Systems and methods for preventing digital asset restoration

• US 20060106754A1
• Filed: 11/17/2005
• Published: 05/18/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 11/17/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Micro Focus LLC (Open Text Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Autonomy Incorporated (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Barnes, Matthew, Blumenau, Steven
• Granted Patent: US 8,429,131 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/125 characterised by the use of retention policies retention policies for HSM systems G06F16/185
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/14 Details of searching files based on file metadata
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/182 Distributed file systems
• 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 21/16 Program or content traceability, e.g. by watermarking
• 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: G06F 2221/2101 Auditing as a secondary aspect
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2135 Metering
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2137 Time limited access, e.g. to a computer or data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2143 Clearing memory, e.g. to prevent the data from being stolen
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/913 Multimedia
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing

Abstract

Systems and methods for managing digital assets in a distributed computing environment are described. Meta-data for the digital assets is stored separately from the digital assets. Meta-data for some of the digital assets is copied and stored at a central location. Meta-data for the digital assets is generated by clients of the system.

Claims

1. A method of preventing the restoration of a digital asset that has been removed from a distributed computing environment, the environment having a central computing device that stores meta-data for at least one digital asset and one or more clients that locally stores respective digital assets, the method comprising:

(a) receiving, from a client, meta-data associated with a digital asset created by the client;

(b) comparing at least a portion of the received meta-data with a list of known meta-data to generate a result; and

(c) transmitting a command to remove the digital asset associated with the received meta-data when the result indicates that the digital asset is expired.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising establishing a first connection to receive the meta-data.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising establishing a second connection to transmit the command to remove the digital asset.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the portion of the meta-data comprises an asset identification tag.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the asset identification tag comprises the result of a hash function applied to the digital asset.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the receiving is performed by the central computing device.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the list of known meta-data comprises a database.

8. A system for preventing the restoration of a digital asset that has been removed from a distributed computing environment, the environment having a central computing device that stores meta-data for at least one digital asset and one or more clients that locally stores respective digital assets, the system comprising:

(a) a client in communication with a network, the client receiving meta-data associated with a digital asset created by the client and transmitting the meta-data to the network; and

(b) a server connected to a network, the server receiving the meta-data and comparing at least a portion of the received meta-data with a list of known meta-data to generate a result, and transmitting a command to remove the digital asset associated with the received meta-data when the result indicates that the digital asset is expired.

9. The system of claim 8 wherein the client establishes a first connection to receive the meta-data.

10. The system of claim 8 wherein the server establishes a second connection to transmit the command to remove the digital asset.

11. The system of claim 8 wherein the portion of the meta-data comprises an asset identification tag.

12. The system of claim 11 wherein the asset identification tag comprises the result of a hash function applied to the digital asset.

13. The system of claim 8 further comprising a database in communication the server that stores the list of known meta-data.

14. A computer readable medium having executable instructions thereon to prevent the restoration of a digital asset that has been removed from a distributed computing environment, the environment having a central computing device that stores meta-data for at least one digital asset and one or more clients that locally stores respective digital assets, the computer readable medium comprising:

(a) instructions to receive, from a client, meta-data associated with a digital asset created by the client;

(b) instructions to compare at least a portion of the received meta-data with a list of known meta-data to generate a result; and

(c) instruction to transmit a command to remove the digital asset associated with the received meta-data when the result indicates that the digital asset is expired.

15. The computer readable medium of claim 14 further comprising instructions to establish a first connection to receive the meta-data.

16. The computer readable medium of claim 14 further comprising instructions to establish a second connection to transmit the command to remove the digital asset.

17. The computer readable medium of claim 14 wherein the portion of the meta-data comprises an asset identification tag.

18. The computer readable medium of claim 17 wherein the asset identification tag comprises the result of a hash function applied to the digital asset.

19. The computer readable medium of claim 14 wherein the instructions to receive are executed by the central computing device.

20. The computer readable medium of claim 14 wherein the list of known meta-data comprises a database.