LICENSE MANAGEMENT FOR DIGITAL CONTENT

• US 20020046181A1
• Filed: 12/28/1998
• Published: 04/18/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 12/28/1998
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Audible Incorporated (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Audible Incorporated (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: JUN, BENJAMIN CHE-MING, KOVESDI, ROZSA E., RAJASEKHARAN, AJIT V., STORY, GUY A. Jr.
• Granted Patent: US 8,175,977 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/59
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/10 Protecting distributed programs or content, e.g. vending or licensing of copyrighted material protection in video systems or pay television H04N7/16 ; Digital rights management [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions

Abstract

A method and apparatus for digital content license management is disclosed that provides one or more license management devices that manage licenses for playback of digital content. The license management devices create licenses having an associated cardinality that determines the number of playback devices that can be authorized by the license. The license is stored in a set of playback devices, where the number of playback devices in the set corresponds to the cardinality of the license. The license is also included in digital content that the license authorizes for playback. Playback devices that have a license that matches a license included in the digital content are authorized to play the digital content. A single license can be used to provide authorization to play digital content from multiple sources and/or multiple types of content. Playback devices can store multiple licenses, which allows playback devices to belong to multiple sets of playback devices authorized to playback various digital content. In one embodiment digital content files can contain multiple licenses to allow the content files to be shared by multiple sets of playback devices.

Claims

1. A method of managing digital content licenses, the method comprising:

creating a first license having a first cardinality, the license created by a license management device;

storing the first license in a first set of playback devices in response to a command from the license management device, wherein the first set of playback devices is determined based, at least in part, on the first cardinality;

storing the first license in first digital content; and

authorizing playback of the first digital content with the first set of playback devices.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

storing the first license in second digital content; and

authorizing playback of the second digital content with the first set of playback devices.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

creating a second license having a second cardinality, the license created by the license management device;

storing the second license in a second set of playback devices, wherein the second set of playback devices is determined based, at least in part, on the second cardinality, and further wherein at least one playback device belongs to the first set and to the second set;

storing the second license in second digital content;

authorizing playback of the second digital content with the second set of playback devices.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the cardinality is fixed.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the cardinality is variable.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the cardinality is unlimited.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one of the first set of playback devices is a hardware playback device.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one of the first set of playback devices is a software player.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the first digital content is audio digital programming.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the first digital content is audio/visual digital programming.

11. A machine-readable medium having stored thereon sequences of instructions that when executed by one or more processors cause the one or more processors to:

create a first license with a license management device, the first license having a first cardinality;

store the first license in a first set of playback devices in response to a command from the license management device, wherein the first set of playback devices is determined based, at least in part, on the first cardinality;

store the first license in first digital content; and

authorize playback of the first digital content with the first set of playback devices.

12. The machine-readable medium of claim 11 further comprising sequences of instructions that when executed cause the one or more processors to:

store the first license in second digital content; and

authorize playback of the second digital content with the first set of playback devices.

13. The machine-readable medium of claim 11 further comprising sequences of instructions that when executed cause the one or more processors to:

create a second license in the license management device, the second license having a second cardinality;

store the second license in a second set of playback devices, wherein the second set of playback devices is determined based, at least in part, on the second cardinality, and further wherein at least one playback device belongs to the first set and to the second set;

store the second license in second digital content;

authorize playback of the second digital content with the second set of playback devices.

14. The machine-readable medium of claim 11 wherein the cardinality is fixed.

15. The machine-readable medium of claim 11 wherein the cardinality is variable.

16. The machine-readable medium of claim 11 wherein the cardinality is unlimited.

17. The machine-readable medium of claim 11 wherein at least one of the first set of playback devices is a hardware playback device.

18. The machine-readable medium of claim 11 wherein at least one of the first set of playback devices is a software player.

19. The machine-readable medium of claim 11 wherein the first digital content is audio digital programming.

20. The machine-readable medium of claim 11 wherein the first digital content is audio/visual digital programming.

21. An apparatus for digital license management, the apparatus comprising:

means for creating a first license in a license management device, the first license having a first cardinality;

means for storing the first license in a first set of playback devices in response to a command from the license management device;

means for storing the first license in first digital content; and

means for authorizing playback of the first digital content with the first set of playback devices.

22. The apparatus of claim 21 further comprising:

means for storing the first license in second digital content; and

means for authorizing playback of the second digital content with the first set of playback devices.

23. The apparatus of claim 21 further comprising:

means for creating a second license in the license management device;

means for storing the second license in a second set of playback devices, wherein at least one playback device from the second set of playback devices is included in the first set of playback devices;

means for storing the second license in second digital content; and

means for authorizing playback of the second digital content with the second set of playback devices.