Managing Digital Rights for Multiple Assets in an Envelope

• US 20080256592A1
• Filed: 04/12/2007
• Published: 10/16/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 04/12/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Strom, Clifford P., McKelvey, Alex, Dubhashi, Kedarnath A., Schnell, Patrik, Paka, Anand, Grigorovitch, Alexandre V., Rosenstein, Daniel, Beaubien, Mark L., Randhawa, Satvir
• Granted Patent: US 8,539,543 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/1012 to domains

Abstract

Techniques enable building a collection of data that defines an asset, with the data possibly having differing data types. These techniques are then capable of assigning arbitrary policy to that asset, regardless of which data types are present within the asset. In addition, these techniques enable packaging of this first asset with one or more additional assets in a self-contained envelope. Each asset within the envelope may similarly include data of differing data types. Furthermore, each of these assets may be assigned a policy that may be different than the policy assigned to the first asset. This envelope, or a collection of envelopes, may then be provided to a content-consuming device to consume the assets in accordance with each asset'"'"'s specified policy.

Claims

1. One or more computer-readable media storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed on one or more processors, performs acts comprising:

building a first collection of data that defines a first asset;

building a second collection of data that defines a second asset;

assigning a first policy to the first asset, the first policy describing rights or restrictions by which a content-consuming device is allowed to consume the first asset;

assigning a second policy to the second asset, the second policy describing rights or restrictions by which the content-consuming device is allowed to consume the second asset, the second policy differing from the first policy; and

packaging the first asset and the first policy together with the second asset and the second policy to define an envelope.

2. One or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 1, further storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed on the one or more processors, perform an act comprising providing the envelope to the content-consuming device to consume the first asset according the first policy and the second asset according to the second policy.

3. One or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 1, wherein at least one of the first asset or the second asset includes data of differing formats.

4. One or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 3, wherein the differing formats are selected from the group consisting of:

audio format, video format, image format, document format, and application format.

5. One or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 1, wherein the envelope is a first envelope, and further storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed on the one or more processors, perform acts comprising:

building additional envelopes, each of the additional envelopes containing one or more additional assets, each of the additional assets having been assigned a policy describing rights or restrictions by which the content-consuming device is allowed to consume the additional asset;

packaging the additional envelopes with the first envelope to define an archive; and

providing the archive to the content-consuming device to consume the first asset according to the first policy, the second asset according to the second policy, and the additional assets according to the policy assigned to each of the additional assets.

6. One or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 1, wherein the rights or restrictions described by the first policy and the rights or restrictions described by the second policy each include one or more of the following:

a right to consume an asset, a right to copy an asset, a play count that limits a number of times that the content-consuming device is allowed to consume an asset, an expiration date that defines when a right to consume an asset expires, and output protections that define restrictions on any right to copy an asset.

7. One or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 1, further storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed on the one or more processors, perform acts comprising:

including, in the envelope, a first key identifier associated with the first asset, the first key identifier to correlate (1) the first asset and the first policy with (2) a first license that enforces the first policy against the first asset; and

including, in the envelope, a second key identifier associated with the second asset, the second key identifier to correlate (1) the second asset and the second policy with (2) a second license that enforces the second policy against the second asset.

8. One or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 1, further storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed on the one or more processors, perform an act comprising including, in the envelope, a license-server location to identify a license server that issues one or more licenses to enforce the first policy against the first asset, the second policy against the second asset, or to enforce both the first policy against the first asset and the second policy against the second asset.

9. A data storage medium comprising:

a collection of data that defines an asset, the collection of data including data of differing file formats, the differing file formats being selected from a group consisting of;

video format, audio format, image format, document format, and application format; and

a policy associated with the asset to describe rights or restrictions by which a content-consuming device is allowed to consume the asset.

10. A data storage medium as recited in claim 9, wherein the collection of data is a first collection of data, the asset is a first asset, and the policy is a first policy, and further comprising:

a second collection of data that defines a second asset;

a second policy associated with the second asset to describe rights or restrictions by which the content-consuming device is allowed to consume the second asset, the second policy differing from the first policy; and

the first and second assets and the first and second policies being bundled together to form a self-contained envelope that is deliverable to one or more content-consuming devices for content consumption of the first and second assets according to the first and second policies, respectively.

11. A data storage medium as recited in claim 10, further comprising:

a third collection of data that defines a third asset;

a third policy associated with the third asset to describe rights or restrictions by which the content-consuming device is allowed to consume the third asset, the third policy differing from the first and second policies; and

the third asset and the third policy also being bundled together with the first and second assets and the first and second policies in the self-contained envelope, the self-contained envelope being deliverable to the one or more content-consuming devices for content consumption of the first, second, and third assets according to the first, second, and third policies, respectively.

12. A data storage medium as recited in claim 9, further comprising a uniform resource locator (URL) address of a license server to issue one or more licenses to enforce the policy assigned to the asset, such that the content-consuming device may receive the one or more licenses from the license server if the content-consuming device does not already have the one or more licenses.

13. One or more computer-readable media storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed on one or more processors, performs acts comprising:

receiving, at a content-consuming device, a package that contains a first asset and a second asset, each of the assets comprising one or more pieces of data and at least one of the assets comprising pieces of data having differing file formats;

receiving, at the content-consuming device, one or more licenses that include a first policy that specifies rights or restrictions by which the content-consuming device is allowed to consume the first asset and a second policy that specifies rights or restrictions by which the client-consuming device is allowed to consume the second asset, the first policy differing from the second policy; and

consuming, at the content-consuming device, the first asset according to the first policy and the second asset according to the second policy.

14. One or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 13, wherein the one or more licenses are capable of enforcing the first policy against the first asset and the second policy against the second asset without regard to file formats of the one or more pieces of data that comprise the first asset and the one or more pieces of data that comprise the second asset.

15. One or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 13, wherein the at least one of the assets comprising pieces of data having differing file formats includes pieces of data having the following file formats:

audio format, video format, image format, and application format.

16. One or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 15, wherein the at least one of the assets comprising pieces of data having differing file formats defines a portion of a game.

17. One or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 16, wherein the portion of the game represents a level of the game.

18. One or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 13, further storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed on the one or more processors, perform an act comprising providing, to one or more license servers, one or more key identifiers that identify the first policy and the second policy, such that the one or more license servers may retrieve or generate the one or more licenses that include the first policy and the second policy and may provide the one or more licenses to the content-consuming device.

19. One or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 13, wherein the one or more licenses are bound to a domain capable of having multiple member devices, such that each member device of the domain is allowed to consume the first asset according to the first policy and the second asset according to the second policy, and wherein the content-consuming device is a member device of the domain.

20. One or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 19, wherein the content-consuming device is a first member device of the domain, and further storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed on the one or more processors, perform an act comprising providing the package and the one or more licenses to a second member device of the domain, such that the second member device may consume the first asset according to the first policy and the second asset according to the second policy without acquiring an additional license.