MXPA00006962A - Electronic bookshelf with multi-user features - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invnetion relates to electronic books that are accessed over a computer network, such as the Internet. As seen in the figure, one embodiment of the invention relates to a shared electronic book (12), i.e. a book in which multiple users (14) each have the right to access the book but only one of the users is allowed to actually access the book at a given point in time. Another embodiment of the invention relates to the detection of potentially fraudulent access of an electronic book. Yet a further embodiment of the invention is concerned with preventing electronic copying of an electronic book (34) when the book is provided to users over an intranet (16) that is not under the direct control of the provider of the electronic book.

Description

ELECTRONIC BOOKER WITH MULTIPLE USER FEATURES 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to electronic books that are transmitted over a network, such as the Internet, to a personal user computer or workstation. 2. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Currently, an individual with a personal computer can access web sites on the Internet of bookstores. In said website, a user can search for a particular book or type of book, see a section of books that meet the user's search criteria, and order a copy of one or more books that are identified in the search process, the which are then sent to the user's address. This type of system works very well for books aimed at the consumer. However, this system does not work well for books that are frequently updated. Examples of frequently updated books include reference books that are used in legal, banking and insurance industries. These books are periodically updated to reflect changes in the laws that govern these industries. For these types of books, websites have been developed that allow a customer to take a subscription in a book of interest. The client can then access the most recent edition of this book from the website and view the selected pages of the book on his or her personal computer or workstation. Books that are accessed in this way are typically referred to as "electronic" books.

COMPENDIUM OF THE INVENTION The present invention is directed to a problem identified with respect to current systems that allow customers to subscribe to "electronic" books. The problem involved the need for several individuals in an organization to have access to a particular electronic book. Under the previous subscription system, this need required the organization to purchase a separate subscription for each individual that required access to a particular book. As a result, each individual with a subscription was able to access their own individual copy of the book at any time. The present invention recognizes that in many situations not all individuals in an organization need to have unlimited access to the book, that is, be able to access the book at any time, and direct these situations by providing several individuals with the right to have access to a book. electronic book, but limiting the actual access of the book to one individual at a time. In other words, the invention provides an electronic book that can be shared by a number of users.

The present invention addresses a number of problems associated with the provision of shared access to an electronic book. By providing shared access to an electronic book on the Internet or intranet, it was recognized that there is no provision to determine when an individual's exclusive access to or use of an electronic book has terminated or should be considered completed. Without the ability to determine if the termination has occurred or effect the termination, the book can not be provided to other users who have the right to access the book. In addition, since it is possible to provide a mechanism that allows the user to explicitly release the book so that the book can be used by others, said mechanism is not reliable since it depends on the user to execute the release. The present invention addresses this problem by making use of a "cookie", that is, a temporary identifier that is assigned to a user when the user accesses a website and is used in communications between the user and the web server. The "cookie" is. part of the global web / Internet protocol and was included in the protocol to provide a web server with the ability to track the "state" of communications between the web server and all users who have access to the web server. In essence, the "cookie" is a temporary, unique identifier that is assigned to each user who has access to a web server. In contrast to the use of "cookie" tracking, the present invention makes use of the "cookie" mechanism to terminate an exclusive use of a user's book, thereby allowing other users to access the book. To elaborate, after accessing the web server where the shared e-book is located, a user is assigned a "cookie" to be used in subsequent communications with the web server. The user is then able to request access to a shared e-book. If the shared e-book is available, the user is granted exclusive access to the book for a predetermined period. Each request that the user transmits to the web server with respect to the book during this predetermined period is accompanied by the "cookie" assigned to the user. If the web server does not see the "cookie" assigned to the user that accompanies a request with respect to the book that has been granted exclusive access to the user within the predetermined period or a portion thereof, the user's exclusive access to the book Electronic sharing is terminated after the expiration of the predetermined period. At this point, the book is again available to all users who have the right to access the book. To facilitate the termination of an individual user's exclusive access to a shared e-book when the user only needs to refer to the book quickly and for a short period of time, and in this way makes the book available to other users, a modality of the invention involves releasing the book of a particular user after the expiration of the predetermined period, if the "cookie" and the associated request in relation to the book are not received within a portion of the predetermined period beginning after the predetermined period starts . For example, a particular user is granted exclusive access to a shared book for 30 minutes and the observed portion of the 30-minute period is set to do at least 15 minutes of the 30-minute period. If a "cookie" in relation to the book is not seen in the last 15 minutes of the 30-minute period, the user's access to the book is terminated after the expiration of the 30-minute period, even if a "cookie" is observed in the the first 15 minutes of the 30 minute period. This ensures that when a user who has been granted exclusive access to a book only needs access to the book quickly and for a short period, other users are not prevented from gaining access to the shared book for an extended period. In another mode, a user can renew or extend the period of time during which they have exclusive access to a shared e-book. Again, the user is granted exclusive access to a shared e-book for a predetermined period of time. If a "cookie" and the associated request in relation to the book are viewed during the predetermined period, the user is granted an additional period of exclusive excess to the book. For example, if the user is initially granted a 30-minute period of exclusive access to a book and a "cookie" with an associated request regarding the book is viewed by the web server during this 30-minute period, the user is grants an additional period of exclusive excess to the book. An additional modality addresses the characteristics of (1) providing a user who has been granted exclusive access to a shared e-book with the ability to renew or extend the period during which he has exclusive access to the book, and (2) not prevent that other users have access to a shared e-book when a user who has been granted exclusive access to a book only needs to refer to the book quickly and for a short period of time. This embodiment of the invention only renews or extends the user's exclusive access to a shared book if a "cookie" and associated request regarding the book are received during a predetermined period portion that begins after the predetermined period has begun. To continue with the previous example, if a "cookie" and the associated request regarding the book are viewed in the last 15 minutes of the 30-minute period, the exclusive access period is extended for an additional period of time. If, on the other hand, the "cookie" and the associated request regarding the book are not seen in the last 15 minutes of the 30-minute period, the book is released. This release occurs to a if a "cookie" and associated request in relation to the book are seen in the first 15 minutes of the 30 minute period. To direct the possibility of a user being able to continuously renew their exclusive access to a shared book of other users' ability to access the book is undesirably inhibited, another modality reduces the duration of the renewal periods as the number of renewals increases. In an alternative mode, the number of "cookies" and associated requests that must be seen during the period when a user has exclusive access to a shared book in order to obtain a renewal, is increased as the number of renewals increases . In one more mode, users are preassigned with a priority code. If a user requests a book and is denied access because another user with a lower priority has exclusive access, the user with the lowest priority will not be granted a renewal, and at the point that the book becomes available again, the user with the highest priority is granted exclusive access to the book for a period. In another modality, if a user has been granted exclusive access to a book and some predetermined number of other users have requested access to the book and they have been denied access during the user's exclusive access period, the user has not a renewal will be granted. When the user's access period expires and the book then becomes available to other users. Another problem that is related to the proportion of shared access to an electronic book and the type of access where a user can access their own copy of a particular electronic book at any time, is the unauthorized or unauthorized shared an authorized user password and the subsequent use of the password to obtain unauthorized access to an electronic book. The present invention addresses this problem in the Internet / Intranet situation towards the use of the "cookie" to identify situations where there is probably one or more individuals with fraudulently obtained access to a particular electronic book. It should be appreciated at the point in the progress during which the "cookies" are issued it is difficult the situation where an authorized user is alternatively having access to an electronic book of two different computers and the situation where two different users, so except one of which is an unauthorized user, they have access to the electronic book. Consequently, if two individuals on two different personal computers or workstations are using an authorized user key to access an electronic book, each user will be issued a unique "cookie". For example, the first user in the first personal computer will be assigned a "cookie 01" and the second user in the second personal computer will be assigned the "cookie 02". As previously noted, a "cookie" accompanies each user's communication to the web server. The present invention seeks a pattern over time of two unique "cookies" or, in other words, in the time of the communications that come from the first and second personal computers to identify situations where there are probably two different individuals that are using a single user key authorized to have access to an electronic book.

In one embodiment, it is assumed that two communications containing a particular "cookie" define the end points of a period of time during which a first individual has access to one or more electronic books. If the time periods associated with the two unique cookies that have been issued to what appears to be an individual authorized user overlap, then this is considered as an indication of the situation where an unauthorized user is having access to an electronic book particular. For example, if (1) "cookie 01" is first received at time "t1" and the last one is received at time "t2"; (2) "cookie 02" is first received at time "t3" and the last one was received at time "t4"; (3) the time "t3" occurs between the times "t1" and "t2"; and (4) the time "t4" is after the time "t2", then there is an overlap that is indicative of a fraud. In certain situations, however, such overlap may still be associated with the situation in which an individual authorized user is alternately using two different computers to access one or more books. To address this situation, an additional restriction is used that the overlap occurs during a relatively short period during which there is no probability that an individual authorized user is alternately using two different computers. To continue with the example, if the difference between the times "t2" and "t3" is less than a predetermined period of time and there is an overlap, it is presumed to be a fraud. In another modality, the time in which the two different "cookies" are received is combined with information related to the distance between personal computers and fixed sites to identify a situation in which fraud is probably occurring. To elaborate, this modality is based on the belief that the fraud is probably occurring when the difference in times of the two unique "cookies" that define the endpoints of the overlap is less than the time that the authorized user could reasonably take to travel between the sites of the two computers. To continue with the previous example, if the difference between the times "t2" and "t3" is less than the time an individual can reasonably take to travel between the fixed sites of the first and second personal computers, then there is probably an individual unauthorized that is having access to the electronic book. Another problem that is addressed by the present invention involves the situation in which an organization has purchased two or more separate subscriptions to the same e-book for individuals within the organization and the book is available to users on an intranet instead of the Internet . An Intranet is essentially a localized version of the Internet where an organization has a web server, a number of personal computers that each have a web browser, and a network to conduct communications between the web server and personal computers. In the Intranet situation, the electronic book is located on the organization's web server, and, therefore, out of the direct control of the book provider. In this case, it is necessary to make the electronic copy of the electronic book difficult. The present invention addresses this problem by cryptically coding the electronic book and only decoding cryptically the pages or portions of the electronic book as long as it takes the service for all access requests to pages or portions of the book. Once all the requests have been served, the pages or portions of the electronic book that have been encoded cryptically are then re-encoded cryptically. With this protection scheme, the unauthorized electronic copy of the electronic book becomes more difficult and, if possible, it is probably very expensive.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Figure 1 is a block diagram of a web server, a plurality of personal computers or work stations each having a web browser, and the Internet / intranet for transporting communications between each of the plurality of personal computers and the web browser; Figure 2A shows the screen, as seen in the subscriber's personal subscriber's "library" subscriber's monitor and the subscriber's shared "librarian"; Figure 2B shows the screen, as seen on a subscriber monitor, of two pages of one of the books of the subscriber's shared bookshelf; Figure 3 is a flow chart of the decision process performed on the electronic bookseller's web server to ensure that a shared e-book that is reserved for a particular user will be made available to other users who have the right to access the shared book under certain circumstances and to ensure that a user can extend their period of exclusive use of the shared e-book under certain circumstances; Figure 4 illustrates an overlap in the pattern where two "cookies" are being used that is indicative of obtaining some fraudulent access to electronic books; Figure 5 is a flow diagram of the events that occur to identify unauthorized access to the electronic bookcase by an unauthorized individual, who has obtained the user's name and the password of an authorized user; and Figures 6A and 6B are flow charts using the steps used to prevent the copying of an electronic book that is provided to subscribers on an intranet.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION Figure 1 generally illustrates a computer network system for providing electronic books to a plurality of subscriber computers or computer terminals, which is hereinafter referred to as system 10. System 10 includes an electronic book web server 12, a plurality of subscriber computers or computer terminals 14 and an Internet system 16 for transporting communications between the server 12 and each of the subscriber computers 14. the electronic book web server 12 includes or has access to the books electronic devices that are provided to the subscriber computers 14 through the Internet. In addition, the server 12 has the software to handle communications with the subscriber's computers 14. Subscriber computers 14 may be personal computers, work stations, web televisions or any other type of machine that is capable of communicating with server 12. In general, subscriber computers 14 each include a web browser, a monitor and Some type of input device, such as a keyboard or mouse. In addition, the subscriber's computers 14 each are equipped with software to be used to view the electronic books provided by the server 12. The Internet systems 16 include a server input / output interface 18 to facilitate communications of the computers 14 of the subscriber to server 12 and server 12 to subscriber computers 14. Likewise, a subscriber input / output interface 20 carries communications from the server 12 to the subscriber's computers 14 and from the subscriber's computers 14 to the server 12. In general, the function of the subscriber's input / output interface server 18 and / or the subscriber input / output interface 20 is provided by an Internet server provider (ISP). The Internet system 16 operates on a number of different levels. The level that is currently being used to communicate information related to the electronic book is the Great World Network (www). The Great World Network operates according to a predetermined protocol. Part of this protocol is what is called a "cookie." A cookie is a unique identifier that is assigned to a computer when the computer initially has access to a web server. The cookie allows the web server to keep track of the state of communications between the server and the computer in subsequent communications. Figure 2A illustrates a library screen 24 that is typically viewed on the monitor of a subscriber computer 14 after a subscriber gains access to the server 12. The screen 24 includes a personal library portion 26 that displays all the e-books that are stored in the library. the subscriber can have access at any time, that is, does not share them with another subscriber. Also part of the screen 24 is a portion of the shared library 28 that illustrates all the electronic books that the subscriber shares with other subscribers, that is, it has the right of access but can not access at the same time that another subscriber is having access to the book . Figure 2B illustrates an e-book display 32 that is typically viewed on the monitor of the subscriber's computer 14 after the subscriber has selected a book to see either the portion library portion 26 or the library portion shared 28 of the library screen 24. The book screen includes a screen on page 34 that shows one or more pages of the selected book. With reference to Figure 3, the operation of the web server is discussed with respect to the situation in which several subscribers share a particular electronic book. In particular, communications between the server 12 and the subscriber computer 14 that relate to (1) the termination of an exclusive subscriber access to an electronic book, so that the other subscribers who have the right to access the book they have the opportunity to do it; and (2) the ability of a subscriber to renew or continue their exclusive access to a book. Initially the subscriber must obtain access to the server 12. This is achieved by using the Internet system 16 to transmit the name of a user and the password of a subscriber computer 14 to the server 12. If the username and password are valid, the server 12 assigns a "cookie" (unique identification) to the subscriber and transmits the cookie to the subscriber's computer 14 through the Internet system 16. Subsequently, the subscriber uses the subscriber's computer 14 to communicate a request, which includes the cookie, to server 12 to access a particular shared book. If the book is available, that is, it is not currently distributed to another subscriber, the server 12 transfers a message to the subscriber's computer 14 through the Internet system 16 that the subscriber has been granted exclusive access to the book. Subsequently, the subscriber uses the subscriber's computer 14 to submit requests to the server 12 that particular pages of the selected book have been sent to the subscriber's computer 14. Subsequent requests, which each include the cookie assigned to the subscriber's computer 14, are analyzed by server 12 to determine whether or not the subscriber's exclusive access to the book is terminated and to determine whether the period of the subscriber's exclusive access. To elaborate, when the server 12 initially grants the subscriber exclusive access to the book, the subscriber is only granted a predetermined period of exclusive access. For example, server 12 can grant the subscriber a 30-minute period of exclusive access to the selected book. If the server 12 does not receive a request with the user's notified cookie, within this predetermined period of time, the server 12 cancels the exclusive access of the subscribers to the book, thus making the book available to other subscribers. To facilitate the termination of an exclusive access of a particular subscriber to a book when the subscriber only needs access to the book for a quick and brief period, the subsequent requests transmitted from the subscriber's computer 14 to the server 12 through the Internet system 16 they are analyzed additionally. Specifically, if the server 12 does not receive a subsequent request from the subscriber's computer 14 within the last portion of the period of time during which the subscriber has exclusive access to the book, the server 12 terminates the subscriber's exclusive access to the book afterwards. expiration of the predetermined period. In many cases, the subscriber needs to make use of the selected book for more than the predetermined time period. In such situations, it is desirable to provide a mechanism for the subscriber to extend the period during which he has exclusive access to the book. As shown in Figure 3, if the server 12 receives a subsequent request from the subscriber within the predetermined time that the subscriber has been granted exclusive access, the subscriber's exclusive access period is extended. To accommodate the need to terminate the exclusive privilege of the subscriber when the subscriber only needs to see the book for a short and fast period and the need to extend the period of exclusive access to the book, the server 12 operates in order to extend only the period exclusive access if a subsequent request from the subscriber is received within the last portion of the predetermined exclusive access period. To address the possibility that a subscriber is obtaining an untidy number of extensions from their exclusive access period, the conditions under which the server 12 grants the extensions are modified. For example, server 12 may require that more requests be received and / or reduce the period of time when one or more requests must be received to extend an extension. Alternatively, the server 12 can reduce the extension period as the number of extensions increases. An additional alternative is to pre-assign the user a priority code. The server 12 then uses this priority to determine whether or not to renew a user's exclusive access to a book. Specifically, server 12 will not renew a lower priority user exclusive access if a higher priority user has requested exclusive access to the book during the exclusive access period to the lower priority user's book. Another method that the server 12 can use to address this problem is to deny the renewal of a user's exclusive access to a book if a predetermined number of other users have requested access to the book during the user's exclusive access period. Although the server 12 has been described as the verification of the period in which the subscriber has the exclusive access period to a book or portion thereof, another system modality 10 downloads both the book and a portion of the book and viewing software to the subscriber's computer 14. In this modality, the vision software verifies the period or periods of exclusive access to the book that are agreed to the subscriber as previously described. Specifically, the vision software denies viewing the book or portion of the book that has been downloaded to the subscriber's computer 14 if the subscriber explicitly terminates exclusive access to the book or the exclusive access period has expired. In the situation in which the subscriber explicitly terminates the exclusive access, the vision software establishes a communication link with the server 12 through the Internet 16 and then informs the server 12 that the subscriber has terminated his exclusive access to the subscriber. book. The expiration of the period of exclusive access is verified by both the server 12 and the vision software. The server 12, after detecting the expiration of the exclusive access period, makes the book available to other subscribers. The vision software, after detecting the expiration of the exclusive access period, prevents the subscriber from seeing the book or portion of the download itself. The conditions under which an exclusive subscriber access is renewed are the same as described above. However, the manner in which the renewal occurs implies that the vision software establishes a communication between the subscriber's computer 14 with the server 12 through the Internet 16 and then communicates with the server 12 regarding the renewal of the exclusive access to the subscriber's book. For example, server 12 may have determined that a higher priority user is waiting for access to the book and informs the subscriber's computer 14 that the renewal has been denied. In this case, the vision software operates to deny the vision of the relevant book just as if the period of exclusive access to subscribers has expired.

With reference to Figures 4 and 5, the present invention also addresses the problem of one or more persons obtaining information, such as a password, from an authorized subscriber using access to server 12 and using this information to obtain access not authorized to electronic books provided by the server 12. The server 12 addresses this problem again by making use of the cookies received from the two subscriber computers 14, where the individual or individuals associated with the subscriber's computers 14 gained access to the server 12 using a valid subscriber access information. Specifically, the server 12 looks for a pattern in the cookies received from the two subscriber computers 14 which is indicative of fraud. With particular reference to Figures 4 and 5, when one or more individuals use two different subscriber computers 14 to access the server 12, the two subscriber computers 14 each are assigned a unique cookie for subsequent communications. For example, one of the subscriber's computers 14 may be assigned "cookie 01" and the other subscriber's computer 14 may be assigned "cookie 02". Server 12 looks for a pattern in these two unique cookies that is indicative of fraud. Specifically, the server 12 defines a session for the subscriber's first computer 14 as the time between receipt of the two consecutive cookies. Likewise, a session for the subscriber's second computer 14 is defined by server 12 to make the time between two consecutive cookies. If there is an overlap in the two sessions, the server 12 presumes that one is fraudulently accessing the server 12. In this case, the valid subscriber is prevented from accessing the server 12 to view the books. Typically, all requests for access that are associated with the suspect key are denied for a specific period of time, after which the user who is the owner of the suspect key is asked / required to change his password. To avoid searching for a valid subscriber who is using two subscriber computers 14 to access server 12, the overlap period that server 12 uses to make a determination that fraud is probably occurring is relatively narrow. For example, the overlap necessary for server 12 to take a remedial action may be 5 minutes or less. A possible refinement to the overlap period having less than a predetermined period in order for the server 12 to terminate one or more individuals is probably a fraudulent access to the server 12 and is possible if the locations of the two subscriber computers 14 are fixed . In this case, fraud could be indicated if the overlap period is less than the time an individual could reasonably take to travel between the fixed locations of the subscriber's two computers. With reference to Figure 6, the present invention also addresses the problem of unauthorized copying of electronic books when the system is implemented on an intranet or local network environment, where the electronic book provider has no direct control over access to electronic books. In this situation, the copy is impeded by encrypting the e-books cryptically and by cryptically decoding an e-book or portion thereof only during the period of time during which there are pending requests for access to the book. Once there are no access requests for the electronic book, the book or portion of it is encoded again cryptically. With reference to Figure 6A, this methodology is implemented by initializing a counter at zero on server 12 before any request for access to a particular electronic book is addressed. The counter is used to keep track of requests that are potentially being processed simultaneously through multiple versions or threads of the process illustrated in Figure 6B. It should also be appreciated that since the counter provides this tracking function, the operations that involve the meter, such as the increase and reduction of the counter, are atomic, that is, they can not be interrupted. With reference to Figure 6B, each request for access to a particular electronic book causes a thread or separate version of the illustrated process to begin. Initially, the validity of the request is tested by determining whether the subscriber requesting has the right of access to the book. If the request is invalid, the process ends. If, on the other hand, the request is valid, the counter is incremented and tested to determine if the counter is equal to 1.

When the first counter is incremented, that is, it goes from a value of zero to a value of 1, the electronic book an important portion of the book is cryptically decoded and provided to the first subscriber who submitted a request. After the book or portion of the decoded electronic book has been cryptically provided to a first request subscriber, the counter is reduced. If there are other important requests for access to the relevant portion of the book (that is, if the counter is still greater than 0) after the first requesting subscriber has been serviced, the book or portion of the decoded book is cryptically provided. to the next subscriber requesting for a second active version of the illustrated process and so on in a FIFO order until all requests have been answered. Once all the requests have been answered (that is, the counter has been reduced so that it is now equal to 0), the last active version of the illustrated process will cause the book or the important portion of the book to be cryptically encoded again , making it difficult for someone to make unauthorized copies of the electronic book. To further prevent copying, the book is encoded with the name of the server's domain, and cryptic decoding is allowed only on the server whose domain name matches the name of the domain encoded in the book. The above description of the invention has been presented for the purpose of illustration and description. Furthermore, the description is not intended to limit the invention to the form described herein.

Accordingly, variations and modifications in accordance with the above teachings, and experience or knowledge in the pertinent art are within the scope of the present invention. For example, inventions are applicable to the Internet, an Intranet and other computer networks. In addition, the inventions, although described with respect to electronic books, are also applicable to other types of read-only data. It should also be appreciated that the steps of the various inventions can, in many cases, be performed in different sequences from those described. The preferred embodiment described above is further intended to explain the best mode for practicing the invention and to enable others skilled in the art to use the invention in various embodiments and with the various modifications required by its particular applications or uses of the invention. It is intended that the appended claims be constructed to include alternative modalities to the extent permitted by the prior art.

Claims (28)

1. - A method to ensure that when a data resource that is located in a web server and that can be accessed through a plurality of computer users each having a web browser but that can only be used by a computer user in the moment that has been distributed to a computer user, the data resource will be available to other computer users under certain conditions, the method comprises: first transmitting a temporary identifier to a first computer user; first receiving an initial request to access the data resource from the first computer user, said initial request including the temporary identifier; determine if the data resource is available; provide, if the data resource is determined as available, to the first computer user with exclusive access to the data resource during a first predetermined period of time; secondly receiving a subsequent request that is related to the data resource from the first computer user, said subsequent request including the temporary identifier; secondly transmitting a response to the subsequent request if the subsequent request is received within the first predetermined period of time; releasing the data resource of the distribution to any of the plurality of computer users after the expiration of said first predetermined time period if the subsequent request from the first computer user does not agree with a time that is within . a second predetermined period of time, wherein the second predetermined period of time is within the first predetermined period of time and is both less than or equal to the first predetermined period of time.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein the second predetermined period of time is less than the first predetermined period of time, starts after the beginning of the first predetermined period of time, and ends when the first predetermined period of time ends.

3. A method according to claim 1, wherein: the step of transmitting in second place includes renewing the exclusive access of the first computer user to the data resource for a third predetermined period of time, if the subsequent request is according to the time that is within the second predetermined period of time.

4. A method according to claim 1, wherein: the step of transmitting in second place includes renewing the exclusive access of the first computer user to the data resource during one or more predetermined additional periods of time, if a The required number of additional subsequent requests are in accordance with the times that are within a predetermined degree of one of the additional predetermined periods of time; and releasing the data resource to be distributed to any of the plurality of users after the expiration of one of the additional predetermined periods of time, if the required number of said additional subsequent extensions is not in accordance with the times that are within the first predetermined extension of one of the additional predetermined periods of time.

5. A method according to claim 4, wherein the additional predetermined periods of time are reduced in size as the number of renewals increases.

6. A method according to claim 4, wherein the number of additional subsequent requests that must occur within the predetermined extent of one of the additional predetermined periods of time to obtain a renewal increases as the number of renovations increases.

7. A method according to claim 1, wherein the step of transmitting second includes renewing the exclusive access of the first computer user to the data resource during a third predetermined period of time unless a second computer user with a higher priority than the first computer user has been denied access to the data resource during the first predetermined period of time.

8. A method according to claim 1, wherein the step of transmitting in second place includes renewing the exclusive access of the first computer user to the data resource during a third predetermined period of time unless a predetermined number of other computer users have been denied access to the computer. data resource during the first predetermined period of time.

9. A method according to claim 1, wherein: the second predetermined period of time is less than the first predetermined period of time; and the step of transmitting in second place includes renewing the exclusive access of the first computer user for the first data resource during a third predetermined period of time if the subsequent request agrees with a time that is within the second predetermined period of time .

10. A method according to claim 1, wherein: the second predetermined time period is less than the first predetermined time period and starts after starting the first predetermined time period; and the step of transmitting in second place includes renewing the exclusive access of the first computer user to the data resource during a third predetermined period of time if the subsequent request is in accordance with a time that is within the second predetermined period of time .

11. A method according to claim 1, wherein: the second predetermined period of time is less than the first predetermined period of time, starts after the start of the first predetermined period of time, and ends when the first predetermined period of time is reached. time ends; and the step of transmitting in second place includes renewing the exclusive access of the first computer user to the data resource during a third predetermined period of time if the subsequent request is in accordance with a time that is within the second predetermined period of time.

12. A system that includes a web server with a data resource, a plurality of user computers that are each associated with users that are authorized to access the data resource and each one having a web browser, and an Internet / intranet to communicate the information between the web server and the plurality of user computers, a related method to ensure that when the data resource is distributed to a user, the data resource will be made available to other users under certain conditions, the The method comprises: first receiving, in the first user's computer, a temporary identifier of the web server; first transmit, using a web browser, an initial request for access to the data resource from the first user computer to the web server; wherein the initial request includes a temporary identifier; receive second, in response to the initial request, exclusive access to the data resource during a first predetermined period of time; transmit secondly, using the web browser, a subsequent request to the initial request that relates to the data resource of the first user computer to the web server; wherein the subsequent request includes the temporary identifier; receiving third, on the first user's computer, a response to the subsequent request if the subsequent request is filed within the first predetermined period of time; and fourth, on the first user computer, an indication that the data resource has been released to be distributed to any of the plurality of user computers if the subsequent request does not agree with a time within a user's time. second predetermined period of time, wherein the second predetermined period of time is within the first predetermined period of time and either less than or equal to the first predetermined period of time.

13. A method of agreement in claim 12, wherein the step of receiving third includes obtaining a renewal of the exclusive access of the first user computer for the data resource during a third predetermined period of time if the subsequent request agrees with a time that is within the second predetermined period of time.

14.- A method to be used to ensure that when a data resource is located in a web server, accessible through a plurality of user computers that each have a web browser, but can only be distributed to one of the plurality of user computers at a time that is distributed to a first user computer, the resource of Data will be made available to other user computers under certain conditions, the method comprising: providing an Internet / intranet to conduct communications between a web server and the plurality of user computers; where the Internet / intranet has a server communication port to communicate with the web server; wherein the Internet / intranet has a user communication port to communicate with the plurality of user computers; providing, using the user communication port, a temporary identifier to a first user computer; receiving first, in the user communication port, an initial request for excess to the data resource of the first user computer, the initial request including a temporary identifier; transmit first, using the server communication port, the initial request for the web server; receiving second, at the server communication port and in response to the initial request, an indication that the first user computer has exclusive access to the data resource during a first predetermined period of time; transmit secondly, using the user communication port, the indication to the first user computer; receiving third, in the user communication port, a subsequent request of the first user computer in relation to the data resource, and the subsequent request includes the temporary identifier; transmit in third place, using the server communication port, the subsequent request to the web server; receiving in the fourth place, in the server communication port, a response to the subsequent request if the subsequent request is in accordance with a time that is within the first predetermined period of time; transmit in fourth place, using the user communication port, the response to the first user computer; receiving fifth, in the server communication port, an indication that the data source was released to be distributed to any of the plurality of computer users after the expiration of the first predetermined period of time, said indication resulting in the subsequent request did not agree with a time that was within a second predetermined period of time, wherein the second predetermined period of time is within the first predetermined period of time and is either less than or equal to the first predetermined period of time; transmit in fifth place, using the user communication port, said indication to the first user computer.

15. A method according to claim 14, further comprising: receiving in sixth place, at the user communication port, a further subsequent request from the first user computer in relation to the data resource, the subsequent additional request includes the temporary identifier; transmit in sixth place, using the server communication port, the subsequent additional request to the web server; wherein the steps of receiving in sixth place and transmitting in sixth place occur during a third predetermined period of time which is continuous with the first predetermined period of time and during which no other user computer is allowed access to the data resource .

16.- A method to ensure that when a data source is located in a web server and that it is accessible through a plurality of computer users that each has a web browser but can only be used by a computer user at the time it has been distributed to a computer user, the data resource will be made available to other computer users under certain conditions, the method comprising: transmitting first a temporary identifier to a first computer user; receive first an initial request for access to the data resource from the first computer user, the initial request including the temporary identifier; determine if the data resource is available; provide, if the data resource is determined to be available, the first computer user with a computer-readable copy of the data resource; provide the first computer with means to prevent access to a data resource that has been prohibited to the first computer after the occurrence of an event; and make the data resource available to other computer users if such an event occurs.

17. A method according to claim 16, wherein: said event includes at least one of the following: an explicit termination of the exclusive access of the computer user through the computer user and the expiration of a predetermined period of weather.

18. A method according to claim 16, wherein the step of providing a computer-readable copy includes providing a computer-readable copy of the entire data resource.

19. A method for detecting when an individual authorization to access a data resource that is being provided by a web server is being used by a first individual in a first computer and a second individual in a second computer, with at least one One of the first and second individuals has not been authorized to the data resource, the method comprises: receiving first, in the web server, a first initial request to have access to the data resource that is made through the first individual using the first computer and includes the authorization of the individual to access the data resource; transmit first, from the web server, a first temporary identifier to the first computer associated with the first individual, the first temporary identifier to be used by the first computer in subsequent communications with the web server; receive second, on the web server, a second initial request to access the data resource that is made by the second individual using the second computer and also includes the individual's authorization to access the data resource; transmit second, from the web server, a second temporary identifier to the second computer associated with the second individual, the second temporary identifier to be used by the second computer in subsequent communications with the web server, identify, in said subsequent communications from the first and second computers that include the first and second temporary identifiers, a pattern of the first and second temporary identifiers that is indicative of at least one of the first and second individuals not authorized to access the data resource.

20. A method according to claim 19, wherein the step of identifying comprises: first defining a first time period based on the times associated with two occurrences of the first time identifier; secondly defining a second period of time based on the times associated with the second temporary identifier; and determine if said second period of time overlaps with the first period of time.

21. A method according to claim 20, wherein the first time period is based on the times associated with two consecutive occurrences of the first temporary identifier.

22. A method according to claim 20, wherein the first time period is based on the times associated with two consecutive occurrences of the first temporary identifier; and the second period of time is based on the times associated with two consecutive occurrences of the second temporal identifier.

23. - A method according to claim 20, wherein: the step of determining includes determining whether at least a portion of the second period does not overlap the first period of time.

24. - A method according to claim 20, wherein said overlap extends over a period that is less than a predetermined period of time.

25. A method according to claim 24, further comprising: providing said web server with positional information on the first and second computers, and using said positional information to determine a travel time for an individual to move between the locations of the first and second computers; and using said travel time to establish the predetermined period of time. 26.- In a client's internal computer system that includes a web server, a plurality of user computers, an intranet to communicate the information between the web server and each one of the plurality of user computers, a digital data resource of owner located on the web server and a predetermined number of authorized users to access the proprietary digital data resource, a method to protect the copy owner's digital data resource by individuals who can use the client's internal computer system , which comprises: cryptically encoding the resource of digital owner data located on the web server; initialize a counter at 0; increasing said counter each time a request is received for access to the owner's digital data resource from one of the authorized computer users; cryptically decoding the crypically encoded digital data resource when said counter is incremented from 0 to 1; providing the owner digital resource resource cryptically decoded to each of the authorized computer users who have requested access to the owner's digital data resource as long as the counter equals 1 or greater than 1; reduce the counter each time the proprietary decoded digital data resource has been cryptically provisioned to one of the authorized computer users by requesting access to the owner's digital data resource; re-encoding cryptically the proprietary digital data resource cryptically decoded if said counter, after the step of reducing, equals 0. 27.- A method according to claim 26, wherein the step of providing includes transporting the resource of proprietary digital data cryptically decoded to authorized computer users based on the order in which the requests of authorized computer users were received. 28.- A method according to claim 26, wherein the step of decoding cryptically includes verifying the domain name of the web server.