Systems and methods for secure transaction management and electronic rights protection
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
The present invention provides systems and methods for secure transaction management and electronic rights protection. Electronic appliances such as computers equipped in accordance with the present invention help to ensure that information is accessed and used only in authorized ways, and maintain the integrity, availability, and/or confidentiality of the information. Such electronic appliances provide a distributed virtual distribution environment (VDE) that may enforce a secure chain of handling and control, for example, to control and/or meter or otherwise monitor use of electronically stored or disseminated information. Such a virtual distribution environment may be used to protect rights of various participants in electronic commerce and other electronic or electronic-facilitated transactions. Distributed and other operating systems, environments and architectures, such as, for example, those using tamper-resistant hardware-based processors, may establish security at each node. These techniques may be used to support an all-electronic information distribution, for example, utilizing the “electronic highway.”
118 Citations
191 Claims
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1-90. -90. (canceled)
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91. An electronic appliance comprising:
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a secure processing unit;
a central processing unit; and
one or more computer-readable media external to the secure processing unit, the computer-readable media storing at least rights management software comprising programming operable to apply one or more electronic controls to govern usage of an electronic content item comprising audio, visual, and/or textual electronic content, at least part of the programming designed to cause the secure processing unit to decrypt information associated with the electronic content item, wherein the one or more electronic controls specify one or more permitted or prohibited uses of the electronic content item, and wherein the rights management software is designed to be resistant to tampering by users of the electronic appliance. - View Dependent Claims (92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117, 118, 119, 120, 121, 122)
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123. An electronic appliance comprising:
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a secure processing unit;
a central processing unit; and
one or more computer-readable media external to the secure processing unit, the computer-readable media storing rights management software comprising programming operable to apply one or more electronic controls to govern usage of an electronic content item comprising audio, visual, and/or textual electronic content, at least part of the programming designed to cause the secure processing unit to access information required for usage of the electronic content item, wherein the one or more electronic controls specify one or more permitted or prohibited uses of the electronic content item, and wherein the rights management software is designed to be resistant to tampering by users of the electronic appliance. - View Dependent Claims (124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 129, 130, 131, 132, 133, 134, 135, 136, 137, 138, 139, 140, 141, 142)
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143. An electronic appliance comprising:
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a first processing unit;
a second processing unit, the second processing unit comprising a microprocessor, internal memory, and internal memory interface logic for impeding unauthorized access to the internal memory by the first processing unit; and
computer-readable media external to the second processing unit, the computer-readable media storing at least (a) a piece of electronic content;
(b) one or more electronic objects separate from the piece of electronic content, the one or more electronic objects specifying one or more permitted or prohibited uses of the piece of electronic content; and
(c) software configured for execution by the first processing unit, the software comprising programming for controlling usage of pieces of electronic content such as the first piece of electronic content in accordance with electronic objects such as the one or more electronic objects, the software further comprising programming for causing the second processing unit to access information required for usage of pieces of electronic content. - View Dependent Claims (144, 145, 146, 147, 148, 149, 150, 151, 152, 153, 154, 155, 156, 157, 158)
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159. A method performed by an electronic appliance, the method comprising:
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receiving a first piece of electronic content, the first piece of electronic content being encrypted at least in part;
receiving, separately from the first piece of electronic content, a first key, the first key being associated with the first piece of electronic content, and the first key being encrypted at least in part;
decrypting the first key using (a) a second key and (b) a secure processing unit running on the electronic appliance, the second key being stored in memory of the secure processing unit; and
decrypting the first piece of electronic content using, at least in part, the first key. - View Dependent Claims (160, 161, 162, 163, 164, 165, 166, 167, 168, 169, 170, 171, 172, 173, 174, 175, 176)
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177. A method performed by an electronic appliance, the electronic appliance comprising programming operable to govern usage of electronic content, the method comprising:
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receiving a first piece of electronic content, the first piece of electronic content being encrypted at least in part;
receiving, separately from the first piece of electronic content, a first electronic object, the first electronic object specifying one or more permitted or prohibited uses of the first piece of electronic content;
receiving a request from a user of the electronic appliance to use the first piece of electronic content; and
selectively granting the request in accordance with the first electronic object;
wherein the electronic appliance comprises hardware and/or software operable to impede the user from tampering with performance of said selectively granting step. - View Dependent Claims (178, 179, 180, 181, 182, 183, 184, 185, 186, 187, 188, 189, 190, 191)
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Specification