple lights and (woohoo!) a vanity, mirror and stool. They chose a light birch finish that matched the doors in the room and picked up the white woodwork.
Step Two: Improve the floor plan
It's helpful to measure and try out your layout using a computer or on paper first. Note the natural pathways through the room, and keep them open. Otherwise, experiment by moving pieces around until you find a pleasing plan. Consider your teen's activities in planning the room. The room will stay cleaner if how it will be used is part of the strategy. Lydia, for example, has a desk where she sews her own projects, and so required some extra storage for her fabric and accessories.
Like most teen rooms, the bed is the focal point. Lydia has a large room and a king size bed. Rather than pushing it against a wall, we recommended angling it for a more inviting look (side benefit: her mom cleverly put a couple storage tubs behind the headboard for more hidden storage and quick de-clutters). By including bed curtains, we added one strong vertical element to counteract the many horizontal surfaces.
Step Three: Pick a color scheme
Lydia loves her saffron-colored walls, and the paint is nearly new. So, that color was set in stone and would become the secondary color in our palette. Lydia chose pink for the primary color, which balances beautifully with the saffron. A room looks best with three dominant colors used in unequal proportions. For the third color, we choose turquoise as an accent to give the room depth.
Step Four: Define a style
Use contrast in colors, patterns, textures, and size to create interest; repeat colors, textures, patterns and motifs to create flow. "Pretty prints, please!" was Lydia's wish, so we focused on one fabric as a starting point. This fabric contained the saffron, pink and turquoise colors from our color scheme, plus a butterfly that became our repeating motif. We chose some fun fleece to add texture and a complimentary burst of color to the room.
It's also important to think about scale (how size relates to the overall room) and proportion (how items or patterns in a room relate to each other). A good example is the large size of a bed – even a twin. Because a bed is a proportionally bigger item, a small print can become lost on it, and will visually appear to blur into a block of bland color.
Read our accompanying article, Tips for Mixing Fabric Collections for more detail on how we made decisions using fabrics from the collections of seven fabulous fabric designers: Amy Butler, Valori Wells, Anna Maria Horner, Erin McMorris, Tina Givens, Sandi Henderson and Paula Prass. Their beautiful prints were accented with turquoise and zebra fleece and a pink designer solid from Free Spirit. Also, read Mixing & Matching Colors, Patterns & Textures for additional inspiration.
The Design Board
A design board helps you to work out the pitfalls in a room before you spend a penny or begin a single project. You can make design boards on your computer (copy and paste photos or online images), or by hand using a piece of white card stock (cut photos from catalogs and pick up swatches from your fabric supplier). What often happens is you quickly see a sore thumb – something that sticks out as not belonging. It gives you a chance to try something else until you get a palette that's pleasing.
Pretty Prints Please: The Tutorials
Patchwork Butterfly Duvet: Jumbo patchwork makes this duvet a striking centerpiece for our teen room makeover. These popular duvets can sell for hundreds of dollars in stores. Make it yourself for a fraction of that. We show how to make a king, queen/full or twin duvet.
Butterfly Pillow Shams: Why are pillow shams so expensive? Make these easy patchwork shams in about an hour and give your teen's bed a tidy and terrific new look for next to nothing.
Genie Pillow: Picture a genie sitting on this elegant tasseled pillow granting the wishes of your favorite teen. So easy to sew, your teen can make this herself.
Ribbon Memo Board: Take an old frame, some ribbon and fabric scraps and put this board together in about an hour. Five minutes later, your teen will have it FULL of mementos!
Zebra Butterfly Fleece Throw: Super simple to make, yet so sweet draped over a chair or the bed. We appliqued a butterfly in zebra print fleece (yes, there really is a zebra butterfly in nature) to 'zazz up this cozy throw.
Flipover Floor Cushion: Teen rooms are often full of friends who lounge on the bed and overflow onto the floor. Toss a couple of these two-sided pillows on the floor to create a stylish and inexpensive seating area.
Cotton Gauze Bed Curtains: What teen girl wouldn't love these luxurious bed curtains. They are snap to make when you use curtain clips. Using several shades from the color scheme ties a room together beautifully. We'll also show you how we installed the cable wire hanging system.
Star Pillow: The star of the pillow pile. Adding one fancy shape to a mix of pillows keeps it interesting.

subset: commoncrawl


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Katy Perry: Will You Be My Witness?
Oct. 04, 2017 USA 86 Min.
In her new YouTube Red Original Movie, KATY PERRY: WILL YOU BE MY WITNESS?, the colorful pop icon puts her life on camera 24/7 for four whole days, in her most intimate reveal yet. Join Katy as she takes us behind-the-scenes in the creation and aftermath of this unprecedented live-streaming event with friends, artists and celebrity guests.
Original title Katy Perry: Will You Be My Witness?


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Browsing by Author "Barceló, Damià"
Analysis of the occurrence and risk assessment of polar pesticides in the Llobregat River Basin (NE Spain) Köck Schulmeyer, Marianne; Ginebreda, Antoni; González, Susana; Cortina Pallás, José Luís; López de Alda, Mirian; Barceló, Damià (2012-01)
Restricted access - publisher's policyContamination of surface waters by pesticides continues to be the focus of concern for water authorities due to the growing evidence of their deleterious effects on aquatic life. In this context, the present work investigates ...
Are pesticide residues associated to rice production affecting oyster production in Delta del Ebro, NE Spain? Ochoa, Victoria; Riva Juan, Mª del Carmen; Faria, Melissa; López de Alda, Miren; Barceló, Damià; Fernandez Tejedor, Margarita; Roque, Ana; Barata, Carlos (2012-09-15)
Restricted access - publisher's policyPesticide usage in Delta del Ebro (NE Spain) during the rice growing season has been associated with oyster episodes of mortality that occur early in summer. However, there are no studies that have directly evaluated ...
Emerging organic contaminants in groundwater in Spain: A review of sources, recent occurrence and fate in a European context Jurado Elices, Anna; Vázquez Suñé, Enric; Carrera Ramírez, Jesús; López de Alda, Miren; Pujades Garnes, Estanislao; Barceló, Damià (2012)
Restricted access - publisher's policyThis paper reviewed the presence of emerging organic contaminants (EOCs) that have been found in the groundwater in Spain in both, rural and urban areas. The list of compounds included pesticides, pharmaceutical active ...
Fuzzy logic based risk assessment of effluents from waste-water treatment plants Cabanillas, Julián; Ginebreda, Antoni; Guillén, Daniel; Martínez, Elena; Barceló, Damià; Moragas, Lucas; Robusté, Jordi; Darbra Roman, Rosa Maria (2012)
Restricted access - publisher's policyThis paper presents a new methodology to assess the risk of water effluents from waste-water treatment plants (WWTPs) based on fuzzy logic, a well-known theory to deal with uncertainty, especially in the environmental field ...
Occurrence of hydrophobic organic pollutants (BFRs and UV-filters) in sediments from South America Barón, E.; Gago Ferrero, Pablo; Gorga, M.; Rudolph, I.; Mendoza, G.; Mauricio Zapata, Andres; Díaz Cruz, Sílvia; Barra, Ricardo; Ocampo-Duque, W.; Páez, M.; Darbra Roman, Rosa Maria; Eljarrat, E.; Barceló, Damià (2013-07)
Restricted access - publisher's policyIn the present study the occurrence of emerging hydrophobic organic pollutants in sediment samples from South America (Chile and Colombia) was investigated for the first time. Nineteen Chilean and thirteen Colombian sediment ...
Report on the 1st Workshop of the RISKCYCLE Coordination Action. Hanoi, Vietnam, 4-5 May 2010 Billitewski, Bernd; Barceló, Damià; Darbra Roman, Rosa Maria; Van der Voet, Ester; Mohammed, Belhaj; Benfenati, Emilio; Ginebreda, Antoni; Grundmann, Veit (2011-02-22)
Restricted access - publisher's policyThis Workshop on "Safety assessment of consumer goods coming from recovered materials in a global scale perspective" is the first of the Thematic Workshops organized within the framework of the European Union ...


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Mayo's middle-period masterpiece takes down Cork
The leaders' blistering start and final scores fail to unsettle James Horan's team
Jason Gibbons celebrate's scoring Mayo's third goal against Cork with Alan Freeman in Castlebar. Photograph: Donall Farmer/Inpho.
Mayo 4-12
Cork 2-14
Division One A leaders Cork fell for the first time in this year's league when convincingly beaten by Mayo before about 8,000 spectators in Castlebar yesterday. The county town has other things on its mind today, as Mitchels go in search of the All-Ireland club title, but for the home side it's been a reassuring couple of weeks after a difficult opening to the campaign.
It was a most peculiar match. If you stripped out roughly the first and last 10-minute periods, the visitors outscored their hosts by 1-8 to nil but the middle 50 minutes were a rout.
Few would have seen that state of affairs emerging, as led by full forward Brian Hurley whose three points from play between the third and sixth minutes formed the centrepiece of an unanswered five from Cork in the initial stages.
Mayo manager James Horan has seen enough fires breaking out early in matches on the edge of the square to know it's best not to delay the response and he switched Brendan Harrison off the Castlehaven forward, whom he then entrusted to Ger Cafferkey.
As emphatically as someone turning off a tap, Cork's flow just dried up and Mayo assembled a six-point response without interruption.
Goal chances
As usual Mayo created an impressive number of goal chances, forcing saves and kicking wides. Not alone did they start to monopolise the kick-outs in but nearly every ball into the forwards found a man.
Alan Freeman was causing all sorts of bother under such deliveries at full forward but might have done better than force a block from Michael Shields in the second minute when clear on goal.
"We created 10 goal chances today," said Horan afterwards, "scored four and for 35, maybe 40, minutes played some really, really good football so I'm delighted with that but the goals we gave away were really sloppy.
"We were five points down and our midfield just took over the game, controlled it and dictated the momentum of the game for the next 40 minutes. We ran the bench a little bit and got a little bit ragged but that's okay, we need guys to get game time. We got two points playing Cork and I'm happy with that."
Mayo helped themselves to nine successive restarts when turning around the match. Colm O'Neill levelled the match at 0-6 each with a 45 but another Freeman attack saw the ball go to Jason Doherty who forced Ken O'Halloran to deflect it over the bar for a lead that Mayo never relinquished.
Doherty did better in injury-time, going through the middle and shooting the first goal for an interval lead of 1-9 to 0-6.
Aidan Walsh got a grip on the match in the third quarter and delivered some sort of foothold at centrefield for Cork but Mayo's sharpness on the ball with Donal Vaughan and Lee Keegan in full flight from the half backs and Kevin McLaughlin's accuracy from play meant that the visitors made no inroads on the scoreboard.
For most of the final half hour Mayo managed just three scores but they were all goals: Freeman taking one for himself, Jason Gibbons rampaging in for the third and McLaughlin having weaved into a promising position, choosing to put it on a plate for Cillian O'Connor whose support runs and instinct have made a staple diet from such morsels.
Everything else was an afterthought. Cork threw on replacements – enforced in the case of the black card for Fintan Goold's hauling down Colm Boyle – and were rewarded for persistence with goals firstly for replacement John O'Rourke in the 57th minute and then Hurley.
'Good position'
"We've plenty to do," was the reaction of Cork selector Ronan McCarthy, "but we're still top of the league in a very good position to qualify. That's our goal set out at the start of the year and that's still within our reach.
"We need to also to work on our breaking ball out the middle of the field as well as the ball into the full-back line. We probably need to sweep better under high ball. Seven goals in two games and more chances on top of that so certainly it's a worry."
Horan said that Mayo forward Cathal Carolan, who last week joined the daunting numbers of cruciate victims was "already on the path to recovery".
He added that the chances to goals ratio wasn't a concern.
"Not all. I'd be far more concerned if we weren't creating them. My big concern is the amount of goals we're giving away so that's something we need to keep chipping away at."
MAYO: R Hennelly; S McHale, B Harrison, G Cafferkey; L Keegan (0-1), C Boyle, D Vaughan; A O'Shea (0-1), J Gibbons (1-1); K McLoughlin (0-4, one free), K Higgins, J Doherty (1-3); M Sweeney, A Freeman (1-0), C O'Connor (1-2, points frees). Subs: S O'Shea for A O'Shea (48 mins), B Gallagher for Higgins (50 mins), D Drake for McHale (52 mins), D Coen for Freeman (54 mins), T Parsons for Gibbons (61 mins), E Varley for Sweeney (64 mins).
CORK: K O'Halloran; M Shields, E Cadogan, K Crowley; C Dorman, T Clancy (Clonakilty), A Cronin; A O'Sullivan, A Walsh (0-3); C O'Driscoll, P Kerrigan, T Clancy (Fermoy); C O'Neill (0-1, 45), B Hurley (1-5, one point a free), D O'Connor (0-3, two frees). Subs: M Collins (0-1) for Clancy (Fermoy; half-time), J O'Rourke (1-0) for O'Neill (half-time), J Loughrey for Crowley (40 mins), F Goold for O'Connor (44 mins), B O'Drioscoll for Cadogan (47 mins), J Hayes (0-1, free) for Goold (black card, 59 mins).
Referee: R Hickey (Clare).


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CHESTER Bennington sang a heart-breaking rendition of Hallelujah at Chris Cornell's funeral just weeks before the Linkin Park star was found dead in a suspected suicide.
The poignant moment was caught on camera back in May after Soundgarden star Chris took his own life.
The pair were good friends and Bennington's death came on what would have been Cornell's birthday.
The Linkin Park frontman, 41, was found hanged at his home in the Palo Verdes Estates, Los Angeles on Thursday.
The heartbreak of Cornell's death appeared to hit Bennington particularly hard and he even played a version of the Leonard Cohen classic Hallelujah at Chris' memorial service back in May.
He also penned a heartbreaking tribute to his pal following his suicide - just two months before he took his own life.
In a message carrying the words "With all my love", the Linkin Park star posted a deeply personal memorial to the 52-year-old Soundgarden star.
He wrote: "I woke up with Rocky Raccoon playing in my head and a concerned look on my wife's face.
"She told me my friend had passed away. Thoughts of you flooded my mind and I wept.
"I'm still weeping, with sadness, as well as gratitude for having shared some very special moment with you and your beautiful family."
Dad-of-six Bennington, 41, is feared to have hanged himself at an LA home almost two months to the day since Cornell did in the same manner in a Detroit hotel room.
His Twitter message continued: "I can't imagine a world without you in it. I pray you find peace in the next life.
"I send my love to your wife and children, friends and family.
"Thank you for allowing me to be a part of your life."
Stars have been paying tribute to Bennington tonight as the news of his shock death reverberates around the entertainment world.
Rapper Stormzy, who featured on Linkin Park's track Good Goodbye, wrote: "Bruv I can't lie I'm so upset serious 💔💔💔💔.
"I am heartbroken you do not know what someone's going through serious. Prayers up for your family right now my brother ❤💔❤💔."
Chance The Rapper wrote: "RIP Chester. Tragic ending. Condolences his family and friends and Linkin Park 🙏🏾"
Pop star Rihanna took to Instagram to pay her respects along side an image of Chester on stage, writing: "Literally the most impressive talent I've ever seen live! Vocal beast! #RIPChester #LinkinPark."
The singer is survived by his wife of twelve years, Talinda and six children – Jamie, 21, Isaiah, 19, Draven, 15, Tyler Lee, 11, and Lily and Lila, seven.
Bennington's iconic group were one of the world's biggest bands at the turn of the century, selling more than 70 million albums around the globe.
Debut album Hybrid Theory contained seminal tracks such as In The End while a 2004 follow-up album with Jay-Z proved a smash hit.
If you are affected by any of the issues raised in this article, please call the Samaritans on (free) 116123 or 020 7734 2800.


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Gas Fire Pit
Gas Fire Pit
One great item that is sure to look nice in your outdoor space is a beautiful fire pit. Here on our website we offer a wide range of outdoor gas fire pit options so that you can easily choose from some excellent options that you can enjoy working with on your patio. These different types of fire pits are ones that are easy to operate and perfect to work with on a regular basis. Take a look at the selection that we offer and find great options including an attractive aluminum gas fire pit and a rectangular gas fire pit that will make a great addition to any patio furniture set. You'll love using any of these different kinds of gas fire pit options to make your patio space come to life.
As you look through the fantastic selection of gas fire pits that we offer here on our website, you'll find many different types of fire pits in a range of designs and styles. Since there are so many excellent ones to choose from, you'll have no problem finding a fire pit that will fit in easily with the patio furnishings that you are already using in your patio space. Look through the great selection that we offer and find the perfect fire pit that can fit into your space and enhance the overall look of this area. You'll love shopping through the great selection of gas fire pit options that we offer. Once you've finished looking at these fire pits, check out other fire accents to add to your home like outdoor torches with stands and an attractive floor torch.


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Apply to receive coaching for your work and career path after cancer
Closing date 30th April
Are you in your 20s, 30s or 40s wondering what's next in your career after your cancer diagnosis?
Are you thinking about making changes to your job, looking for a new one or even starting your own business?
If so, you could benefit from our highly acclaimed coaching programme now in its 4th year!
Through this programme we've supported dozens of young adults to make career decisions and changes that suit them and their needs.
This free programme gives you access to highly skilled coaches who have experience supporting young adults just like you.
As part of the programme you receive three full coaching sessions with a coach via Skype and two in person workshops to start and end the programme with others also joining. Our kick off workshop will be held on 14th May in London.
To apply please click here to provide a few details about you. We'll be in touch by 10th May to let you know what's happening!
The deadline for applications is 30th April 2019.
Wondering what coaching is like?
Watch the videos from some of our participants below!
About our coaching Programme:
Since 2016, we've been running a small coaching programme for young adults with cancer. We work with qualified and experienced coaches to give Shine members three sessions of coaching via Skype. Our programme has had great results, with the participants telling us that the sessions gave us the time and space to think about things in a different way, and go on to make some of the changes that they wanted to make. Very often those changes have related to work and employment.


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Apoto's multiple server cluster with Failover technology is designed for two purposes-- maximize website performance and eliminate downtime. Our enterprise level hosting is the same solution used to host high traffic mission critical websites.
General Hosting Setup
The standard server setup consist of one server and if the server your domain is hosted on fail or shuts down for maintenance the result will be prolonged downtime. In addition, all server software (web, email, database server) are located on the same server creating a bottleneck that can lead to slow performance.
The diagram above illustrates an example of a typical hosting company setup. One server carries all the load and if it fail your site will be offline until the problem is resolved.
Apoto's Clustered Failover Servers
Apoto offers a redundant setup that distributes the load across multiple servers to improve overall performance. Additionally, all data (web, email, database) are mirrored in real-time and in the event of a server failure our failover application will route all websites traffic to the available server within the cluster keeping your website online until resolved.
Choose Us and experience better performance and reliability!


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SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional: Advanced Administrator Training
Class #: E107
The SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional Advanced Administration Class is designed to expand the knowledge of existing PDM administrators, by providing additional techniques and use cases to help grow your PDM environment. During the course, we will focus on advanced methods for using data cards, workflows, and other areas typically not covered during the SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional Administration Class.
Class Details
What you will learn:
- Advanced Data Card Techniques
- Advanced Search Card Techniques
- Advanced Workflow Techniques
- Multi-Level Revision Schemes
- PDM Templates
- PDM Macros using Dispatch
- Replication
The SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional Advanced Administration training guide will be supplied at the beginning of class and is yours to keep.
Students will have the skills and understanding of the advanced concepts central to the successful use of SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional.
- SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional Administration Training (or equivalent experience)
- Who should attend:
- PDM Administrators
1 Upcoming Class:
|March 2, 3, 4, 2020
|12:00pm - 4:00pm - CST
|Virtual Class
Request a SOLIDWORKS Training
Can't find a training class on our schedule? Can't find dates or locations that work for you? Contact us and let us know your name, location preference, and the class or classes that you are interested in. We will contact you and create training dates that can work with your schedule.


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This limited edition giclée print is printed on archival rag paper by
Lyrics from 13 songs by Shane / The Pogues are incorporated in the painting.
The image size is 42 x 52cm (16.5 x 20.5in)
Paper size is 48 x 58cm (19 x 33in)
Each print is numbered and signed by the artist. The edition is 20.


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Sullivan Wins Senate Seat in Alaska; Begich Refuses to Concede
Republican Dan Sullivan was picking a transition team an hour after the Associated Press today declared him the winner of the U.S. Senate election in Alaska.
"I am deeply humbled and honored to be chosen by my fellow Alaskans to serve them in the United States Senate. From day one we told our supporters that we would run a campaign that Alaskans could be proud of and that's what we did. But we couldn't do it alone and Julie and I are so grateful for the incredible support and encouragement we received from Alaskans in every corner of our state," Sullivan said in a statement on his Facebook page.
Sen. Mark Begich (D-Alaska), on the other hand, displayed the resolve of a born-and-bred Alaskan waiting for the spring thaw as he refused to concede the election.
Begich campaign spokesman Max Croes said the first-term senator would not concede until all outstanding ballots had been counted.
"Tens of thousands of votes remain uncounted, and those Alaskans deserve for their voices to be heard," Croes said in a statement, reported by newsminer.com.
Alaska elections workers, meanwhile, continued to count ballots.
And, oh yes, Alaska is still waiting to find out who its next governor will be.
Sullivan defeated Begich 48.8 percent to 45.4 percent. The gap is 7,911 votes.
However, votes cast at precincts in Alaska are only part of the equation.
Ballots from other locations are still being counted in Alaska from the Nov. 4 general election, a process that will continue for most of the month of November.
"We are anxious for a final count," said Susanne Fleek-Green, the campaign manager for Begich for Senate.
She also said Begich would only make a statement (concession or otherwise) after ballots arrive from 70 villages that had not reported three days after the election "and when the number of outstanding absentee and questioned ballots is clear."
As far as former attorney general Sullivan is concerned, though, the election is over and he is ready to move to Washington D.C.
"Now, the real work begins," his campaign wrote on the Sullivan for Senate Facebook page. "We're going to get our country back on track and empower Alaskan families and communities to decide their own destiny."
Sullivan was so confident of victory, it was widely reported in Alaska, that he left for Marine Corps Reserve training a couple of days after the election.
The problem is Alaska.
The Last Frontier, as the nation's 49th state proudly brands itself, is so big, so diverse, with areas so remote — Sen. Lisa Murkwoski (R-Alaska) recently participated in a First Flush Ceremony, cutting the ribbon on a toilet in a village that finally had indoor plumbing — that absentee and mail-in ballots are still, well, in the mail.
Close to 24,000 absentee and early ballots had yet to be counted as of Nov. 6. The count began Tuesday and Sullivan maintained his advantage.
There are also questioned ballots. These are usually ballots that are cast at the wrong polling location. Those numbers were still coming in three days after the general election. But the Alaska Dispatch News reported there were almost 13,000 of those ballots that had to be counted in the 2010 election.


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The Home of Sustainable Seafood
Discover Norway
Norway is surrounded by vast oceans and has built its culture around harnessing the natural resources to hand. Our location in northern Europe, close to the Barents Sea and the Norwegian Sea, means we have a plentiful seafood stock to harvest from.
Welcome to Norway - A Seafood Nation
2nd longest
coastline in the world
Land mass vs sea area
6 times more sea than land
2nd largest
seafood exporter in the world
Location matters
The pristine waters off the coast of Norway are brimming with an abundant source of delectable cod. It's a resource we've relied on for centuries, and our symbiotic relationship with the sea has resulted in this bounteous supply.
Our marine ecosystem is ideal for the spawning of excellent quality cod, giving us stock with chunky, flavoursome white flesh. And, because our nation has such proximity to the Norwegian Sea and the Barents Sea, our fishermen have easy access to the supply.
Our seas define us
We have relied on the sea for centuries, and we consider our relationship with it symbolic. This sense of partnership has led to an enormous degree of respect, and we treat the waters around our home with utmost care.
Fishery Protection Zone
Norwegian Economic Zone
Jan Mayen Fisheries Zone
Barents Sea and Norwegian Sea
The Barents Sea and the Norwegian Sea are among the most productive and clean sea areas in the world. Norway has a sea area of 101,000km2 within its baseline.
Coasts of Lofoten and Vesterålen
The importance of climate
Norway is cold. Very cold. But while this may create some challenges for humans, our fish thrive. The climate is also favourable for the processing of raw materials. Stockfish and clipfish, which are among our oldest and biggest exports, are the result of the optimal weather conditions in northern and western Norway.
Learn more about Norway
Our cod stocks are the most sustainable in the world, but how much do you know about our people and culture? Below are some suggestions for where to head next to find out.


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US7389247B2 - Content insurance - Google PatentsContent insurance Download PDF
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1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of digital content distribution. More specifically, the present invention is related to protecting and upgrading digital content in a digital content distribution system through the use of content insurance.
2. Background
As more and more content is created or made available in digital form and as the ways of distributing such content change, new challenges are arising in terms of preserving this content. The reliability of storage systems such as hard disks or solid state memories is quite high, but data loss is not uncommon. This may be due to hardware or software failures, as well as human errors or intentional destruction, as is the case for computer viruses.
This is a potential problem in data storage for personal use as well as within organizations; however, the latter are more likely to take measures to protect their data through backups. Nevertheless, large amounts of data still remain unprotected in corporations and especially in small businesses. The percentage of data that has not been backed up is typically even higher in private computers or other consumer electronic devices.
A shared characteristic of the various forms of content intended to be distributed for commercial purposes is that the original costs of production are several orders of magnitude more than production of each individual copy thereafter. Technological advances, from Gutenberg's press to the World Wide Web, continue to widen that gap.
When consumers of that content buy a copy, be it a song, a motion picture or a news article, an insignificant percentage of the purchase price goes to cover the marginal cost of distributing that copy. This is even more clear on the Internet, where most, if not all, costs incurred by the distributor when content is downloaded, are fixed.
Content itself is not sold to consumers, but rather is implicitly licensed to them. As an example, one of the most widespread implicit licensing agreements for copyrighted material is that used in the sales of music records. Under the conditions of this agreement, the buyer purchases limited rights to listen to the contents of a piece of media—vinyl record, cassette tape, compact disc, or similar technologies—for as long as this media is usable. Limited copies are generally also considered "fair use" as long as they meet certain requirements.
Different types of media have different useful lives. For instance, analog cassette tapes contain magnetic materials that were polarized to encode an audio signal; the quality of this encoding would progressively fade with repeated playback, fast forward/rewind, heat and other external factors. Typical useful life of a cassette tape was two years or 20 playbacks, whichever happened first, before quality was noticeably lower than when originally recorded.
Compact discs and related technologies like DVD use optical methods to read and write information, which is digitally encoded. These media are therefore not subject to the progressive quality degradation described above, but if the surface gets too dirty or scratched then whole sections may be lost. CDs are also relatively fragile and do not stand significant physical stress.
More recently, with the advent of cheaper magnetic heads and solid state storage combined with advanced compression techniques, the use of "general purpose" computer storage has become an economically viable alternative for storage of content in digital form. In addition, with the advent of these technological advances, the distribution of content has begun to move from traditional hard media to electronic distribution over communication networks such as the Internet.
With the interplay of decreased marginal cost of reproduction of content in digital form and property rights of such content, a number of content distribution models have arisen. One such model is a direct content distribution model, illustrated in
A second content distribution model is depicted in
Typically, in the distribution models, there is a concern about controlling the distribution of the content in order to protect the property rights of the content owners. Other technological advances, such as in cryptography and digital rights management systems, have also encouraged the electronic distribution of digital content. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,933,498; 5,982,891; 5,673,316; and 6,119,108 generally illustrate content distribution models incorporating these other technological advances.
While economics and technological advances provide incentives for electronic distribution of digital content, there are, however, still problems associated with this distribution which hamper the acceptance of such distribution, both on the part of content owners and consumers. While top of the line storage systems are highly reliable, they are still subject to hardware failure. Even more likely are other sources of accidental loss of data: operating system problems that could affect the file system are not infrequent, viruses could destroy data stored on disk and users may unknowingly delete files containing purchased content.
In addition, there are other disincentives for consumers to accept electronic distribution of content. As technology surrounding encoding of this content continues to advance at a rapid rate, and as the cost of distributing the content via communication mediums such as the Internet is greatly reduced in comparison to hard media distribution of content, it is quite possible that owners and distributors of content will likely be willing to change content formats at a much faster rate than is the current practice. Moreover, due to the fast pace of technological change, consumers may be concerned that the specific format that is offered today will be superseded by a new one in a short lapse of time, and that old content will either be incompatible with new players or will lack the quality of newer formats.
Most content commercially available, such as news and entertainment content, has one common characteristic: it does not change over time. As noted, the media or encoding may change over time, e.g., from big screen format to 8 mm to VHS to DVD, however, the actual content remains constant. If an individual copy of a classic is lost, becomes damaged, or there is not a player compatible with a particular format available, a new copy would be a perfect substitute for the old one, with the possible exception of copies that are considered memorabilia. That is, a new copy of the content would perfectly replace the old content.
The present invention leverages the stability of this type of content by providing an insurance policy that can be purchased alongside digital content. Should an unexpected loss of data occur, the policyholder would be entitled to a new copy of the same material. In another embodiment, the present invention has the additional advantage of guaranteeing to consumers that new encodings of the same content they have already purchased would be made available to them as technology evolves. These would improve the adoption rate of digital distribution of content by reducing switching costs and the perceived risks, and, in addition, increase revenues to members of the distribution channel.
The present invention provides for the protection of and ability to upgrade to new formats of digital content by providing consumers the capability of purchasing content insurance on digital content they consume. By purchasing insurance on content, at a later time consumers are able to return to the content distribution channels and re-obtain the previously purchased content.
In a further embodiment, by purchasing insurance on content, at a later time consumers are able to return to the content distribution channels and obtain the previously purchased content in a new format.
In a further embodiment, a marginal price is charged to obtain the previously purchased content in a new format.
In further embodiments of the present invention, measures are implemented to prevent fraudulent claims and generally discourage abuses of the system. These include restricting the number of claims that are able to be filed; requiring payment of a deductible; requiring disclosure of private information to submit a claim; limiting availability of content format upgrades; and limiting the term of content format upgrade with an option to renew.
In the present invention, content insurance is distributed and maintained via an insurer and an insurance agent. An insurer maintains insurance polices including a list of titles a consumer has purchased content insurance on, verifies a consumer has purchased insurance on a title, provides a mechanism for accessing digital content once a claim is processed or otherwise provides services to allow a consumer who purchases insurance to process a claim. An insurance agent sells content insurance to consumers and accepts claims from consumers on behalf of an insurer. A secure electronic receipt is generated for each purchase of digital content. These receipts bind the buyer to the goods, i.e., a particular combination of bits, and can be redeemed at a later time in exchange for those same bits or an alternative representation of the same content. The insurer and agent are separate entities, or alternatively, the same entity.
The present invention is adaptable to be provided in conjunction with the purchase of digital content via a number of content distribution models, or distributed separately from the purchase of digital content and content distribution models. A number of exemplary insurance distribution embodiments are provided.
In a first embodiment, when a consumer purchases digital content from a merchant, the merchant offers to sell insurance on that content to the consumer. When the consumer purchases the offered insurance, the merchant generates information which binds the consumer to that specific copy of the content. The merchant then stores that information for each consumer. In the future when a new format arises, or the content is lost, the consumer files a claim with the merchant, who verifies their purchase with the generated information. Once verified, the consumer then retrieves a new copy of the digital content they had previously purchased.
In a second embodiment, a third party stores, maintains and verifies insurance information of a consumer, regardless of the merchant which the digital content was purchased from. When a consumer purchases content from a merchant, the completion of the transaction occurs through the third party. When insurance is purchased on the content, identifying information of the content and consumer information is stored at the third party. At a later time when the consumer places a claim, insurance information is retrieved from the third party and the third party acts to verify that the content of the claim is covered in the insurance the consumer has purchased.
In a third embodiment, the third party acts to verify that content subject to a claim is covered by the purchased insurance. When a consumer purchases content from a merchant, the completion of the transaction does not occur through the third party. Rather, secured information pertaining to the purchased insurance and content is stored by the consumer at the completion of the transaction. When the consumer presents a claim, this information is transmitted to the third party, who verifies the validity of the information, i.e., verifies that the content subject to a claim is covered in purchased insurance.
In a fourth embodiment, content insurance is purchased at a time disjoint from the purchase of the digital content. When a consumer purchases content from a merchant secured information pertaining only to the purchased content is stored by the consumer at the completion of the transaction. At a later time, when the consumer wants to purchase insurance, the consumer goes to an entity offering insurance for sale and presents the secured information. Once verified, the consumer is allowed to purchase insurance on the verified content.
The present invention is beneficial to all parties involved in the distribution of content for commercial purposes. Consumers would protect their property against loss for reasons beyond their control. Content owners may see their sales increase as a result of lowering the risk for consumers. Finally, distributors could provide this differentiating value-added service with limited additional cost.
As some consumers may hesitate to purchase material for fear that their investment will not last as long as they would expect in order to pay the price to acquire it, the present invention encourages them to purchase the material as it provides protection against this instance. Moreover, due to the fast pace of technological change, consumers may be concerned that the specific format that is offered today will be superseded by a new one in a short lapse of time, and that old content will either be incompatible with new players or will lack the quality of newer formats. The present invention reduces this risk for consumers.
While some percentage of current revenues for copyright owners derives from replacement of lost copies, the present scheme provides incentives which potentially increase current sales well beyond the present value of future purchases due to accidental loss. Format upgrades are likely to be more frequent in the digital world of downloadable content and players than in the physical distribution world.
Early adopters and audiophiles will want the latest format and will be able to upgrade frequently, generating incremental revenue; over a period of several years-the time it used to take to introduce a new, backwards incompatible technology-consumers will upgrade many times, thus approaching the revenue levels of previous technologies with longer lifecycles. Other users will have the flexibility of upgrading only when new formats represent a significant advantage.
In the traditional model for sales of media, the rights to which the user is entitled are usually rather inflexible. Its electronic counterpart, namely digital content distribution, allows for a much richer menu of licensing options. For example, some content may be available for free download, but with only a limited number of playbacks allowed. These rights are typically enforced by the DRMS. Therefore, the DRMS must determine what content is eligible for being insured, and include in the proof of user rights only those titles. In this example above, the title with limited playback options may be deemed ineligible, as the counter is maintained locally and it may not be feasible to keep the list of titles in the content insurance policy synchronized.
While this invention is illustrated and described in a preferred embodiment, the device may be produced in many different configurations and forms. There is depicted in the drawings, and will herein be described in detail, a preferred embodiment of the invention, with the understanding that the present disclosure is to be considered as an exemplification of the principles of the invention and the associated functional specifications for its construction and is not intended to limit the invention to the embodiment illustrated. Those skilled in the art will envision many other possible variations within the scope of the present invention.
Generally, the present invention comprises selling content insurance on digital content to consumers of the digital content, which is distributed electronically, i.e., via communication networks such as the Internet, at a fraction of the cost of the digital content. The content insurance insures a consumer against the loss of the digital content for which the consumer has purchased insurance. Once a consumer has purchased content insurance, if there is a loss the consumer may place a claim for lost content and upon verification the consumer has actually purchased insurance on the lost content, the consumer is capable of re-obtaining the same digital content.
In another embodiment, the content insurance insures the consumer against the advent of new digital formats, either in addition to insuring against loss, or separate therefrom. In this embodiment, once a purchaser has purchased content insurance, the consumer may place a claim for content for which there is a new digital format and upon verification the user has purchased insurance on such content, the consumer is capable of obtaining the digital content in the new digital format. In a further embodiment, when content insurance covers the advent of new digital formats, a marginal price is charged to the consumer for an upgrade, generating additional revenues.
For digital content distributed electronically, the marginal cost of distributing such content is close to zero. Therefore, the redistribution of a copy to a consumer placing a claim is close to zero. As such, the revenue generated from the sale of insurance is not defrayed by the cost of redistribution, making the revenue essentially all profit for distribution among the parties participating in the transaction. In addition, the present invention reduces perceived and actual risks to consumers of digital content and therefore would increase sales of digital content.
It should be noted, while it is envisioned that the price charged for content insurance and the marginal price for upgrades is a fraction of the cost of the digital content, the present invention should not be seen as limited to such. In a free market, the appropriate prices charged for insurance and to upgrade would be dictated by the market forces, and would typically be the market clearing prices for the insurance and upgrade, respectively.
The embodiments of the present invention further comprise mechanisms that prevent consumers from making fraudulent claims, or otherwise abusing the content. The terms and conditions of the service include restrictions on the number of claims that can be filed; require payment of a deductible to discourage isolated, repetitive claims; require disclosing private information such as the insured party's credit card number, thus discouraging users from making their policy widely available; limit availability of content format upgrades or have a limited term with the option of renewal, possibly requiring an additional fee. These characteristics make the system unattractive as a means for illegal distribution of content while at the same time making it convenient for legal users. In addition, the common characteristic across all embodiments is that they are based on replacing the actual content instead of refunding consumers. This also limits abuse of the system.
The present invention is adaptable to be used in parallel to a number of different content distribution systems with various parties of the distribution chain performing roles needed to implement the sale of content insurance, or it is capable of being set up as a separate distribution model itself without the parties of the content distribution chain performing functions related to selling insurance or processing claims. The following discussion presents exemplary embodiments of the present invention adapted to content distribution schemes previously discussed and an exemplary embodiment for a separate content insurance distribution scheme.
In the following discussion several roles are identified: consumers (C) purchase content online; merchants (M) offer content for sale; content owners (O) make their content available to merchants; insurers (I) provide the services described as content insurance. Some embodiments involve the use of a clearing house (H), in addition, some embodiments use the concept of an insurance agent (A) who sells content insurance and accepts insurance claims on behalf of the insurer. It should be noted that more than one role may be played by the same party. For example, a content owner may also be a merchant, or an insurer may also be an insurance agent. Similarly, a role may in fact involve more than two or more companies bound by contractual agreements.
The first embodiment is generally illustrated in
As illustrated in
Alternatively, rather than downloading content from merchant 200 as illustrated, consumer 202 downloads content directly from content owner 204.
Some limitations of the first embodiment just described is that as consumers shop at different merchants/insurers, they would need to create new policies with each merchant as each merchant independently acts as an insurer. Should accidental loss of data occur, it is likely to affect content that was originally purchased at different sites and therefore multiple claims would need to be filed. Moreover, consumers may forget at which store the content was originally purchased. A similar problem would arise if the content owners performed the role of insurance companies. Since individual titles are of limited value (although the aggregation of many titles may amount to a significant figure), this distribution model may not generate enough interest by consumers due to the unwieldy claim process.
A second embodiment, which improves upon the first embodiment by addressing its limitations, is illustrated in
Generally, in this embodiment, merchants 300 are considered insurance agents, selling the services of the insurer for a share of revenue. Acting as agents, merchants 300 also provide the front end to the claim process. In this model, when consumers (C) 302 purchase content from merchants (M) 300, consumer 302 is additionally given the option of purchasing insurance on the digital content that is purchased. When consumers 302 purchases the policy 14 through merchant 300, this policy is maintained and provided by insurer 306. In this manner, the consumer need not remember what merchant they purchased the content and insurance from, as the policy is maintained at clearing house 306. Insurer 306 then acts to verify the validity of any claims later filed by consumer 302.
A clearing house, as used in the prior art electronic distribution model, is involved in the secure distribution of content and is uniquely positioned to provide the content insurance service. All transactions, irrespective of who a merchant or content owner are, go through this clearing house, and therefore the original purchase can be verified. Moreover, a clearing house may have access to additional information about the consumer or his/her equipment that can be used to further limit fraud. This party has direct or indirect access to the content, and can therefore replace lost items or upgrade formats easily. As such, in a preferred embodiment, a clearing house acts as the third party insurer 306.
In some cases, multiple clearing houses may exist. Each clearing house may handle content by specific content owners, perhaps in an exclusive arrangement. Merchants may operate with one or more clearing houses. In such a scenario, insurer 306 maintains the consumer's policy information and operates with multiple clearing houses to collect information relevant to such policy. Similarly, upon a claim, the insurer selects one clearing house (e.g. the policy may include information about which content was handled by which clearing house) to issue a voucher. The exchange of information between clearing houses and insurer is protected through mechanisms similar to those used in securing communication between merchants and clearing houses, namely digital signatures.
While merchants 300 provide the front end to the consumers, clearing house 306 controls the actual fulfillment of orders (i.e., content download) and maintains the insurance policies. It should be noted that the clearing house (H) and the content repository (O) are illustrated as two independent entities (parties) and thus rights management and actual download are performed as two steps. However, in alternate embodiments these roles are performed by a single party.
Consumer (C) 302 purchases 10 content at merchant's site (M) and is given the option of acquiring content insurance. If the user does not elect the insurance, the transaction is simply forwarded 14 to clearing house (H) 306. However, when consumer 302 elects to buy the insurance 14 and the transaction is forwarded 15 to the clearing house (H), a flag is used to indicate that content insurance has been purchased. The list of titles just acquired is added to a consumer's existing policy or a new account is created for first time customers. In either case, a voucher 12 is created indicating the purchase of the content 12 and consumer 202 downloads 13 the purchased content.
Consumers 302 who register are not required to save any record of this transaction. If they need to file a claim 16 for loss of data or to upgrade their format, all they need to do is go to one of the participating insurance agents (merchants) 300 and identify themselves (most likely by providing a user i.d. or account number and a password; usual techniques for dealing with "forgotten" passwords are applied.) The insurance agent accesses the policy information stored at the clearing house/insurer and presents this data to the consumer. It should be noted that this data is not restricted to titles purchased from the merchant acting as the insurance agent for the claim; in fact, this could be an independent party that does not participate in sales of content.
Consumer 302 then selects from the titles protected under the existing policy that he or she wishes to restore or upgrade. This triggers a transaction 17 very similar to the one used for the purchase of new content, except that it flags this as a restore/upgrade.
Clearing house 306 verifies that the titles selected are indeed covered under the policy for this consumer. Other checks, possibly related to the underlying copyright protection mechanism (explained below), may be performed at this point. If the transaction is approved, a voucher is created 18 and transmitted to content owner 304 which permits consumer 302 to download 19 the digital content in the same, or new format.
It should also be noted that, in the above embodiment, information must pass between merchant, insurer and content owner (as indicated by dashed lines) at the time of purchase. While illustrated in a manner that would normally indicate that this information is transmitted directly between these parties, this is not to be seen as a limiting factor. As will be described hereinbelow, this information is also capable of being transmitted indirectly between these parties through the use of client software.
The above clearing house embodiment is easy to implement with only incremental effort relative to the purchase and distribution of the actual content because the clearing house already processes all transactions in prior art systems. However, there are instances when it would be preferable to use a third party insurer that is not the clearing house that aggregates, in one policy, content purchased at different merchants. In order to provide for this embodiment, an insurance purchasing and processing system is provided that does not require any communication between merchants and the insurer at the time of purchasing content insurance which provides the additional flexibility.
In this embodiment, illustrated in
Insurance agents 400, who have a contractual agreement with the insurer 406, have public/private encryption key pair. When a transaction for the purchase of content and corresponding insurance takes place 20, an electronic receipt 21 including the details of the transaction is generated and digitally signed (using the agent's private key) 21. Consumers 402 are responsible for maintaining a copy of this electronic receipt in order to be able to file a claim for the content covered by it.
When a claim or upgrade request is filed 22, with any insurance agent, consumer 402 submits all digitally signed electronic receipts as proof that the original transaction effectively took place. The signatures are verified 23 before the claim is accepted, and an electronic voucher is generated, signed by insurer 406, and transmitted 24 to consumer 402.
This voucher is redeemed 25 at participating merchants or content repositories in order to download 26 the content. In this embodiment, rather than maintaining the policies, the insurer simply verifies the receipt presented while the merchant still provides the front end for insurance purchasing and claims. In this manner flexibility is provided in the distribution of insurance.
It should be noted that a flow of funds between insurance agents (who collect fees) the insurer/clearing house and the content owners takes place in the above embodiments, generally, as part of an out-of-band protocol, however, this does not constitute part of the present invention and has not been described herein for clarity. Any method of collecting or distributing monies can be utilized without departing from the scope of the present invention.
The above embodiments couple the purchase of insurance with the purchase of the digital content. As such, merchants act as insurance agents. The embodiment described in relation to and illustrated in
When purchasing insurance 31, in order to open a new account or add titles to an existing policy, consumer 502 contacts an insurance agent, which in the present discussion is the insurer itself and presents a list of titles that he/she claims ownership to. Before the insurer can accept these titles and issue insurance on them, it must verify 30 that the user is in fact legally entitled to them. In order to be able to do this, a copyright protection scheme (described below) supports being queried for available legal content. Moreover, because the insurer must trust the copyright protection system, stringent requirements are placed on a mechanism to ensure the integrity of this system. For this reason, support for content insurance is implemented as part of the copyright protection client software.
When consumer 502 makes a claim 32, the list of protected titles, as kept by insurer 500, is presented to the consumer for selection. Consumer 502 selects which titles he or she wishes to download and an electronic voucher is generated that is transmitted to the consumer, content owners or merchants which is redeemed to download the content.
The copyright protection system is introduced with respect to the embodiment in which consumers are able to purchase insurance on their digital content at a time after the actual purchase of the digital content, however, it should be noted that use of the copyright protection system in other embodiments is within the spirit and scope of the present invention.
While a specific copyright protection scheme is described, other schemes are envisioned, however, there are a number of requirements for efficiently, securely providing copyrighted content in a policy.
These requirements of the copyright protection scheme are:
- The ability to detect that the content is compliantly protected, i.e., was legally acquired;
- A binding between the protected content and an entity (alternatively, more than one entity) that could be either a person or business, i.e., the consumer, or a piece of hardware (hard drive, computer, consumer electronics device, removable media, etc.);
- In embodiments in which policy information is not stored at a central third party, a facility to recover the rights management system's binding to the original entity even after a complete loss of data;
- For embodiments in which the consumer must maintain copies of the receipts in which they have acquired insurance, e.g., where the communication between merchant and clearing house at purchase are alleviated and where insurance purchase is decoupled from content purchase, the scheme is modified to provide the capability of generating a digitally signed document in an agreed upon format listing the content to which the policy holder has acquired rights.
There are currently several commercially available systems for copyright protection, usually called Digital Rights Management Systems or DRMS, that are used for the distribution of licensed content.
Consumers interested in purchasing copyrighted content first download a program (the client) to their computer. Subsequently, users may browse for content at a participating online merchant, pay the purchase price for their selection and initiate download of encrypted content.
The content is stored encrypted on the consumer's system, using a key unique to the specific instance of the client software. This guarantees that if the encrypted content were to be transferred to another computer, it would not be usable. This is denoted personalized encryption, to differentiate it from other techniques that use a system-wide encryption key or similar schemes to ensure compliance.
A mechanism for recovering an instance of a client should it get corrupted, erased, or in case of an upgrade or system change is provided. The exact mechanism is not a part of the present invention, but this feature provides a guarantee that a user's collection of content can be recovered even in the case of total data loss at the client.
The DRMS client is modified to generate a digitally signed list of the content to which the user has been granted a license. This list is a proof of user rights, which is signed using a private key specific to the client instance. The corresponding public key is verified by appending a digital certificate signed by the root system key.
Using this scheme, when a consumer 502 wishes to create a content insurance policy or add content to an existing one, he or she instructs the client to generate a proof of user rights. This document is then be uploaded 30 to the agent 500, where the signature is verified before accepting the list of titles.
While it is believed the foregoing description is sufficient to enable one of skill in the art to practice the present invention, the following description is given in order to provide a further illustration of the principles of the present invention. The following description is made with regards to the clearing house embodiment and
A consumer 202 directs his or her browser to an online merchant, which supports the present invention. If not already installed, consumer 202 downloads a free client software which is installed on the PC. Consumer 202 browses the titles available and finds and decides to purchase several of the titles 600. Consumer's browser displays the content to be purchased and gives the option of purchasing content insurance on the titles selected. Consumer 202 elects to purchase the insurance and a content insurance flag is set 604. When consumer 202 accepts the order, the merchant's software, having verified the credit card information and triggered the financial transaction 605, prepares an electronic receipt 606 which is digitally signed with the merchant's private key.
This receipt is sent to and received 608 by the client software running on the consumer's computer and forwarded 609 to the clearing house 206. There, the receipt is examined, after verifying the merchant's signature 612 (using the corresponding private key), to determine if content insurance was purchased 616 A list of titles is also extracted from the receipt. As content insurance was purchased, a determination is made as to whether or not an account exists for the consumer 624. If an account exists the titles are added to the account 630, otherwise an account is created 626, 628 and the titles entered into it 630.
The clearing house then generates a voucher. The voucher, digitally signed by the clearing house, is then sent 620 to the client software, which in turn sends 622 it to a number of content repositories. For simplicity's sake, in the present example, the content repositories are managed by content owners.
The voucher's signature is verified 634 and upon verification a determination is made as to whether the content is stored in the repository 638. When it is stored in the repository, it is encrypted so as to only be able to be used with the client instance at the consumer's computer, sent to and received by the client 644, 646, 648.
At a later time, consumer 202 decides to upgrade the format of the purchased content (or recover lost content). Consumer 202 navigates to a merchant which supports the content insurance system. After consumer 202 identifies himself to the system by providing name and credit card information, merchant's site initiates a retrieval of the consumer's policy 700 by communicating with clearing house 206. Clearing house 206 looks for the corresponding policy 614 and when found retrieves consumer information and the titles in the policy 716, 718. This information is then transmitted back to the merchant's system 720 and displayed to consumer 202. The titles consumer 202 wishes to upgrade or recover are selected from the displayed list of titles in their policy 702. In some embodiments, a charge is made at the time of upgrade or recovery and as such, a financial transaction 704 would occur at this point between consumer 202 and merchant 200. In embodiments where the charge is not per upgrade or recovery, this step is skipped. An electronic receipt including the titles to upgrade/recover and signed by merchant 200 using the merchant's private key is then prepared and sent to client software 706, 708. The client software then forwards this receipt to clearing house 206.
At clearing house 206 the merchant's signature (using the corresponding private key) is verified 722 and the titles elected for upgrade recovery are extracted from the receipt. These titles are compared to those in the consumer's policy to insure the titles ordered are in the policy. Once verified, clearing house 702 then generates a voucher 728. The voucher, digitally signed by clearing house 202, is then sent 730 to the client software, which in turn sends 732 it to a number of content repositories.
The voucher's signature is verified 734 and upon verification a determination is made as to whether the content is stored in the repository 738. When it is stored in the repository, it is encrypted so as to only be able to be used with the client instance at the consumer's computer, sent to and received by the client 742, 744, 746.
The present system provides for numerous economic and value-added advantages to the parties in the system. Because the marginal cost of distributing content electronically is close to zero, all revenue generated would essentially be profit to be distributed among the many parties that partake in the transaction. If deep discounts can be obtained from the content owners, this service could be offered at significant margins, while at the same time adding value to consumers.
The above enhancements for commercial digital content distribution and its described functional elements are implemented in various computing environments. For example, the present invention may be implemented on a conventional IBM PC or equivalent, multi-nodal system (e.g. LAN) or networking system (e.g. Internet, WWW, wireless web). All programming, lists, content and data related thereto are stored in computer memory, static or dynamic, and may be retrieved by the user in any of: conventional computer storage, display (i.e. CRT) and/or hardcopy (i.e. printed) formats.
A system and method has been shown in the above embodiments for the effective implementation of providing content insurance for distributed digital content. While various preferred embodiments have been shown and described, it will be understood that there is no intent to limit the invention by such disclosure, but rather, it is intended to cover all modifications and alternate constructions falling within the spirit and scope of the invention, as defined in the appended claims. For example, the present invention should not be limited by software/program, computing environment, specific computing hardware, specific encryption schemes, specific copyright protection systems or specific distribution network. In addition, the specific roles indicated are representative of the preferred embodiment and should not limit the scope of the invention. Various content distribution models can be selected to couple content insurance with commercial digital content.
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|US20020095384A1 US20020095384A1 (en)
|US7389247B2 true US7389247B2 (en)
Family Applications (3)
|Application Number
|Priority Date
|Filing Date
|US09/759,163 Active 2025-06-18 US7389247B2 (en)
|Content insurance
|US12/119,742 Pending US20080215379A1 (en)
|Content insurance
|US12/119,706 Abandoned US20080215378A1 (en)
|Content insurance
Family Applications After (2)
|Application Number
|Priority Date
|Filing Date
|US12/119,742 Pending US20080215379A1 (en)
|Content insurance
|US12/119,706 Abandoned US20080215378A1 (en)
|Content insurance
Country Status (1)
|US7389247B2 (en)
Cited By (7)
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|Publication date
|US20050240588A1 (en) *
|Siegel Hilliard B
|Method and system for managing access to media files
|US20060026044A1 (en) *
|Smith Donald X Ii
|Electronic content insurance system
|US20090259496A1 (en) *
|General Instrument Corporation
|Method and apparatus for insuring digital content
|US20110066452A1 (en) *
|Eldon Technology Limited
|Systems and methods for insuring digital media download transactions
|US20140223582A1 (en) *
|Disney Enterprises, Inc.
|Digital Receipt for Use with an Interoperable Keychest
|US20160171616A1 (en) *
|Hartford Fire Insurance Company
|System to administer insurance knowledge management tool
|US9620172B2 (en)
|Rovi Technologies Corporation
|Systems and methods for converting interactive multimedia content authored for distribution via a physical medium for electronic distribution
Families Citing this family (12)
|Publication number
|Priority date
|Publication date
|MY138481A (en) *
|Sony Corp
|Data distribution system, terminal apparatus, distribution center apparatus, highefficiency encoding method, high-efficiency encoding apparatus, encoded data decoding method, encoded data decoding apparatus, data transmission method, data transmission apparatus, sub information attaching method, sub information attaching apparatus, and recording medium
|EP1391838A4 (en) *
|Matsushita Electric Ind Co Ltd
|Insurance system
|CN1875366A (en) *
|Management of digital content licenses
|JP2006031233A (en) *
|Sony Corp
|Contents provision apparatus and method and contents provision system
|JP2006101469A (en)
|Microsoft Corp
|Terminal for exchanging electronic business card
|US7891011B1 (en) *
|Sprint Spectrum L.P.
|User-based digital rights management
|US20060293905A1 (en) *
|Microsoft Corporation
|Exchanging electronic business cards over digital media
|US7974877B2 (en)
|Microsoft Corporation
|Sending and receiving electronic business cards
|JP4800686B2 (en) *
|マイクロソフト コーポレーション
|Electronic business card exchange system and method
|US20090259684A1 (en) *
|Macrovision Corporation
|Digital content library service
|US20090257336A1 (en) *
|Anthony David Knight
|Device for marking optical discs in a non-destructive, tamper-proof manner for licensing and other purposes
|US20100088235A1 (en) *
|Seagate Technology Llc
|System and method for media content distribution
Citations (8)
|Publication number
|Priority date
|Publication date
|US5673316A (en)
|International Business Machines Corporation
|Creation and distribution of cryptographic envelope
|US5933498A (en)
|Mrj, Inc.
|System for controlling access and distribution of digital property
|US5982891A (en)
|Intertrust Technologies Corp.
|Systems and methods for secure transaction management and electronic rights protection
|US6018714A (en) *
|Ip Value, Llc
|Method of protecting against a change in value of intellectual property, and product providing such protection
|US6038316A (en)
|International Business Machines Corporation
|Method and system for protection of digital information
|US6119108A (en)
|Aires Systems Corporation
|Secure electronic publishing system
|US6708157B2 (en) *
|Contentguard Holdings Inc.
|System for controlling the distribution and use of digital works using digital tickets
|US6873958B2 (en) *
|Replacement Services, Llc
|Method and system for selecting items to replace insured items
Family Cites Families (12)
|Publication number
|Priority date
|Publication date
|US2087259A (en) *
|Edwin E Sage
|Container for cut flowers and the like
|US2763134A (en) *
|Harrison B Mcdonald
|Refrigerated container
|US3314194A (en) *
|Pillsbury Co
|Shipping and growing container for bulbs and seeds
|US3973356A (en) *
|Schacht Louis L
|Flower caddy
|US4291493A (en) *
|Eugene Monson
|Apparatus for sprouting seeds
|NL8702405A (en) *
|Cuddalore Ltd
|Packing for flowers.
|AUPP290598A0 (en) *
|Tesselaar Nominees Pty Ltd
|Improvements in containers for cut flowers
|NL1009100C2 (en) *
|Pagter & Partners Int Bv
|Packaging for cut flowers.
|NL1012164C2 (en) *
|Pagter & Partners Int Bv
|Packaging for long-stemmed flowers having little or no leaf, in particular gerberas, anthuriums and arum lilies.
|US7386463B2 (en) *
|Miralink Corporation
|Data/presence insurance tools and techniques
|NL1019223C2 (en) *
|Pagter & Partners Int Bv
|Packaging for long-stemmed flowers having little or no leaf, in particular gerberas, anthuriums and arum lilies.
|USD485362S1 (en) *
|Marni Schwartz
|Gripping device for assisting infants in holding a bottle
- 2001-01-16 US US09/759,163 patent/US7389247B2/en active Active
- 2008-05-13 US US12/119,742 patent/US20080215379A1/en active Pending
- 2008-05-13 US US12/119,706 patent/US20080215378A1/en not_active Abandoned
Patent Citations (8)
|Publication number
|Priority date
|Publication date
|US6708157B2 (en) *
|Contentguard Holdings Inc.
|System for controlling the distribution and use of digital works using digital tickets
|US5982891A (en)
|Intertrust Technologies Corp.
|Systems and methods for secure transaction management and electronic rights protection
|US6038316A (en)
|International Business Machines Corporation
|Method and system for protection of digital information
|US5933498A (en)
|Mrj, Inc.
|System for controlling access and distribution of digital property
|US5673316A (en)
|International Business Machines Corporation
|Creation and distribution of cryptographic envelope
|US6018714A (en) *
|Ip Value, Llc
|Method of protecting against a change in value of intellectual property, and product providing such protection
|US6119108A (en)
|Aires Systems Corporation
|Secure electronic publishing system
|US6873958B2 (en) *
|Replacement Services, Llc
|Method and system for selecting items to replace insured items
Non-Patent Citations (3)
|Business Wire, NRMS Introduces the Revolutionary Insure Trust Insurance Policy for Trusted Networks, E-Commerce and Internet Liability; Jul. 1, 1998, p. 1. *
|Business Wire, NRMS Introduces the Revolutionary InsureTrust Insurance Policy for Trusted Networks, E-Commerce and Internet Liability; Jul. 1, 1998, p. 1. *
|PR Newswire, eMedia-IT and Lloyds of London Provide Global Insurance for Digital Content; Mar. 3, 2000, p. 1. *
Cited By (12)
|Publication number
|Priority date
|Publication date
|US20050240588A1 (en) *
|Siegel Hilliard B
|Method and system for managing access to media files
|US7627530B2 (en)
|Amazon Technologies, Inc.
|Method and system for managing access to media files
|US20100036748A1 (en) *
|Siegel Hilliard B
|Method and system for managing access to media files
|US7877330B2 (en)
|Amazon Technologies, Inc.
|Method and system for managing access to media files
|US20060026044A1 (en) *
|Smith Donald X Ii
|Electronic content insurance system
|US20090259496A1 (en) *
|General Instrument Corporation
|Method and apparatus for insuring digital content
|US20140223582A1 (en) *
|Disney Enterprises, Inc.
|Digital Receipt for Use with an Interoperable Keychest
|US9305144B2 (en) *
|Disney Enterprises, Inc.
|Digital receipt for use with an interoperable keychest
|US20110066452A1 (en) *
|Eldon Technology Limited
|Systems and methods for insuring digital media download transactions
|US9620172B2 (en)
|Rovi Technologies Corporation
|Systems and methods for converting interactive multimedia content authored for distribution via a physical medium for electronic distribution
|US20160171616A1 (en) *
|Hartford Fire Insurance Company
|System to administer insurance knowledge management tool
|US10217171B2 (en) *
|Hartford Fire Insurance Company
|System to administer insurance knowledge management tool
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In our increasingly connected world, all enterprises with electronic communications and data navigate the inevitability of data breach and state and federal laws regulating data security, consumer notification/consent, and breach notification/mitigation.
Many organizations may not be compliant with applicable privacy and data security laws so they risk substantial exposure thanks to their possession of information such as Social Security, credit card, and driver's license numbers. As virtually all organizations possess personal information data, competent legal guidance is needed when addressing appropriate consumer notice and consent, risk mitigation, and related mandatory documentation. The cost of ignoring this issue until a loss occurs can be staggering.
McGlinchey Stafford's Cybersecurity & Data Privacy team aids clients in developing a comprehensive approach to legal compliance with data privacy and network security laws, including mandatory documentation and best practices to avoid or mitigate risks. Our team brings together people from a variety of disciplines to address problems across industries and of all sizes and deliver value to our clients. Our team is comprised of members of the firm's Healthcare, Intellectual Property, Labor & Employment, Consumer Financial Services Compliance, White Collar/Government Investigations, and Commercial Litigation groups. We draw upon our depth and knowledge in these related fields to help organizations comply with applicable regulatory obligations, and prevent and respond to data breaches. We are familiar with the myriad regulations and laws that affect this market.
Our sophisticated practice addresses the full spectrum of security concerns. We have published articles and presented on the subjects of retail data breaches, cybersecurity, risks of the internet of things (IoT) for manufacturers and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) response, among other topics. If a cyberattack or data breach does occur, we assist clients with data breach response and remediation efforts, including litigating suits and enforcement actions that inevitably follow breaches, and we explain the cybersecurity and data privacy risks in business terms.
In addition to representing clients directly affected by data breaches and cybersecurity incidents, we have experience working with insurers as approved counsel to handle consumer notifications, ensuring compliance with applicable state and federal regulatory requirements and interfacing with regulatory bodies and personnel through the course of a response.
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Our Cybersecurity & Data Privacy team has particular experience counseling companies and financial institutions in the following areas:
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I'm going to be in Denver next week for the RMOUG Training Days – so I've just received an email asking me if I could stay on a couple of days and visit someone fairly close by while I'm in the area. It's not the first time that I've had a last minute request like this; unfortunately I tend to book my flights weeks, and sometimes months, in advance – usually at a good price but with a hefty cancellation penalty (like, no refund), so not possible this time.
However, I'm going to be speaking at ODTUG Kscope 14 (my name's not visible on the agenda yet) and I'm just about to book the flights but, in view of the email, I thought I'd wait a few days and let people know where I'm heading in case someone wants me to spend a couple of days on-site in Seattle at the end of the week commencing 21st June. Email me if you're interested: firstname.lastname@example.com
Full name
Jonathan Lewis


text:
Pomona Unified School District Adult and Career Education 1515 W Mission Blvd Pomona, CA 91766 Phone: (909) 469-2333
General Information About Pomona Unified School District Adult and Career Education
Provide the community with resources and opportunities for educational services which meet current and future individual needs
Institutional statistical data was gathered from the U.S. Department of Education - Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics, 2009-2010.
Institution Type
- 2-year, Public
Special Learning Opportunities
- None
Student Services
- Remedial services
- Academic/career counseling service
Credit Accepted
- Institution does not accept dual, credit for life, or AP credits
Religious Affiliation
- Not applicable
Federal Aid
- Eligible students may receive Pell Grants and other federal aid (e.g. Direct Loans).
Degrees/Certificates offered
- Less than 1 year certificate
- 1-2 years certificate
Campus Setting
- City: Midsize
Disability Services Student
- 3% or Less
Admission Total Applicants Full Time Retention Rate 72%
Student Demographics Total Enrolled 4,143 Native American 9.0 Asian 291.0 African American 430.0 Hispanic 2,742.0 Enrolled FullTime Undergraduates 894 Enrolled FullTime Graduates


text:
According to a new report, Apple is in early talks to make an offer to purchase Hulu; a popular online streaming service which provides TV shows and movies.
Apple Inc. is considering making a bid for the Hulu online video service, according to two people with knowledge of the auction.
Apple is in early talks that may lead to an acquisition offer for Los Angeles-based Hulu, said the people, who weren't authorized to speak publicly.
Many other companies have considered making an offer to Hulu, with Yahoo having made a bid of $2 billion but the company wanted a five year exclusive on streaming content. Rumors have also suggested that Google, AT&T, and many other companies have considered bidding while Microsoft has dropped out of bidding earlier this week.
If a deal is made between Apple and Hulu, Apple would receive a new subscription service and could be a potential threat to Netflix. Hulu would retain its exclusive content licenses from its current owners Disney, FOX/News Corp., and Comcast/NBC. In addition, Apple would be able to offer even more choices for movies and TV shows via the iTunes store and possibly convert Hulu's video content from Flash to HTML5.
Apple recently reported that it had $76.2 billion in cash reserves and securities on its chest. Such a large acquisition for Apple would be unusual since they normally acquire companies that aren't "well-known" and this large in size. Their biggest purchase to date of a company was $400 million spent for NeXT Software Inc back in 1996.


text:
An AVPCC is allocated to each property by the valuer (appointed by Valuer-General Victoria) according to the use of the land – e.g. house, shop, farm. The land use classification is then used to calculate the Fire Services Property Levy (FSPL). If you disagree with the AVPCC assigned to your property you have a right to lodge an objection within 60 days. Please contact us immediately to discuss your objection, or learn more by visiting www.latrobe.vic.gov.au/objections.
If you would like to provide feedback on the notice or have suggestions for how we communicate with you about your rates in the future, please contact the Property and Rates team.
Rates are calculated by multiplying together two numbers: the rate in the dollar declared by Council in the annual budget and the capital improved value of your property.
To learn more, read our Rates and charges explained page.
The lower population density and larger land area of regional Councils mean that property rates are often higher in regional areas. This means that the distribution of service costs is shared across a smaller number of households in regional areas than is often the case in metropolitan areas. This remains a common challenge for all regional communities.
If you are experiencing difficulty paying your rates by the due date, please contact the Property and Rates team to discuss alternate arrangements. Keeping Council informed of your circumstances may help to avoid incurring additional costs and legal action.
Rates fund the infrastructure and services we enjoy as a community such as roads, footpaths, libraries, parks and gardens, recreation facilities, child care centres and waste disposal.
Remember that, similar to other taxes, Council rates are a tax rather than a direct fee for service, and contribute to making our municipality a clean, safe and liveable environment for everyone.
Also, read our Annual Budget to learn how we intend to spend your rates in the financial year ahead.
When and how is my property valued?
Your property is revalued every two years by an independent valuer appointed by the Valuer-General of Victoria.
The last valuation occurred in early 2016. The next valuation will occur in 2018.
Learn more about how valuation works.
If you believe your property has been incorrectly valued, you have a right to lodge an objection within 60 days of your Rates Notice issue date.
Learn more about objecting to your property valuation.
The municipal charge is part of the rates levied by Council and is intended to help distribute some of the administrative costs of running Council in a more equitable way, ensuring that every ratepayer contributes a reasonable amount toward these costs.
If there were no municipal charge, the rate in the dollar would be higher for everyone.
Learn more about rates and charges.
For the purpose of Council rates and charges, farm land is defined as land which is:
To apply for to have your land assessed for reclassification as farm land, your land must meet the above criteria and you must be classified by the Australian Tax Office as a Primary Producer.
If you believe you may be eligible for reclassification, please contact the Property and Rates team to discuss your application.
If you are eligible to receive the farm rate, the classification will be reviewed every two years to coincide with the revaluation year. The next revaluation will be as at 1 January 2018.
Land classified as Farm land is subject to a lower rate in the dollar.
Also, if you are operating a single farming enterprise across multiple parcels of land, you may only be required to pay the Fire Services Property Levy fixed charge once and if all your parcels of land are in Latrobe you may only be required to pay one municipal charge. If you believe you may be eligible for an exemption, obtain an exemption application (PDF, 473KB) and return the completed form to Council.
The rate cap applies to the total average rates collected by Council, not to individual rates notices. The rate cap for this financial year (1 July 2019 to 30 June 2020) is 2.5%. This means that Council cannot exceed the 2.5% rate cap in the amount of revenue they collect. But how much each property owner pays depends on the value of their property.
Therefore, in a revaluation year if your rates increase by more than the advertised rate cap, compared with last year, this is likely because the value of your property increased more than the average property value in the municipality.
Also, be aware that the rate cap applies to General Rates, Farm Rates, and the Municipal Charge only, waste charges and the Fire Services Property Levy are excluded from the rate cap.
For more information, watch this video or visit www.delwp.vic.gov.au/fairgorates
Council is required to collect the Fire Services Property Levy on behalf of the Victorian State Government to help fund the Country Fire Authority. The levy includes a fixed charge payable by all property owners, plus a variable levy which is calculated based on your land classification and Capital Improved Value of your property.
Learn more about the Fire Services Property Levy.
A supplementary notice is issued when there has been a change to the property which changes its value, such as construction or alteration to a building, shed or pool, etc.
The improvement may not have occurred recently, but may have happened in previous years and is only now being incorporated into the value of your property
Examples of improvements include:
To obtain a refund, please submit a rates refund application.