SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR MANAGING AND PROTECTING ELECTRONIC CONTENT AND APPLICATIONS
4 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Systems and methods are disclosed for managing and protecting electronic content and applications. Applications, content, and/or users can be given credentials by one or more credentialing authorities upon satisfaction of a set of requirements. Rights management software/hardware is used to attach and detect these credentials, and to enforce rules that indicate how content and applications may be used if certain credentials are present or absent. In one embodiment an application may condition access to a piece of electronic content upon the content'"'"'s possession of a credential from a first entity, while the content may condition access upon the application'"'"'s possession of a credential from a second entity and/or the user'"'"'s possession of a credential from a third entity. Use of credentials in this manner enables a wide variety of relatively complex and flexible control arrangements to be put in place and enforced with relatively simple rights management technology.
84 Citations
35 Claims
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1-16. -16. (canceled)
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17. A method for managing the use of electronic content at a user'"'"'s computing device, the method including:
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executing an application program on the user'"'"'s computing device, the application program being capable of rendering electronic content, the application program having at least a first digital certificate associated therewith;
requesting the application program to render a piece of electronic content, the piece of electronic content having at least a second digital certificate associated therewith, and the piece of electronic content further having associated therewith at least one electronic rule, the at least one electronic rule including data specifying one or more conditions associated with rendering the piece of electronic content, the one or more conditions including a condition that the piece of electronic content may be rendered by an application program having the first digital certificate associated therewith;
verifying, at the user'"'"'s computing device, the association of the second digital certificate with the piece of electronic content;
using a rights management program running on the user'"'"'s computing device to examine the data included in the at least one electronic rule and to determine that the piece of electronic content may be rendered by an application program having the first digital certificate associated therewith;
verifying the association of the first digital certificate with the application program using the rights management program; and
rendering the piece of electronic content using the application program. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34)
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35. A computer readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform a method for managing the use of electronic content at a user'"'"'s computing device, the method comprising:
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executing an application program on the user'"'"'s computing device, the application program being capable of rendering electronic content, the application program having at least a first digital certificate associated therewith;
requesting the application program to render a piece of electronic content, the piece of electronic content having at least a second digital certificate associated therewith, and the piece of electronic content further having associated therewith at least one electronic rule, the at least one electronic rule including data specifying one or more conditions associated with rendering the piece of electronic content, the one or more conditions including a condition that the piece of electronic content may be rendered by an application program having the first digital certificate associated therewith;
verifying, at the user'"'"'s computing device, the association of the second digital certificate with the piece of electronic content;
using a rights management program running on the user'"'"'s computing device to examine the data included in the at least one electronic rule and to determine that the piece of electronic content may be rendered by an application program having the first digital certificate associated therewith;
verifying the association of the first digital certificate with the application program using the rights management program; and
rendering the piece of electronic content using the application program.
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Specification