Drm System

• US 20080229387A1
• Filed: 09/18/2006
• Published: 09/18/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Koninklijke Philips N.V.
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: Kamperman, Franciscus Lucas Antonius Johannes, Lenoir, Petrus Johannes, Szostek, Lukasz, Baks, Wouter
• Granted Patent: US 8,595,853 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/1012 to domains
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/1015 to users
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/105 Arrangements for software license management or administration, e.g. for managing licenses at corporate level
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols

Abstract

A method of and system for digital rights management, in which access to a piece of content is granted in accordance with a license owned by a license owner to a client who is a member of a domain. This requires successfully verifying that a membership relation exists between the client and the domain as reflected in a first state variable, and that an association relation exists between the license owner and the domain as reflected in a second state variable. Both relationships are revoked by executing an online protocol between the parties in the relationship after which both remove the corresponding state variable. The domain controller propagates the state administration relating to the domain is propagated to the client so that the client can update its state administration.

Claims

1. A method of digital rights management, in which access to a piece of content is granted in accordance with a license owned by a license owner to a client who is a member of a domain, conditional upon a step of successfully verifying

that a membership relation exists between the client and the domain as reflected in a first state variable maintained both by the client and by a controller of the domain

and that an association relation exists between the license owner and the domain as reflected in a second state variable maintained both by the controller of the domain and by a license owner controller associated with the license owner,

the method comprising

revoking the membership relation by executing an online protocol between the controller of the domain and the client after which both remove the first state variable, and

revoking the association relation by executing an online protocol between the license license owner controller and the controller of the domain after which the controller of the domain removes the second state variable and after which the state administration relating to the domain is propagated to the client so that the second state variable is removed by the client.

2. The method of claim 1, in which the verification of the association relation and the membership relation comprises evaluating a validity period of the relation in question as expressed by the state information and successfully verifying the association in question only if the validity period has not expired.

3. The method of claim 1, in which further the domain controller and the client maintain a third state variable to guard the state of the license.

4. The method of claim 3, in which the third state variable contains a representation of an identifier for the license.

5. The method of claim 3, in which the controller of the license owner creates the third state variable and propagates the third state variable to the domain controller who propagates the third state variable to the client.

6. The method of claim 1, in which the association relation between the license owner and the domain is expressed in an attest in which the license owner and the domain are identified.

7. The method of claim 1, in which the membership relation between the client and the domain is expressed in an attest in which the client and the domain are identified.

8. The method of claim 4, in which the attest carries an identification of its validity period.

9. A system for digital rights management, configured for granting access to a piece of content in accordance with a license owned by a license owner to a client who is a member of a domain, conditional upon successfully verifying

that a membership relation exists between the client and the domain as reflected in a first state variable and that an association relation exists between the license owner and the domain as reflected in a second state variable,

the client and a controller of the domain being configured to both maintain the first state variable, and being configured to revoke the membership relation by executing an online protocol between them after which both remove the first state variable,

the controller of the domain and a license owner controller associated with the license owner being configured to both maintain the second state variable, and being configured to revoke the association relation by executing an online protocol between them after which both remove the second state variable, the controller of the domain further being configured to propagate the state administration relating to the domain to the client for causing the client to remove the second state variable.