Digital rights management (DRM) license manager

• US 20050278716A1
• Filed: 06/14/2004
• Published: 12/15/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 06/14/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nokia Corporation
• Inventors: Kivimaki, Simo, Vataja, Timo, Koppen, Eckhart
• Granted Patent: US 8,271,390 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/168
• 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 21/121 Restricting unauthorised execution of programs
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6209 to a single file or object, e.g. in a secure envelope, encrypted and accessed using a key, or with access control rules appended to the object itself
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2135 Metering
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2137 Time limited access, e.g. to a computer or data

Abstract

A method, device, and system including a digital rights management (DRM) license manager to protect software applications from unauthorized use. The DRM license manager system binds essential application data to a software license. This binding is achieved by adding an encryption key to a software license and encrypting the application data with that key. The essential application data is any kind of data which is required for proper operation of the program, such as media files, game levels or state tables. The DRM license manager system performs a check and decrypt operation of the essential application data during program run time. It requires that the license is available on the system. It also ensures that the decryption operation can only take place if the conditions defined in the license are met.

Claims

1. A method of managing licensed software applications in a digital rights management (DRM) environment, the method comprising:

unpacking a software application package including application code, a control file, and one or more data files;

encrypting the one or more data files;

installing the application code into a terminal; and

at run time for an application associated with the application code, verifying that a license corresponding to the application is present in the terminal and, if so, providing decrypted one or more data files to the installed application code.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the software application package is encrypted using an encryption key associated with a software license.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the software license further includes at least one license constraint.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the software license further includes user identification information.

5. The method of claim 2, the one or more data files are encrypted using the encryption key after the software application package is unpacked.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein unpacking a software application package comprises decrypting the software application package.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more data files comprise essential application data.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the control file comprises a list of data files.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the encrypted one or more data files are installed in the terminal.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the terminal is a communication device.

11. A device that includes a licensed software application subject to digital rights management (DRM) limitations, the device comprising:

installed application code corresponding to a software application; and

a digital rights management (DRM) license checker that, when the software application is run, verifies that a license associated with the software application is present, and if the license is present, the DRM license checker decrypts an encrypted data file and provides the decrypted data file to the installed application code.

12. The device of claim 11, further comprising a storage component that stores the installed application code and the encrypted data file.

13. The device of claim 11, wherein the installed application code requests data from the encrypted data file from the DRM license checker when the software application is executed.

14. The device of claim 11, wherein the license includes an encryption key.

15. The device of claim 14, wherein the license further includes at least one license constraint.

16. The device of claim 14, wherein the license further includes user identification information.

17. The device of claim 14, wherein DRM license checker uses the encryption key to decrypt the encrypted data file.

18. A system for managing licensed applications, the system comprising:

essential application data including data needed by an application for proper operation;

license checker that, when the application is run, verifies that a license associated with the essential application data is valid; and

license manager that provides application code for installation and encrypts essential application data that is provided to the application code at application run time if the license checker verifies that the license is correct.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the essential application data is stored in one or more separate data files.

20. The system of claim 19, further comprising a control file, wherein a list of the one or more separate data files is stored in the control file.

21. The system of claim 18, wherein the license manager further identifies a control file and data files from the application and encrypts the data files with an encryption key.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the license further includes at least one license constraint.

23. The system of claim 21, wherein the license further includes user identification information.

24. The system of claim 18, wherein the license checker and license manager are on separate devices.

25. The system of claim 18, further comprising installed application code corresponding to the application.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein the installed application code requests essential application data from the license checker.