DETERMINING VALIDITY OF SUBSCRIPTION TO USE DIGITAL CONTENT

• US 20070265975A1
• Filed: 05/09/2006
• Published: 11/15/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 05/09/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Fasoli, Gianpaolo, Farrugia, Augustin
• Granted Patent: US 10,528,705 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/59
• 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 2221/2135 Metering
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2137 Time limited access, e.g. to a computer or data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/1235 with control of digital rights management [DRM]

Abstract

Some embodiments provide a method for determining whether a subscription for using digital content on a user device has elapsed. The method compares a first collision free image of a first set of entities in the user device with a second collision free image for a second set of entities in the user device at a second instance in time. Based on the comparison, the method determines whether the subscription has elapsed.

Claims

1. A digital rights management (DRM) method, the method comprising:

a) comparing information for a first set of attributes of the user device at a first instance in time with information of a second set of attributes at a second instance in time;

b) based on said comparison, determining whether the user device environment has been manipulated to circumvent DRM protection for accessing a set of content on the user device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the user device environment is manipulated when a clock in the user device is improperly changed.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the user device environment is manipulated when files and directories in the user device are tampered with.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the user device environment is manipulated when the environment in which the user device operates is tampered with.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said first and second set of attributes are attributes with predictable behavior.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said information of the first and the second set of attributes is statistics of the sets of attributes.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said information of the first and the second set of attributes is values of said attributes.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein said information of the first and the second set of attributes is absence and presence of entities in the user device.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein said attributes are attributes of files and directories of the user device.

10. The method of claim 5, wherein said user device entities are attributes of an environment in which the user device operates.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

requiring the user device to be synchronized with a remote server when the method determines the user device environment has been manipulated.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

based on said determination, deciding whether a sufficient duration of time has expired to justify resynchronization with a digital rights management server.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein said comparison is comparing changes in information for the set of attributes at the first and the second instance in time with predetermined thresholds.

14. A method of determining whether a subscription for using digital content on a user device has elapsed, the method comprising:

a) comparing a first collision free image of a first set of entities in the user device at a first instance in time with a second collision free image of a second set of entities in the user device at a second instance in time;

b) based on said comparison, determining whether the subscription has elapsed.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein each collision free image comprises a population of fast evolving entities in the user device.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein each collision free image comprises a population of slow evolving entities in the user device.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein each collision free image comprises a slow growth population of entities in the user device, a fast growth population of entities in the user device, and a medium growth population of entities in the user device.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein said comparison comprises comparing a set of attributes of the sets of entities in the user device.

19. The method of claim 14, wherein said comparison comprises computing and comparing statistics calculated for a set of attributes of the sets of entities in the user device.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the statistics are at least partly computed at the time of the generation of the collision free images.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein the statistics are at least partly computed at the time of the comparison of the collision free images.

22. The method of claim 14, wherein the first and second sets of entities are identical.

23. The method of claim 14, wherein the first and second sets of entities are not identical.

24. A method of distributing digital content, the method comprising:

a) distributing content on subscription basis;

b) using an evolutionary algorithm to determine whether a subscription to use digital content has expired.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein said determination is determining whether a population of entities related to a user device has evolved from a previously sampled population.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein said entities and a set of attributes of said entities are selected from a current population based on their fitness, wherein said selected entities are modified to form a new population for evaluating an evolution for a next generation of said entities.

27. A digital rights management (DRM) method, comprising:

a) comparing a first set of attributes of a device at a first instance in time with a second set of attributes at a second instance in time; and

b) based on said comparison, determining whether the device has been manipulated to circumvent DRM protection for accessing a set of content on the device.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein a plurality of said attributes are values associated with entities of the device, wherein comparing the sets of attributes comprises comparing said values.

29. The method of claim 27, wherein a plurality of said attributes are statistics associated with a plurality of entities of the device, wherein comparing the first and second sets of attributes comprises comparing statistics calculated for a plurality of entities.

30. The method of claim 27, wherein the attributes comprise at least one of size, creation date, last modification date, last access date, absence, and presence of said files and directories of the device.

31. The method of claim 27, wherein the attributes comprise at least one of the attributes associated with a hardware component of the device.

32. The method of claim 27, wherein said device attributes comprise attributes of an operating system of the device.

33. The method of claim 27, wherein the device is manipulated when the device hardware configuration is manipulated.

34. The method of claim 27, wherein said comparing is based on predictable behavior of the first and second sets of attributes.

35. The method of claim 27, wherein the attributes comprise entities in a network connected to the device.

36. The method of claim 35, wherein the network is one of a wired network and a wireless network.

37. The method of claim 27 further comprising requiring the device to synchronize with a remote computer after determining that the device has been manipulated.

38. The method of claim 27, wherein said comparison comprises:

a) identifying differences in the sets of attributes at the first and second instances in time; and

b) determining whether said differences are expected.

39. The method of claim 27, wherein the first and second sets are identical.

40. The method of claim 27, wherein the first and second sets do not share at least one attribute.

41. The method of claim 27, wherein the device is a computer.

42. The method of claim 27, wherein the device is a portable player.

43. The method of claim 27, wherein the first set of attributes comprises a first collision free image of the first set of entities, wherein the second set of attributes comprises a second collision free image of the second set of entities.

44. The method of claim 43, wherein a collision free image comprises a set of attributes of each entity, wherein said comparison comprises comparing the attributes of the first set of entities with the attributes of the second set of entities.

45. The method of claim 43, wherein a collision free image comprises a set of statistics associated with a plurality of entities, wherein said comparison comprises comparing statistics calculated for said plurality of entities.

46. The method of claim 43, wherein the first and second sets of entities are selected so that the first and second collision free images are not identical.

47. A computer readable medium storing a digital rights management (DRM) program for execution, the program comprising sets of instructions for:

a) comparing a first set of attributes of a device at a first instance in time with a second set of attributes at a second instance in time; and

b) based on said comparison, determining whether the device has been manipulated to circumvent DRM protection for accessing a set of content on the device.

48. A computer readable medium storing program for execution, the program for determining whether a subscription for using content on a device has elapsed, the program comprising sets of instructions for:

a) comparing a first collision free image of a first set of entities in the device at a first instance in time with a second collision free image of a second set of entities in the device at a second instance in time; and

b) based on said comparison, determining whether the subscription has elapsed.

49. The computer readable medium of claim 48, wherein the statistics are at least partly calculated at the time of the generation of the collision free images.

50. The computer readable medium of claim 48, wherein the statistics are at least partly calculated at the time of the comparison of the collision free images.

51. The computer readable medium of claims 48, wherein said entities comprise files and directories of the device.

52. The computer readable medium of claims 48, wherein said entities comprise hardware configuration of the device.

53. A computer readable medium storing a program for execution, the program comprising sets of instructions for:

a) receiving content on subscription basis; and

b) using an evolutionary process to determine whether a subscription to use content has expired.

54. The computer readable medium of claim 53, wherein the set of instructions for using the evolutionary process comprises a set of instructions for determining whether a population of entities related to a device has evolved from a previously sampled population;

the program further comprising a set of instructions for specifying a possibility that the subscription has expired wherein when a population has not evolved from a previously sampled population.

55. The computer readable medium of claim 54, wherein said entities and a set of attributes of said entities are selected from a current population based on a set of criteria, wherein said selected entities are modified to form a new population for evaluating an evolution for a next generation of said entities.

56. A computer readable medium storing a program for execution, the program comprising sets of instructions for:

a) receiving a request regarding status of a subscription for using content on a remote device;

b) determining whether the subscription is valid; and

c) generating a response to the request regarding the status of subscription.

57. The computer readable medium of claim 56, wherein the request is received when the remote device determines based on an evolutionary algorithm that the subscription may have expired.

58. The computer readable medium of claim 57, wherein the evolutionary algorithm specifies a possible tampering with the remote device to access at least a piece of content based on said subscription.

59. The computer readable medium of claim 56, wherein the request is received when an unexpected change occurs for at least one entity on the remote device.

60. The computer readable medium of claim 56, wherein generating the response to the request updates the subscription status on the remote device.

61. The computer readable medium of claim 56, wherein the remote device is a computer.

62. The computer readable medium of claim 56, wherein the remote device is a player.

63. A device comprising:

a) content;

b) a plurality of entities; and

c) an internal data storage storing a plurality of attributes for a group of entities, wherein at least two sets of attributes are from two different instances of time, said two sets of attributes for use by an evolutionary process to determine whether the device has been manipulated to circumvent digital rights management (DRM) protection for accessing content on the device.

64. The device of claim 63, wherein the two sets of attributes have predictable behavior.

65. A device for accessing content, the device comprising:

a) a storage for storing content;

b) a plurality of entities; and

c) an electronic component for determining whether a subscription to access content on the device has expired based on the change over time of a plurality of attributes of a plurality of entities.

66. The device of claim 65, wherein the electronic component determines the subscription has expired when the change over time of at least one attributes is slower than an expected rate.

67. The device of claim 65, wherein the electronic component determines that the subscription has expired when the change over time of at least one attribute is faster than an expected rate.

68. The device of claim 65, wherein the plurality of entities are stored on the storage.

69. The device of claim 65, wherein the plurality of entities comprises at least one hardware component.

70. The device of claim 65 further comprising a read-memory for storing a set of instructions for:

a) identifying two copies of said attributes at two instances of time; and

b) determining a time for renewing the subscription has expired when at least one attribute has not changed as expected between the two instances of time.

71. A method comprising:

a) identifying a particular device environment in which a plurality of contents will be accessed;

b) identifying a set of entities on the particular device environment that have attributes with predictable behaviors; and

c) defining a digital rights management (DRM) process for use during a runtime of a device comprising the particular device environment, the DRM process for determining whether the changes to attributes of each entity is as predicted.

72. The method of claim 71, wherein the particular device environment comprises a set of files on the device.

73. The method of claim 71, wherein the particular device environment comprises a set of directories on the device.

74. The method of claim 71, wherein the particular device environment comprises an operating system software.

75. The method of claim 71, wherein the particular device environment comprises a network connected to the device.

76. The method of claim 71, wherein the particular device environment comprises a hardware configuration of the device.

77. The method of claim 71, wherein the attributes with predictable behaviors are determined by trial and error.

78. The method of claim 71, wherein the attributes with predictable behaviors are determined by using heuristics.

79. The method of claim 71, wherein the attributes with predictable behaviors are determined by studying system documents of the particular device environment.

80. The method of claim 71, wherein the device comprising the particular device environment is a computer.

81. The method of claim 71, wherein the device comprising the particular device environment is a portable player.

82. A computer readable medium storing a program for execution, the program comprising sets of instructions for:

a) analyzing attributes of a set of entities on a device at different instances in time when a trusted source of time is not available; and

b) allowing access to the digital media when the attributes have changed within expected thresholds.

83. The computer readable medium of claim 82, wherein the program further comprises a set of instructions for requiring the device to synchronize a subscription to use the digital media by communicatively connecting to a remote computer with a trusted source of time.

84. The computer readable medium of claim 83, wherein the program further comprises a set of instructions for estimating time elapsed between different instances of time by analyzing changes in said attributes.