Apparatus and method for providing access rights information in a portion of a file

• US 20030050919A1
• Filed: 09/05/2001
• Published: 03/13/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 09/05/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Jones, Scott Thomas, Hamzy, Mark Joseph, Brown, Michael Wayne
• Granted Patent: US 6,892,201 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/2
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6218 to a system of files or objects, e.g. local or distributed file system or database
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99939 Privileged access

Abstract

An apparatus and method for providing access rights information on computer accessible content are provided. The apparatus and method provide a mechanism through which access rights information is provided in association with information and content such that use of the information and content is controlled based on the access rights information. The apparatus and method include access rights information tags being associated with information and content. A web browser is provided with code, either in the web browser, or as a plugin application or browser extension, to process the access rights information and thereby control the usage of the associated information and content. In addition to being implemented as tags, the access rights information may be inserted into a file such as in the file header. In such an embodiment, the file header includes a pointer to the file data and thus, the inclusion of the access rights information into the file header does not disrupt the processing of the file. Moreover, with this embodiment, since the access rights information is part of the file itself, it becomes more difficult for would-be hackers to remove the access rights information.

Claims

1. A method of controlling access to content, comprising:

receiving a request a request to perform a function on a file;

processing access rights information in a portion of the file to determine allowable access to the content; and

controlling access to the content based on the allowable access determined from the access rights information in the file.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the portion of the file is a file header.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the file header contains a pointer to file data and a pointer to access rights information.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising obtaining a user access level for a user of the computing device.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the user access level is obtained from one of a locally or remotely located source.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein processing the access rights information in the file to determine allowable access to the file data includes determining the allowable access based on a combination of the access rights information and the user access level.

7. The method of claim 4, further comprising obtaining a user login identification, wherein obtaining the user access level includes retrieving a user profile based on the user login identification.

8. The method of claim 3, wherein processing the access rights information in the file includes parsing the access rights information to identify a manner by which the file data is to be presented to a user of the computing device.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the file data represents one of a document and an image.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the access rights information includes information pertaining to one or more of a cost of accessing the file data, an entity to which a fee for accessing the file data is to be paid, a location where user access level information may be obtained, printing of the representation of the file data, copying of the file data, saving the file data, degrading a quality of the representation of the file data, and a portion of the representation of the file data that may be altered according to the access rights information, and how the portion of the representation of the file data may be altered based on a access level of a user.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the access rights information includes default access rights and access rights for one or more user access levels.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the access rights information is secured from tampering by the use of at least one of encryption, digital certificates, checksums, digital signatures, and tamper detection algorithms.

13. A computer program product in a computer readable medium for controlling access to content, comprising:

first instructions for receiving a request a request to perform a function on a file;

second instructions for processing access rights information in a portion of the file to determine allowable access to the content; and

third instructions for controlling access to the content based on the allowable access determined from the access rights information in the file.

14. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the portion of the file is a file header.

15. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the file header contains a pointer to file data and a pointer to access rights information.

16. The computer program product of claim 15, further comprising fourth instructions for obtaining a user access level for a user of the computing device.

17. The computer program product of claim 16, wherein the user access level is obtained from one of a locally or remotely located source.

18. The computer program product of claim 16, wherein the second instructions for processing the access rights information in the file to determine allowable access to the file data include instructions for determining the allowable access based on a combination of the access rights information and the user access level.

19. The computer program product of claim 16, further comprising fifth instructions for obtaining a user login identification, wherein the fourth instructions for obtaining the user access level include instructions for retrieving a user profile based on the user login identification.

20. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the second instructions for processing the access rights information in the file include instructions for parsing the access rights information to identify a manner by which the file data is to be presented to a user of the computing device.

21. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the file data represents one of a document and an image.

22. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the access rights information includes information pertaining to one or more of a cost of accessing the file data, an entity to which a fee for accessing the file data is to be paid, a location where user access level information may be obtained, printing of the representation of the file data, copying of the file data, saving the file data, degrading a quality of the representation of the file data, and a portion of the representation of the file data that may be altered according to the access rights information, and how the portion of the representation of the file data may be altered based on a access level of a user.

23. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the access rights information includes default access rights and access rights for one or more user access levels.

24. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the access rights information is secured from tampering by the use of at least one of encryption, digital certificates, checksums, digital signatures, and tamper detection algorithms.

25. An apparatus for controlling access to content, comprising:

means for receiving a request a request to perform a function on a file;

means for processing access rights information in a portion of the file to determine allowable access to the content; and

means for controlling access to the content based on the allowable access determined from the access rights information in the file.

26. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein the portion of the file is a file header.

27. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein the file header contains a pointer to file data and a pointer to access rights information.

28. The apparatus of claim 27, further comprising means for obtaining a user access level for a user of the computing device.

29. The apparatus of claim 28, wherein the user access level is obtained from one of a locally or remotely located source.

30. The apparatus of claim 28, wherein the means for processing the access rights information in the file to determine allowable access to the file data includes means for determining the allowable access based on a combination of the access rights information and the user access level.

31. The apparatus of claim 28, further comprising means for obtaining a user login identification, wherein the means for obtaining the user access level includes means for retrieving a user profile based on the user login identification.

32. The apparatus of claim 27, wherein the means for processing the access rights information in the file includes means for parsing the access rights information to identify a manner by which the file data is to be presented to a user of the computing device.

33. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein the file data represents one of a document and an image.

34. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein the access rights information includes information pertaining to one or more of a cost of accessing the file data, an entity to which a fee for accessing the file data is to be paid, a location where user access level information may be obtained, printing of the representation of the file data, copying of the file data, saving the file data, degrading a quality of the representation of the file data, and a portion of the representation of the file data that may be altered according to the access rights information, and how the portion of the representation of the file data may be altered based on a access level of a user.

35. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein the access rights information includes default access rights and access rights for one or more user access levels.

36. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein the access rights information is secured from tampering by the use of at least one of encryption, digital certificates, checksums, digital signatures, and tamper detection algorithms.