Domain management for digital media

• US 20080313264A1
• Filed: 06/12/2007
• Published: 12/18/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/12/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Pestoni, Florian
• Granted Patent: US 7,971,261 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/202
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/1012 to domains
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/1015 to users
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/603 Digital right managament [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/80 Wireless
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2463/101 applying security measures for digital rights management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0823 using certificates cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication involving certificates H04L9/3263
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/10 for controlling access to devices or network resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/321 involving a third party or a trusted authority
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3263 involving certificates, e.g. public key certificate [PKC] or attribute certificate [AC]; Public key infrastructure [PKI] arrangements network architectures or network communication protocols for supporting authentication of entities using certificates in a packet data network H04L63/0823

Abstract

In accordance with the domain management for digital media, a device accesses a domain administrator in order to obtain a domain membership license. The domain membership license indicates that the device is part of a domain that includes multiple devices associated with a user of the device. The device also obtains multiple pieces of protected content from multiple content providers, with two or more of the multiple content providers employing different digital rights management systems. The device also accesses a license server to obtain, for each piece of protected content, a content license that is bound to the domain. The content license permits the device to play back the piece of content to the user.

Claims

1. One or more computer storage media having stored thereon instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a device, cause the one or more processors to:

access a domain administrator to obtain a domain membership license indicating that the device is part of a domain that includes multiple devices associated with a user of the device;

obtain multiple pieces of protected content from multiple content providers, two or more of the multiple content providers employing different digital rights management systems; and

access a license server to obtain, for each piece of protected content, a content license that is bound to the domain and that permits the device to play back the piece of content to the user.

2. One or more computer storage media as recited in claim 1, the one or more computer readable media being implemented in a content playback device.

3. One or more computer storage media as recited in claim 1, wherein to access the license server is further to present to the license server a domain certificate identifying a public key of a public/private key pair of the domain that can be used by the license server to bind the content license to the domain, the domain certificate having been received by the device from the domain administrator.

4. One or more computer storage media as recited in claim 3, wherein the instructions further cause the one or more processors to:

receive, from the license server, the content license including a content key to be used to decrypt the piece of content, the content key being encrypted with the public key of the domain.

5. One or more computer storage media as recited in claim 1, each of the multiple pieces of protected content having an associated key ID identifying the piece of protected content for which the content license is to be obtained, and an associated license server ID identifying the license server from which the content license is to be obtained.

6. One or more computer storage media as recited in claim 1, the domain membership license including:

a device identifier identifying the device;

a domain identifier identifying the domain;

a private key of a public/private key pair of the domain; and

a digital certificate for the domain.

7. One or more computer storage media as recited in claim 1, wherein to access the domain administrator is to:

send a join-domain request to the domain administrator, the join-domain request including user credentials for a user associated with the domain and a device certificate signed by a trust authority, the device certificate including a public key of a public/private key pair of the device.

8. One or more computer storage media as recited in claim 7, wherein the instructions further cause the one or more processors to:

receive, from the domain administrator in response to the join-domain request, a domain membership license including a private key of a public/private key pair of the domain to allow the device to decrypt a content key in a content key license that is bound to the domain.

9. One or more computer storage media as recited in claim 1, the device implementing a digital rights management module employing a different digital rights management system than is employed by another digital rights management module implemented in another device that is part of the domain.

10. One or more computer storage media as recited in claim 1, wherein the instructions further cause the one or more processors to:

transfer, to a second device of the multiple devices included in the domain that supports a same digital rights management system as the device, one of the multiple pieces of protected content and the content license for the one piece so that the second device can play back, using a domain membership license of the second device, the one piece.

11. One or more computer storage media as recited in claim 1, wherein the instructions further cause the one or more processors to:

convert one of the multiple pieces of content to a different digital rights management system than is used by the device; and

transfer, to a second device of the multiple devices included in the domain that supports the different digital rights management system, the converted piece of content so that the second device can play back, using a domain membership license of the second device corresponding to the different digital rights management system, the converted piece.

12. One or more computer storage media as recited in claim 1, wherein the instructions further cause the one or more processors to:

receive, from a second device of the multiple devices included in the domain, a piece of content and a content license for the one piece of content, the second device employing a different digital rights management system than the device;

send, to the domain administrator, one or both of the protected content protected for use with the different digital rights management system than is used by the device, and the content license corresponding to the different digital rights management system than is used by the device;

receive, from the domain administrator, the content license corresponding to the digital rights management system used by the device; and

play back the one piece of content.

13. A method comprising:

generating a domain membership license including;

a device identifier identifying a device to which the domain membership license is bound;

a domain identifier identifying a domain of which the device is a member;

a private key of a public/private key pair of the domain; and

a digital certificate for the domain; and

encrypting at least the private key of the domain.

14. A method as recited in claim 13, the domain membership license further including:

one or more rights granted to the device by the domain membership license.

15. A method as recited in claim 13, the digital certificate having been signed by the domain administrator.

16. A method as recited in claim 13, further comprising:

generating the domain membership license in response to a join-domain request received from the device, the join-domain request including user credentials for a user associated with the domain and a device certificate including a public key of a public/private key pair of the device to be used to bind the domain membership license to the device.

17. One or more computer storage media having stored thereon instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a device, cause the one or more processors to implement a protocol enabling the device to access a domain administrator to join a domain that includes one or more additional devices associated with a user of the device, to download content from a content provider, and obtain a content license from a license server, the content license being bound to the domain and allowing the device to play back the content, the protocol operating to enable the device to join the domain, download the content, and obtain the license regardless of whether the domain administrator, the content provider, and the license server are implemented as part of a same service or different services.

18. One or more computer storage media as recited in claim 17, the domain administrator, the content provider, and the license server being implemented as part of the same service.

19. One or more computer storage media as recited in claim 17, the domain administrator, the content provider, and the license server each being implemented as a separate service.

20. One or more computer storage media as recited in claim 17, the protocol further operating to allow the license server to provide content licenses to devices included in the domain without knowledge of which devices are included in the domain.