Method for delivering content and content server which delivers content

• US 20070143219A1
• Filed: 09/30/2004
• Published: 06/21/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 10/14/2003
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Senoh, Takanori, Huang, Zhongyang, Ji, Ming, Shen, Sheng
• Application Number:
  US10/575,355
• Publication Number:
  US 20070143219A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/52
• 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: H04N 21/44204 Monitoring of content usage, e.g. the number of times a movie has been viewed, copied or the amount which has been watched monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; protecting generic digital content where the protection is independent of the precise nature of the content G06F21/10; arrangements for monitoring the use made of the broadcast services in broadcast systems H04H60/31
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8355 involving usage data, e.g. number of copies or viewings allowed
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/85403 by describing the content as an MPEG-21 Digital Item

Abstract

A method for delivering content includes processing the content to protect copyright of the content, deciding use conditions of the content, and describing a first digital item or a second digital item in which the first digital item is defined in a form of Digital Item Declaration, the first digital item containing the content or an address of the content and being able to contain other digital items defined therein. In the describing step, a first description regarding processing the content to protect the copyright of the content and a second description regarding the use conditions are both described in the first digital item.

Claims

1. A method for delivering content, comprising:

processing the content to protect copyright of the content;

deciding use conditions of the content;

describing a first digital item or a second digital item in which said first digital item is defined in a form of Digital Item Declaration, said first digital item containing the content or an address of the content and being able to contain other digital items defined therein;

packaging said first or second digital item described in the form of Digital Item Declaration; and

delivering said first or second digital item packaged in said packaging to a user terminal;

wherein, in said describing, a first description regarding processing the content to protect the copyright of the content and a second description regarding the use conditions are both described in said first digital item.

2. The method for delivering content according to claim 1,

wherein said second description is described followed by said first description in said first digital item, so that said second description is analyzed ahead of said first description by the user terminal.

3. The method for delivering content according to claim 1,

wherein said describing comprises describing a flag which indicates that the copyright of the content is protected, and information of a first protect canceling tool for canceling the protection of the copyright of the content.

4. The method for delivering content according to claim 3,

wherein said processing comprises at least one of embedding digital watermarking in the content, encrypting the content, and making digital signature in the content, and

wherein said describing comprises describing, based on a type of processing the content to protect the copyright, at least one of a set of a flag which indicates that the digital watermarking is embedded in the content and information of a detection tool for detecting the digital watermarking, a set of a flag which indicates that the content is encrypted and information of a decryption tool for decrypting the encrypted content, and a set of a flag which indicates that the digital signature is made in the content and information of a checking tool for checking the digital signature, as said first description.

5. The method for delivering content according to claim 4,

wherein said processing comprises encrypting the content with a use of an encryption key, and

wherein said describing comprises describing a flag which indicates that the content is encrypted, the information of a decryption tool for decrypting the encrypted content, and information of the encryption key, as said first description.

6. The method for delivering content according to claim 5,

wherein said processing further comprises encrypting the encryption key, and

wherein said describing further comprises describing information of a license key for decrypting the encrypted encryption key.

7. The method for delivering content according to claim 1, further comprising:

processing said second description to protect copyright of said second description; and

describing a flag which. indicates that the copyright of said second description is protected, and information of a second protect canceling tool for canceling the protection of the copyright of said second description.

8. A content server comprising:

a content processor which processes content to protect copyright of the content;

a use condition generator which generates use conditions of the content;

a describer which describes a first digital item or a second digital item in which the first digital item is defined in a form of Digital Item Declaration, said first digital item containing the content or an address of the content and being able to contain other digital items defined therein;

a packaging unit which packages said first or second digital item described in the form of Digital Item Declaration; and

a deliverer which delivers said first or second digital item packaged by said packaging unit to a user terminal;

wherein said describer describes both of a first description regarding processing the content to protect the copyright of the content and a second description regarding the use conditions in said first digital item.

9. The content server according to claim 8,

wherein said describer describes a flag which indicates that the copyright of the content is protected, and information of a first protect canceling tool for canceling the protection of the copyright of the content.

10. The content server according to claim 8,

wherein said content processor processes said second description to protect copyright of said second description;

and

wherein said describer describes a flag which indicates that the copyright of said second description is protected, and information of a second protect canceling tool for canceling the protection of the copyright of said second description.