License management device, license management method, and computer program

• US 20050015343A1
• Filed: 09/11/2003
• Published: 01/20/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 09/11/2002
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Osawa, Yoshitomo, Morita, Masao, Kurihara, Akira, Nagai, Norihiro, Kitaya, Yoshimichi, Fukui, Toshiharu, Urano, Naomi
• Application Number:
  US10/495,010
• Publication Number:
  US 20050015343A1
• 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: G06F 2221/2135 Metering
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00086 Circuits for prevention of unauthorised reproduction or copying, e.g. piracy indicating unauthorised use of record carriers in general G11B23/28; scrambling for television signal recording H04N5/913; network architectures or network protocols for network security H04L63/00; cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for secret or secure communication H04L9/00
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00253 wherein the key is stored on the record carrier
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00847 wherein the usage restriction is defined by a licence file

Abstract

To provide an information recording medium and an information processing apparatus and method in which the content usage by ensuring copyright protection can be implemented both in CD players and information processing apparatuses, for example, PCs. A license providing condition for a client can be dynamically set based on the content usage status of the client. For example, for clients having a large number of content usages, the license price is decreased, or the license can be provided free. A media ID stored in, for example, a CD, and a product ID as an identifier in, for example, a title unit or an album unit are received from the client. Based on such identification data, the content usage status data can be checked. Accordingly, the licenses can be provided under the reliable management of the content usage.

Claims

1. A license management apparatus for setting a condition for providing a license as a content usage right, comprising:

a disk table in which data indicating content usage statuses of clients is stored;

an album price master table in which information concerning license providing conditions according to the content usage statuses is stored; and

license providing condition determining means for obtaining information concerning a content usage of a client from the disk table based on identification data accompanying a license obtaining request received from the client, and for obtaining information concerning a license providing condition from the album price master table based on the content usage information so as to determine the license providing condition for the client based on the information concerning the license providing condition.

2. A license management apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

the license obtaining request received from the client is a request to obtain a license corresponding to a usage right of content stored in an information recording medium, and the identification data accompanying the license obtaining request is a combination of a media ID, stored in the information recording medium, as an identifier unique to the information recording medium and a product ID as an identifier set for each product corresponding to a group of a plurality of information recording media; and

the disk table stores the content usage status data corresponding to the media ID and the product ID.

3. A license management apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the information concerning the license providing conditions is information concerning license providing prices, and the album price master table stores the information concerning the license providing prices according to the content usage statuses.

4. A license management apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

the information concerning the license providing conditions is information concerning license providing prices;

the content usage status is the number of purchases as the number of purchases obtained for the content;

the disk table stores data indicating the number of content purchases as the content usage status data corresponding to the media ID and the product ID;

the album price master table stores the information concerning the license providing prices according to the number of content purchases; and

the license providing condition determining means determines the different license providing prices according to the number of content purchases by the client.

5. A license management apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising web-page generating/providing means for generating a web page containing the information concerning the license providing condition determined by the license providing condition determining means and content information, and for providing the web page for the client.

6. A license management apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

a license provided by the license management apparatus is a usage right of encrypted content contained in a content file owned by a client;

the content file includes content data (Enc(Kc, Content)) encrypted with a content key [Kc], content key data (Enc (Kroot, Kc)) encrypted with a root key [Kroot], and an enabling key block (EKB) used for obtaining the root key [Kroot] by performing decryption processing using a device node key (DNK) stored in service data as license data; and

the license provided by the license management apparatus contains the service data storing the device node key (DNK) therein.

7. A license management apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the license management apparatus verifies a MAC as tampering verification data added to the identification data accompanying the license obtaining request received from the client, and issues a license on the condition that the identification data is not tampered with.

8. A license management method for setting a condition for providing a license as a content usage right, comprising:

an identification data receiving step of receiving identification data accompanying a license obtaining request from a client;

a content usage information obtaining step of obtaining information indicating a content usage of the client from a disk table in which data indicating content usage statuses of clients is stored;

a license providing condition information obtaining step of obtaining, based on the content usage information, information indicating a license providing condition from an album price master table in which information indicating license providing conditions according to the content usage status is stored; and

a license providing condition determining step of determining the license providing condition for the client based on the obtained information concerning the license providing condition.

9. A license management method according to claim 8, wherein:

the license obtaining request received from the client is a request to obtain a license corresponding to a usage right of content stored in an information recording medium, and the identification data accompanying the license obtaining request is a combination of a media ID, stored in the information recording medium, as an identifier unique to the information-recording medium and a product ID as an identifier set for each product corresponding to a group of a plurality of information recording media; and

the content usage information obtaining step obtains the content usage status data from the disk table based on the media ID and the product ID.

10. A license management method according to claim 8, wherein the information concerning the license providing conditions is information concerning license providing prices, and the license providing condition information obtaining step obtains the information concerning the license providing price according to the content usage status from the album price master table.

11. A license management method according to claim 8, wherein:

the information concerning the license providing conditions is information concerning license providing prices;

the content usage status is the number of purchases as the number of purchases obtained for the content;

the content usage information obtaining step obtains data indicating the number of-content purchases as the content usage status data from the disk table based on the media ID and the product ID;

the license providing condition information obtaining step obtains the information concerning the license providing price according to the number of content purchases from the album price master table; and

the license providing condition determining step determines the different license providing prices according to the number of content purchases by the client.

12. A license management method according to claim 8, further comprising a web-page generating/providing step of generating a web page containing the information concerning the license providing condition determined in the license providing condition determining step and content information, and of providing the web page for the client.

13. A license management method according to claim 8, wherein:

the license is a usage right of encrypted content contained in a content file owned by a client;

the content file includes content data (Enc(Kc, Content)) encrypted with a content key [Kc], content key data (Enc (Kroot, Kc)) encrypted with a root key [Kroot], and an enabling key block (EKB) used for obtaining the root key [Kroot] by performing decryption processing using a device node key (DNK) stored in service data as license data; and

the license management method further comprises a step of generating the service data storing the device node key (DNK) therein and of providing the service data for the client.

14. A license management method according to claim 8, further comprising a step of verifying a MAC as tampering verification data added to the identification data accompanying the license obtaining request received from the client, and a license is issued on the condition that the identification data is not tampered with.

15. A computer program in which a processing program for executing license management processing for setting a condition for providing a license as a content usage right is indicated, the computer program comprising:

an identification data receiving step of receiving identification data accompanying a license obtaining request from a client;

a content usage information obtaining step of obtaining information indicating a content usage of the client from a disk table in which data indicating content usage statuses of clients is stored;

a license providing condition information obtaining step of obtaining, based on the content usage information, information indicating a license providing condition from an album price master table in which information indicating license providing conditions according to the content usage status is stored; and

a license providing condition determining step of determining the license providing condition for the client based on the obtained information concerning the license providing condition.