Content Publication

• US 20070150596A1
• Filed: 06/27/2006
• Published: 06/28/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/22/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Klemets, Anders, Miller, John, Gkantsidis, Christos, Hydrie, Aamer, Rodriguez Rodriguez, Pablo, Garcia-Mendoza, Armando, Weiss, Rebecca
• Granted Patent: US 7,680,937 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/226
• 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 21/645 using a third party
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0823 using certificates cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication involving certificates H04L9/3263

Abstract

Publishing content using a peer-to-peer content distribution system is described. A publisher is required to request authorization to publish from an authorization body. Resources such as tracker and seed nodes are allocated in a peer-to-peer content distribution system and pre-processing of content to be published is carried out. For example, a content description is generated for each item of content as well as a set of checksums or other items for validating blocks of content. Publication can be terminated in a variety of different ways. For example, by using expiry methods, by active revocation of publishers, authorization bodies, or individual items of content.

Claims

1. A method comprising the steps of:

(i) obtaining authorization to publish content using a peer-to-peer content distribution system;

(ii) allocating resources of the peer-to-peer content distribution system to enable publishing of an item of content;

(iii) carrying out pre-processing of the item of content to be published;

(iv) publishing the item of content using the peer-to-peer content distribution system; and

(v) terminating publication of the item of content.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the step of obtaining authorization to publish comprises assigning a cryptographic identity to a publisher requiring to publish the item of content.

3. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the step of obtaining authorization to publish comprises agreeing to publication authorization terms.

4. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the step of obtaining authorization to publish comprises receiving a certificate from an authorization entity.

5. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the step of allocating resources comprises allocating at least one seed node and at least one tracker node.

6. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the step of carrying out pre-processing of item of content comprises securing the items of content to protect against unauthorized consumption.

7. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the step of carrying out pre-processing of the item of content comprises generating a set of secure random checksums for that item of content.

8. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the step of carrying out pre-processing of the item of content comprises generating a content description for the item of content, that content description comprising at least, information about the item of content and information about a publisher of that content.

9. A method as claimed in claim 7 wherein the step of allocating resources comprises, for the item of content to be published, allocating at least one seed node and at least one tracker node;

and wherein the step of enabling publication comprises, for the item of content, depositing that item of content on the one or more allocated seed nodes and depositing the associated set of secure random checksums on the one or more allocated tracker nodes.

10. A method as claimed in claim 8 wherein the step of allocating resources comprises, for the item of content to be published, allocating at least one seed node and at least one tracker node;

and wherein the step of enabling publication comprises, for the item of content, depositing the associated content description on the one or more allocated tracker nodes.

11. A method as claimed in claim 10 which further comprises actively terminating publication of the item of content by notifying the one or more associated allocated tracker nodes of revocation of the content description for the item of content.

12. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the step of terminating publication of the item of content is carried out passively by allowing expiry of a timing mechanism.

13. A method comprising the steps of:

(i) issuing authorization to publish content to a publisher the authorization being to publish content using a peer-to-peer content distribution system;

(ii) receiving information about the publisher; and

(iii) terminating the authorization to publish by sending termination information to one or more allocated resources in the peer-to-peer content distribution system.

14. A method as claimed in claim 13 wherein the information about the publisher comprises information about past publishing behavior of the publisher using the peer-to-peer content distribution system.

15. A method as claimed in claim 13 which further comprises adding information about the publisher to a certificate revocation list and distributing that list to one or more of the allocated resources in the peer-to-peer content distribution system.

16. A method as claimed in claim 13 which further comprises invalidating any content descriptions created by the publisher.

17. A method comprising the steps of:

(i) issuing authorization to an entity to enable it to issue authorizations to publishers to publish content;

(ii) receiving information about publishers authorized by the entity;

(iii) receiving information about the entity, and

(iv) terminating the authorization issued to the entity by actively revoking any authorizations to publish issued by the entity.

18. A method as claimed in claim 17 wherein the step of terminating the authorization comprises adding details of the entity to a certificate revocation list.

19. A method as claimed in claim 17 wherein the step of terminating the authorization comprises revoking any content descriptions issued by any publishers authorized by the entity.

20. A method as claimed in claim 17 which further comprises monitoring authorization behavior of the entity.