“Enforcing rendering advertisements and other predetermined media content in connection with playback of downloaded selected media content. Playback of selected media content is made conditional on acquisition of a playback token that is generated in response to playback of the predetermined content.

The playback token may be implemented as a digital rights management (DRM) license acquired in response to playback of the predetermined content. Another aspect involves a content insertion engine for inserting ads or other predetermined content into the playback of downloaded content.”

DRM gets more Draconian with every passing day. Since the ad supported model obviously works so poorly, will we be forced into a Big Brother is watching you watch ads universe? Is the next step a patent to embed subliminal ads throughout the entire content? A scary thought that isn’t all that far-fetched.