DATA CHARGING SYSTEM, CONTENT GENERATOR, DATA CHARGING APPARATUS, AND DATA CHARGING METHOD

• US 20090313155A1
• Filed: 08/20/2009
• Published: 12/17/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/11/1998
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Sawada, Satoru, Yasumuro, Hirokazu
• Application Number:
  US12/544,492
• Publication Number:
  US 20090313155A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/34
• 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 21/16 Program or content traceability, e.g. by watermarking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2153 Using hardware token as a secondary aspect
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing

Abstract

The present invention is directed to a system and method of charging the user for his/her use of digital contents in an easy and reliable manner. More particularly, the present invention provides a server machine 16 generates digital contents and supplies them to a client machine 10. When it receives payment for the use of the contents, it writes charging data containing recognition data, count data, etc. into an IC card, which is inserted into the card reader of the client machine 10. The client machine 10 compares recognition data or the like extracted from the IC card with those from the digital contents. When a match is found, the client machine 10 embeds or detects a digital watermark in the digital contents. In this way, the user is charged for the use of digital contents on a pay-per-use basis according to the usage count, usage time, etc.

Claims

1. A content generator on a server machine for embedding digital watermarks in object data of a specific type and generating contents in a data charging system which records, on an IC card recording medium, charging data used for paying for object data contained in said contents and recognition data used for identifying the type of object data in said contents, and said IC card being used by a client machine to charge dynamically only for the use of the object data received by the client machine and embedded with said digital watermarks, based on the specific type of data said object data is, as determined by using said recognition data, and by using said charging data and said recognition data which have been recorded in said recording medium.