Supplementary trust model for software licensing/commercial digital distribution policy

• US 20060242081A1
• Filed: 04/26/2005
• Published: 10/26/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 04/26/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Ivanov, Lazar, Hsu, Scott W.P., Gui, Dongmei, Liu, Yue, Paramasivam, Muthukrishnan, Gunyakti, Caglar, Pandya, Ravi
• Granted Patent: US 8,091,142 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/59
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/105 Arrangements for software license management or administration, e.g. for managing licenses at corporate level
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/1063 Personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/1073 Conversion
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/57 Certifying or maintaining trusted computer platforms, e.g. secure boots or power-downs, version controls, system software checks, secure updates or assessing vulnerabilities
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2105 Dual mode as a secondary aspect
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2141 Access rights, e.g. capability lists, access control lists, access tables, access matrices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2145 Inheriting rights or properties, e.g., propagation of permissions or restrictions within a hierarchy
• 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 63/0823 using certificates cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication involving certificates H04L9/3263
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/10 for controlling access to devices or network resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/126 the source of the received data

Abstract

A flexible use licensing system for an application comprising a plurality of licensable products is provided comprising an application level product policy definition license, and a licensable product policy definition license corresponding to each licensable product. The flexible use license further comprises a rights account certificate for validating the use license against a variety of environmental conditions, and an external validation component for validating the use license at a licensing authority without the transmittal of the entire use license.

Claims

1. A method for authorizing a request to use a software product, the method comprising:

receiving a request to use the software product;

retrieving licenses associated with the software product;

aggregating the retrieved licenses; and

determining if the requested usage complies with permitted usages in the aggregated licenses.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising allowing the requested usage only if it is determined that the requested usage complies with the permitted usages in the aggregated licenses.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein aggregating the retrieved licenses comprises authenticating the retrieved licenses, and only aggregating the retrieved licenses that are successfully authenticated.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the retrieved licenses comprise a plurality of product policies, wherein each product policy corresponds to a usage right, and aggregating the retrieved licenses comprises aggregating product policies corresponding to the same usage right.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein each product policy comprises an aggregation type and an aggregation priority, wherein the product policy definitions corresponding to the same usage right are aggregated according to the aggregation type and aggregation priority of the product policies.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the aggregation type is one of sum, maximum, minimum, override, and boolean.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the retrieved licenses are expressed in the international standards organization rights expression language (ISO REL).

8. A license, stored on a computer-readable medium, corresponding to an application, the application comprising a licensable product, the license comprising:

an application product policy definition license comprising a plurality of product policy policies, each product policy corresponding to a usage right for the application;

a licensable unit product policy definition license comprising a plurality of product policies, each product policy corresponding to a usage right for the licensable product; and

a product key certificate.

9. The license of claim 8, wherein the license is expressed in the international standards organization rights expression language (ISO REL).

10. The license of claim 8, wherein the license is associated with a rights account certificate, the rights account certificate comprising an environmental binding condition, wherein the rights account certificate is capable of authenticating the license.

11. The license of claim 10, wherein the environmental binding condition is a hardware identifier.

12. The license of claim 10, wherein the environmental binding condition is an Original Equipment Manufacturer supplied model characteristic.

13. The license of claim 10, wherein the environmental binding condition is a network characteristic.

14. The license of claim 8, wherein the license is an initial use license.

15. The license of claim 8, wherein the license is an online use license.

16. The license of claim 8, wherein the license is an offline use license.

17. The license of claim 16, wherein the license further comprises an external validator.

18. A method for externally validating a use license corresponding to a software product, comprising:

receiving a request to use a software product;

retrieving a use license associated with the software product, wherein the use license contains external validation data;

validating the use license according to the external validation data; and

permitting usage of the software product according to the use license if the use license is successfully validated.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein validating the use license according to the external validation data comprises performing a function indicated by the external validation data on a first value indicated by the external validation data to generate a result, comparing the result with a second value indicated by the external validation data, and determining that the use license is validated if the result matches the second value.