DECOUPLED MECHANISM FOR MANAGED COPY CLIENT APPLICATIONS AND E-COMMERCE SERVERS TO INTEROPERATE IN A HETEROGENEOUS ENVIRONMENT

• US 20080313270A1
• Filed: 06/18/2007
• Published: 12/18/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/18/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Simmons, John Carl, Clinick, Andrew John
• Granted Patent: US 8,965,950 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/203
• 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 8/61 Installation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/1235 with control of digital rights management [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes

Abstract

Request data is generated at a client device having at least one managed copy client application. The request data includes an identifier (e.g., a uniform resource locator, class ID, etc.) for an integration control (e.g., an ActiveX control, Java applet, etc.) installable on the client device. The request data is transmitted and, in response to the request data, response data (e.g., an object element in an HTML page) is received from a server (e.g., an e-commerce server). The response data facilitates installation of the integration control on the client device, and the integration control provides an interface to facilitate communication between the server and the managed copy client application.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

at a client device having a first managed copy client application, generating managed copy request data comprising an identifier for an integration control installable on the client device;

transmitting the managed copy request data comprising the identifier for the integration control;

in response to the transmitting of the managed copy request data comprising the identifier for the integration control, receiving response data from a server;

wherein the response data facilitates installation of the integration control on the client device; and

wherein the integration control provides a standardized interface to facilitate communication between the server and the managed copy client application.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the response data comprises an object element in an HTML page.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the integration control comprises a method to be called when a transaction on the server has been completed.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the integration control is an ActiveX control.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the identifier for the integration control is a class ID.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the integration control is a Java applet.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the identifier for the integration control is a uniform resource locator.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the request data further comprises a type indicator for the integration control.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the server is an e-commerce server.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

installing the integration control on the client device;

receiving managed copy information from the server via the integration control; and

making one or more managed copies of a digital media product based at least in part on the managed copy information received from the server via the integration control.

11. A method comprising:

receiving managed copy request data comprising an identifier for a managed copy client application integration control installable on a client device;

locating the managed copy client application integration control based at least in part on the identifier;

transmitting response data in response to the received managed copy request data;

wherein the response data facilitates installation of the managed copy client application integration control on the client device; and

wherein the managed copy client application integration control provides a standardized interface to facilitate communication between a server and a managed copy client application running on the client device.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the identifier comprises a uniform resource locator, and wherein the locating the managed copy client application integration control based at least in part on the identifier comprises looking up the managed copy client application integration control at a location specified by the uniform resource locator.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the identifier comprises a class ID.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the acts of claim 11 are performed at least in part by an e-commerce server.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein the response data comprises an object element in an HTML page.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the HTML page comprises a script that calls a method of the managed copy client application integration control.

17. One or more computer-readable media having stored thereon computer-executable instructions for causing one or more computers to perform a method comprising:

at a client device having at least one managed copy client application, generating request data comprising an identifier for a control installable on the client device;

transmitting the request data comprising the identifier for the control;

in response to the transmitting of the request data comprising the identifier for the control, receiving response data from a server;

wherein the response data facilitates installation of the control on the client device; and

wherein the control provides an interface that facilitates communication between the server and the at least one managed copy client application.

18. The computer-readable media of claim 17, wherein the control is an ActiveX control.

19. The computer-readable media of claim 17, wherein the control is a Java applet.

20. The computer-readable media of claim 17, wherein the method further comprises:

by the at least one managed copy client application, receiving managed copy information from the server via the control; and

making a managed copy based at least in part on the received managed copy information.