METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DIGITAL RIGHTS MANAGEMENT

• US 20130007894A1
• Filed: 09/12/2012
• Published: 01/03/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/26/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Dang, Ya Bin, Feng, Bo, Shao, Ling, Yan, Rong
• Granted Patent: US 9,886,687 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/27
• 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: G06F 21/31 User authentication
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2101 Auditing as a secondary aspect
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2117 User registration
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2135 Metering
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2137 Time limited access, e.g. to a computer or data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/203 Inventory monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2463/101 applying security measures for digital rights management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/08 for authentication of entities cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles

Abstract

A method and apparatus for digital rights management (DRM) with steps and means for receiving a registration request from one of a plurality of DRM agent devices requesting to register one of a plurality of user accounts and the one DRM agent device to one of a plurality of rights issuers, completing a registration process in the one rights issuer, including establishment of a relationship among the one user account, the one DRM agent device and the one rights issuer; and returning a registration completion response to the one DRM agent device. The invention provides support to the many-to-many relationships among DRM entities, such as DRM agent device, user account and rights issuer, so that the DRM system can be applied to more business modes.

Claims

1. A method for digital rights management (DRM) by a server having at least one processing device, comprising the steps of:

said at least one processing device receiving a deregistration request from one of a plurality of DRM agent device, said deregistration request being used for requesting to deregister one of a plurality of user accounts and said one DRM agent device from one of a plurality of rights issuers;

in response to said deregistration request, said at least one processing device completing a deregistration process in said one rights issuer, including removal of a relationship among said one user account, said one DRM agent device and said one rights issuer; and

said at least one processing device returning a deregistration completion response to said one DRM agent device.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein said step of completing a deregistration process comprises the steps of:

validating said one DRM agent device; and

authenticating said one user account.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein said step of completing a deregistration process comprises the step of:

terminating said deregistration process if the deregistration times of said DRM agent device under said one user account is larger than or equal to a pre-determined value.

4. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of:

updating a rights object space defined by user accounts, DRM agent devices and contents with respect to said rights issuer.

5. A method for digital rights management (DRM) for a computer having at least one processing device comprising the steps of:

sending a registration request to one of a plurality of rights issuers, said registration request being used for requesting to register one of a plurality of user accounts and one of a plurality of DRM agent devices to said one right issuer; and

establishing in the local relationship among said one user account, said one DRM agent device and said one rights issuer if a registration completion response is received from said one rights issuer.

6. The method according to claim 5, further comprising the steps of:

sending to said one rights issuer a request for content rights object acquisition; and

updating a rights object space stored in the local in the case that said content rights object is received.

7. A method for digital rights management (DRM) for a computer having at least one processing device comprising the steps of:

sending a deregistration request to one of a plurality of rights issuers, said deregistration request being used for requesting to deregister one of a plurality of user accounts and one of a plurality of DRM agent devices from said one rights issuer; and

removing in the local relationship among said one user account, said one DRM agent device and said one rights issuer if a deregistration completion response is received from said one rights issuer.

8. An apparatus for digital rights management (DRM) having at least one processing device for implementing program components comprising:

a sender component for sending a registration request to one of a plurality of rights issuers, said registration request being used for requesting to register one of a plurality of user accounts and one of a plurality of DRM agent devices to said one rights issuer; and

a receiver component for establishing in the local relationship among said one user account, said one DRM agent device and said one rights issuer after a registration completion response is received from said one rights issuer.

9. A tangible computer program product storage medium for storing computer program codes in a computer readable form thereon so as to enable the computer system to execute the computer program codes to implement a method for digital rights management (DRM), said method comprising the steps of:

receiving a deregistration request from one of a plurality of DRM agent device, said deregistration request being used for requesting to deregister one of a plurality of user accounts and said one DRM agent device from one of a plurality of rights issuers;

in response to said deregistration request, completing a deregistration process in said one rights issuer, including removal of a relationship among said one user account, said one DRM agent device and said one rights issuer; and

returning a deregistration completion response to said one DRM agent device.