Digital license with referral information

• US 20030204723A1
• Filed: 04/30/2002
• Published: 10/30/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: DeMello, Marco A., Waxman, Peter David, Narin, Attila, Venkatesh, Chandramouli, Madonna, Christopher Robert Richard
• Granted Patent: US 7,366,915 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/165
• 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: H04L 2463/101 applying security measures for digital rights management data processing systems or methods, specially adapted for commerce, e.g. marketing, shopping, billing, auctions or e-commerce G06Q30/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2463/102 applying security measure for e-commerce data processing systems or methods, specially adapted for e-commerce G06Q30/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0807 using tickets, e.g. Kerberos cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication using tickets or tokens H04L9/3213
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/10 for controlling access to devices or network resources

Abstract

A digital license corresponds to encrypted digital content and includes a content key for decrypting same. The content key is encrypted and is decryptable by a decryption key available only to the first persona, the license thereby being tied to the first persona. The license is a first license and further includes referral information specifying a first location at which a second persona may obtain a second license for the content tied thereto. The second persona requests to render the content by way of the first license and the request is denied because the first license is not tied to the second persona. The referral information is obtained from the first license and employed to initiate contact with the specified first location and obtain the second license tied to the second persona.

Claims

1. A digital license corresponding to a piece of encrypted digital content, the license including a content key for decrypting the encrypted content, the content key being encrypted, the license being tied to a first persona by way of the encrypted content key being decryptable by a decryption key available only to the first persona;

the license further including referral information specifying a first location at which a second persona may obtain a license for the content tied thereto.

2. The license of claim 1 in combination with the content, such content including the license integral therewith.

3. The license of claim 1 further including license terms that set forth particular rights with regard to accessing an/or rendering the content.

4. The license of claim 1 tied to one of a user and a computing device by way of the encrypted content key being decryptable by a decryption key available only to such user or computing device.

5. The license of claim 1 wherein the first location is an address of a site at which the license tied to the second persona may be obtained.

6. The license of claim 5 wherein the site is a network site and the address is a network address.

7. The license of claim 6 wherein the site is an Internet site and the address is a URL.

8. The license of claim 1 wherein the referral information further specifies an identification of the first persona.

9. The license of claim 1 wherein the referral information further specifies a second location at which the second persona may obtain support if the specified first location is determined to be defective.

10. The license of claim 9 wherein the second location is one of a network site and an electronic mail address.

11. The license of claim 1 wherein the referral information further specifies a friendly name for being displayed as representative of the first location.

12. A method in combination with a digital license corresponding to a piece of encrypted digital content, the license including a content key for decrypting the encrypted content, the content key being encrypted, the license being tied to a first persona by way of the encrypted content key being decryptable by a decryption key available only to the first persona;

the license being a first license and further including referral information specifying a first location at which a second persona may obtain a second license for the content tied thereto, the method for the second persona to obtain the second license tied thereto and comprising;

requesting by the second persona to render the content by way of the first license;

receiving notification that the request is denied based on the first license not being tied to the second persona;

obtaining the referral information from the first license;

employing the obtained referral information to initiate contact with the specified first location;

performing a transaction at the specified first location to obtain the second license tied to the second persona, the second license being prepared and delivered in response thereto;

receiving the prepared and delivered second license.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the first persona has a public/private key pair (PU-1, PR-1), the second persona has a public private key pair (PU-2, PR-2), the license includes the content key encrypted according to (PU-1), and the second persona has (PR-2) but not (PR-1), (PR-1) being necessary to decrypt the encrypted content key.

14. The method of claim 12 wherein the first location is an address of a site at which the license tied to the second persona may be obtained, the method comprising employing the obtained referral information to initiate contact with the site.

15. The license of claim 14 wherein the site is a network site and the address is a network address, the method comprising employing the obtained referral information to initiate contact with the network site by way of a network connection.

16. The license of claim 15 wherein the site is an Internet site and the address is a URL, the method comprising employing the obtained referral information to initiate contact with the Internet site.

17. The method of claim 12 wherein performing the transaction comprises transmitting information to the first location to be employed to tie the second license to the second persona.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein tying the second license to the second persona is accomplished by encrypting the content key for the content within the second license by a public key of the second persona, and wherein transmitting information comprises transmitting such public key of the second persona to the first location.

19. The method of claim 12 wherein receiving the prepared and delivered second license comprises receiving such second license including referral information specifying a first location at which a third persona may obtain a third license for the content tied thereto.

20. The method of claim 12 wherein receiving the second license comprises receiving the content including the second license integral therewith.