Rights Management System and Methods

• US 20070294173A1
• Filed: 08/30/2007
• Published: 12/20/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/18/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Digimarc Corporation
• Original Assignee: Digimarc Corporation
• Inventors: Hiatt, R., Rhoads, Geoffrey, Levy, Kenneth
• Granted Patent: US 8,650,128 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/51
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/40 of multimedia data, e.g. slideshows comprising image and additional audio data retrieval of still image data G06F16/50; retrieval of audio data G06F16/60; retrieval of video data G06F16/70
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/1012 to domains
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/1063 Personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/1087 Synchronisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/16 Program or content traceability, e.g. by watermarking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2135 Metering
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/0042 Fragile watermarking, e.g. so as to detect tampering
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00086 Circuits for prevention of unauthorised reproduction or copying, e.g. piracy indicating unauthorised use of record carriers in general G11B23/28; scrambling for television signal recording H04N5/913; network architectures or network protocols for network security H04L63/00; cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for secret or secure communication H04L9/00
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00768 wherein copy control information is used, e.g. for indicating whether a content may be copied freely, no more, once, or never, by setting CGMS, SCMS, or CCI flags
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00855 involving a step of exchanging information with a remote server
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00884 involving a watermark, i.e. a barely perceptible transformation of the original data which can nevertheless be recognised by an algorithm
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/234327 by decomposing into layers, e.g. base layer and one or more enhancement layers
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/254 Management at additional data server, e.g. shopping server, rights management server arrangements for maintenance or administration in data networks H04L41/00; network services using third party service providers H04L67/53
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2541 Rights Management protecting software against unauthorised usage in a vending or licensing environment G06F21/10; security in data switching network management H04L41/28; security management or policies for network security H04L63/20; access security in wireless networks H04W12/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2543 Billing , e.g. for subscription services payment schemes, architectures or protocols G06Q20/00; e-commerce G06Q30/00; arrangements for billing for the use of broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/21
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43615 Interfacing a Home Network, e.g. for connecting the client to a plurality of peripherals home Audio Video Interoperability [HAVI] data switching networks H04L12/2805
• 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 21/47202 for requesting content on demand, e.g. video on demand
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6332 directed to client
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6582 Data stored in the client, e.g. viewing habits, hardware capabilities, credit card number arrangements where receivers interact with the broadcast H04H20/38
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8352 : involving content or source identification data, e.g. Unique Material Identifier [UMID]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8355 : involving usage data, e.g. number of copies or viewings allowed
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8358 : involving watermark protecting executable software by watermarking G06F21/16; image watermarking in general G06T1/0021; watermarks inserted in still images for transmission purposes H04N1/32144; inserting watermarks during video coding H04N19/467
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8543 : using a description language, e.g. Multimedia and Hypermedia information coding Expert Group [MHEG], eXtensible Markup Language [XML] information retrieval of semistructured data, the underlying structure being taken into account, e.g. mark-up language structure data G06F16/80
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/162 : Authorising the user terminal, e.g. by paying; Registering the use of a subscription channel, e.g. billing
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 : Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

A method of performing digital asset management of content is provided. The content is identified with an identifier. The identifier can be identified with a digital watermark, header file, or both. The identifier is linked to usage rules to regulate usage and protect the content. The usage rules can be maintained on a remote or local database or server. Once extracted, an identifier is used to index the database to locate a corresponding usage rule, and can be used to override copy control information with proper purchase and subsequent protection. Content can be managed from such. In another embodiment, an identifier is used to track usage, such as amount of content viewed, time played, and copies made. In yet another embodiment, a content identifier is used to regulate content throughout a distribution chain, and a distributed set of databases with information relevant only to the owner of the database act as one database due to a central router.

Claims

1. A system for rights management comprising:

a personal computer including;

a memory; and

electronic processing circuitry in communication with said memory through a communications bus,

wherein said memory includes computer executable software instructions stored therein for execution on said electronic processing circuitry, the software instructions including instructions to;

i) handle content including a content identifier steganographically embedded within the content;

ii) decode the steganographically embedded content identifier from the content;

iii) enable use of the content according to usage rules, the usage rules being associated with the content identifier; and

iv) track the use of the content.

2. The system according to claim 1 further comprising at least one rendering device in communication with said computer, wherein the use comprises rendering of the content via the rendering device.

3. The system according to claim 2 further comprising at least one database in communication with said computer, wherein the database includes the usage rules, and wherein the computer executable software instructions further comprise instructions to communicate the content identifier from the computer to the database, wherein the database is interrogated with the identifier to obtain the usage rules associated with the content, and wherein said computer executable software instructions further comprise instructions to receive the usage rules when communicated to the computer from the database.

4. The system according to claim 3 wherein said enabling instructions restricts usage for the content based on the usage rules.

5. The system according to claim 4 wherein the steganographic embedding comprises digital watermarking.

6. The system according to claim 2 wherein a digital watermark component comprises the identifier.

7. The system according to claim 6 wherein said computer executable software instructions further comprise instructions to track usage of the content based on the content identifier.

8. The system according to claim 7 wherein the identifier comprises a plurality of identifiers, each corresponding to a location in the content.

9. The system according to claim 7, wherein said system further comprises a billing agency in communication with said computer, and wherein tracked content usage is communicated to the billing agency, and wherein the usage rules dictate whether content owners are to be paid for usage via the billing agency rather than blocking usage of the content.

10. A method to regulate a content distribution chain including a plurality of participants, said method comprising:

providing a unique identifier for a content item, the content item to be handled in the content distribution chain;

associating a plurality of usage rule sets with the unique identifier, wherein each of the plurality of sets corresponds to at least one of the plurality of participants; and

regulating the content item for a participant according to its respective usage rule set.

11. The method according to claim 10 wherein said unique identifier is embedded in the content item via digital watermarking.

12. The method according to claim 11 wherein the usage rule sets define the scope of permissive use of the content item, and wherein the scope of permissive use includes at least one of copying, viewing, rendering, distributing, reformatting, packing, transferring or printing.

13. The method according to claim 12 wherein the plurality of participants include at least one of a distributor, service provider and consumer.

15. The method according to claim 12 wherein the content item comprises at least one of video or audio, and the usage rule set mandates that payment for the usage is to be made rather than blocking usage of the content.

16. A method of regulating distribution of digitally watermarked content comprising:

decoding a digital watermark in the digitally watermarked content, the digital watermark comprising at least one component related to copy usage and at least one component related to content identification;

obtaining the copy usage component and the content identification component from the decoded digital watermark; and

prohibiting the distribution of the digitally watermarked content according to the copy usage component unless a permission to distribute the content is received, and then a decision of whether to prohibit distribution of the digitally watermarked content is determined based on the permission instead of on the copy usage component.

17. The method of claim 16 further comprising:

communicating the content identification component to a database, the database using the content identification component to identify at least one of;

i) billing information related to distribution of the content, and ii) the permission; and

receiving the permission from the database.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein the permission is associated with a billing or payment for distribution of the content.

19. The method of claim 17 wherein the distribution comprises at least one of copying, transferring and rendering.

20. The method of claim 16 wherein the content identification component comprises the content usage component.

21. A distribution system to handle content including at least one identifier steganographically embedded therein, said system comprising:

a plurality of databases, wherein each of the plurality of databases is associated with a system participant;

a central router to communicate with each of the plurality of databases; and

at least one content database to communicate with the central router, wherein the content database communicates a unique set of usage rules associated with the content identifier to each of the plurality of databases via the central router, the unique sets of usage rules being determined at least in part on usage requirements for each of the databases.

22. A method to regulate content in a distribution chain, the content including an identifier, the method comprising:

for at least a first participant and a second participant in the distribution chain, storing a first set of usage rules and a second set of usage rules, respectively, at each of a first participant site and a second participant site; and

at each of the first participant site and second participant site, respectively regulating use of the content in accordance with the first set of usage rules and second set of usage rules.

14. The method according to claim 23 wherein the identifier comprises a content identification and at least one of an owner identification, a distributor identification or a retailer identification.

23. The method according to claim 22 wherein the sets of usage rules define the permissive scope of use for the content.

24. The method according to claim 23 further comprising associating the content to a set of usage rules via the identifier.

25. The method according to claim 24 wherein the identifier comprises a digital watermark component.