SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DISTRIBUTING DIGITAL RIGHTS MANAGEMENT DIGITAL CONTENT IN A CONTROLLED NETWORK ENSURING DIGITAL RIGHTS

• US 20120136794A1
• Filed: 12/22/2011
• Published: 05/31/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 07/09/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Kushalnagar, Nandakishore R., Jeronimo, Michael D., Tharappel, Francis M., Baumberger, Daniel
• Granted Patent: US 10,108,945 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/59
• 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 21/105 Arrangements for software license management or administration, e.g. for managing licenses at corporate level
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/1235 with control of digital rights management [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 2220/18 Licensing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/184 Intellectual property management

Abstract

A system and method for managing digital rights. The method includes receiving a Universal Resource Identifier (URI). The URI is used to identify a location for a user selected digital media item. The digital media item is to be played in a local area network (LAN). The selected digital media item is retrieved from a content server over a network connection. If the selected digital media item is encrypted, a license to decrypt the selected media item is obtained. Access to the license is based on a plurality of access rules. The plurality of access rules are based on the terms of the license. The plurality of access rules may also include personal owner rules. If a request for the license adheres to the access rules, the license is received via a secure out of band transfer and the selected digital media item is decrypted for playback via one or more media rendering devices.

Claims

1. An article comprising:

a storage medium having a plurality of machine accessible instructions, wherein when the instructions are executed by a processor, the instructions provide for;

retrieving digital media content from a content server over a network connection, the retrieved digital media content to be played on one or more media rendering devices in a local area network (LAN);

distributing the retrieved digital media content to the one or more media rendering devices in the LAN;

determining whether the retrieved digital media content is encrypted;

in response to the retrieved digital media content being encrypted, determining whether a license to decrypt the retrieved digital media content is available from a local license server;

in response to determining that the license to decrypt the retrieved digital media content is available from the local license server, issuing the license from the local license server to the one or more media rendering devices according to usage rules of the license; and

in response to determining that the license to decrypt the retrieved digital media content is not available from the local license server,

(i) identifying a remote license server having the license to decrypt the retrieved digital media content,

(ii) retrieving the license from the remote license server with the local license server, wherein the license is retrieved from the remote license server over a wide area network with the local license server, and

(iii) issuing the retrieved license from the local license server to the one or more media rendering devices according to the usage rules of the license.

2. The article of claim 1, wherein instructions for issuing the license from the local license server to the one or more media rendering devices according to the usage rules of the license comprises instructions for:

issuing the license directly from the local license server to the one or more media rendering devices via a secure out of band transfer, wherein distributing the retrieved digital media content to the one or more media rendering devices occurring over a first communication path and the secure out of band transfer occurring over a second communication path, the second communication path is different than the first communication path.

3. The article of claim 1, further comprising instructions for extracting unencrypted meta data from the retrieved digital media content corresponding to the license, the unencrypted meta data including a key identification and a license Universal Resource Identifier (URI), the key identification identifies the license and the license URI identifies where the license can be found.

4. The article of claim 3, further comprising instructions for:

receiving the key identification and license URI to access the license;

establishing a secure connection to a control point to obtain user credentials for acquiring the license;

retrieving the user credentials;

establishing a secure connection to the remote license server having the license in response to determining that the license to decrypt the retrieved digital media content is not available from the local license server, the remote license server identified using the license URI;

sending the remote license server the user credentials and the key identification to obtain the license; and

acquiring the license from the remote license server using the key identification.

5. The article of claim 3, wherein determining whether a license to decrypt the retrieved digital media content is available from a local license server comprises checking the local license server using the key identification extracted from the retrieved digital media content to determine whether the license is available from the local license server.

6. The article of claim 1, further comprising instructions for determining whether the license is permitted to be issued from the local license server.

7. The article of claim 6, further comprising instructions for denying a request to retrieve the license from the local license server in response to determining that the license is not permitted to be issued from the local license server.

8. The article of claim 6, wherein determining whether the license is permitted to be issued from the local license server comprises determining whether a request to retrieve the license adheres to the usage rules of the license.

9. The article of claim 8, wherein the usage rules of the license correspond to one or more terms of the license.

10. The article of claim 8, wherein the usage rules of the license include at least one of a number of times the retrieved digital media content is to be played, a number of media rendering devices the retrieved digital media content may be played on at one time, an expiration of the license, and a length of time a user may play the retrieved digital media content.