Sony has been denied a patent by United Kingdom inspectors with respect to an invention that permits user data to be exchanged alongside peer-to-peer (P2P) file transfers. An appeal against the decision of the United Kingdom Patent Office was dismissed on the basis that the subject matter was not patentable. Nevertheless, the feature could still form an interesting addition to any legitimate P2P network established by the recording label:
When a P2P user downloads a piece of content from another user's computer, be it a song or a game or a movie, he normally knows nothing about that user -- or where that user obtained the content. Sony's proposal would change that experience. Sony describes a method for attaching a user history to content when it is shared among computers or other devices. When one user downloads a song, he can see who had it last and what he thought about it.
Note: some news sites seem to be reporting this as 'Sony denied a P2P patent', which is clearly inaccurate. The recitals only referred to a method for exchanging reviews and other data as an incidental part of the P2P file-transfer process, and even this claim was rejected.
Originally by Zonk at Slashdot: Your Rights Online, 9:20 PM