Apparatus and method for providing access rights information in a portion of a file

• US 6,892,201 B2
• Filed: 09/05/2001
• Issued: 05/10/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 09/05/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Jones, Scott Thomas, Hamzy, Mark Joseph, Brown, Michael Wayne
• Primary Examiner(s): AMSBURY, WAYNE P
• Application Number:
  US09/946,200
• Publication Number:
  US 20030050919A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,343 Days
• Field of Search: 707/9, 715/530, 709/223, 713/201
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6218 to a system of files or objects, e.g. local or distributed file system or database
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99939 Privileged access

Abstract

An apparatus and method for providing access rights information on computer accessible content are provided. The apparatus and method provide a mechanism through which access rights information is provided in association with information and content such that use of the information and content is controlled based on the access rights information. The apparatus and method include access rights information tags being associated with information and content. A web browser is provided with code, either in the web browser, or as a plugin application or browser extension, to process the access rights information and thereby control the usage of the associated information and content. In addition to being implemented as tags, the access rights information may be inserted into a file such as in the file header. In such an embodiment, the file header includes a pointer to the file data and thus, the inclusion of the access rights information into the file header does not disrupt the processing of the file. Moreover, with this embodiment, since the access rights information is part of the file itself, it becomes more difficult for would-be hackers to remove the access rights information.

Claims

1. A method of controlling access to content, comprising:

receiving a request from a computing device to perform a function on a portion of a web page;

processing access rights tags in source code of the portion of the web page to determine allowable access to the content in the portion of the web page, wherein processing the access rights tags in the web page to determine allowable access to the content includes determining the allowable access based on a combination of the access rights tags and a user access level associated with a user of the computing device; and

controlling access, by the computing device, to the content based on the allowable access determined from access rights tags in the source code of the portion of the web page, wherein a plurality of functions may be performed on the portion of the web page, and wherein the access rights tags provide information regarding subsets of the plurality of functions that may be performed for each defined user access level, and wherein determining the allowable access based on a combination of the access rights tags and a user access level includes determining if the request to perform a function on a file requests a function that is within a subset of functions associated with the user access level of the user of the computing device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the access rights tags are provided in a file header associated with the portion of the web page.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the file header contains a pointer to file data and a pointer to access rights information.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein processing the access rights tags in the source code of the portion of the web page includes parsing the access rights tags to identify a manner by which the file data is to be presented to a user of the computing device.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the file data represents one of a document and an image.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein the access rights tags include information pertaining to one or more of a cost of accessing the file data, an entity to which a fee for accessing the file data is to be paid, degrading a quality of the representation of the file data, a portion of the representation of the file data that may be altered according to the access rights tags, and how the portion of the representation of the file data may be altered based on a access level of a user.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining the user access level for a user of the computing device, wherein the user access level is determined dynamically based on whether or not the user changes an original access level to obtain greater access rights to the content.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

obtaining a user login identification; and

determining the user access level for a user of the computing device, wherein determining the user access level includes retrieving a user profile based on the user login identification.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein controlling access, by the computing device, to the content based on the allowable access determined from access rights tags in the source code of the portion of the web page includes:

enabling a first set of user selectable options within a graphical user interface of a web browser on the computing device; and

disabling a second set of user selectable options, different from the first set of user selectable options, within the graphical user interface of the web browser on the computing device, such that the second set of user selectable options are not selectable by a user of the computing device.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the access rights tags include information that identifies a monetary payment amount by which access rights may be increased for each defined user access level.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one function of the plurality of functions is a common function that is common to more than one user access level, and wherein the access rights tags include information that identifies a number of times the at least one common function may be performed, wherein the number of times the at least one common function may be performed is different for each of the more than one user access level.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the access rights tags include information that identifies for at least one user access level, a clip area for clipping a rendering of the portion of the web page on the computing device such that the clip area is not viewable by a user of the computing device.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein a clip area is identified for more than one user access level, and wherein the clip area is a different size for each of the more than one user access level.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the access rights tags include information that identifies a level of degradation of quality of a rendering of the content of the portion of the web page on the computing device for at least one user access level.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein a level of degradation of quality of rendering of the content of the portion of the web page on the computing device is identified for more than one user access level and wherein the level of degradation is different for each of the more than one user access level.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the level of degradation identifies at least one of a color depth degradation, a resolution degradation, blurring of the content of the portion of the web page, clipping of the content of the portion of the web page, superimposing an image over the content of the portion of the web page, and blackening out a portion of the content of the portion of the web page.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the access rights tags include information that identifies at least one reward for accessing the content of the portion of the web page.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the at least one reward is useable to gain access to other contents of other portions of the web page protected by the access rights tags.

19. A computer program product in a computer readable medium for controlling access to content, comprising:

first instructions for receiving a request from a computing device to perform a function on a portion of a web page;

second instructions for processing access rights tags in source code of the portion of the web page to determine allowable access to content in the portion of the web page, wherein second instructions for processing the access rights tags in the portion of the web page to determine allowable access to the content includes instructions for determining the allowable access based on a combination of the access rights tags and a user access level associated with a user of the computing device; and

third instructions for controlling access by the computing device to the content based on the allowable access determined from the access rights tags in the source code of the portion of the web page, wherein a plurality of functions may be performed on the portion of the web page, and wherein the access rights tags provide information regarding subsets of the plurality of functions that may be performed for each defined user access level, and wherein the instructions for determining the allowable access based on a combination of the access rights tags and a user access level includes instructions for determining if the request to perform a function on a portion of the web page requests a function that is within a subset of functions associated with the user access level of the user of the computing device.

20. The computer program product of claim 19, wherein the access rights tags are provided in a file header associated with the portion of the web page.

21. The computer program product of claim 20, wherein the file header contains a pointer to file data and a pointer to access rights information.

22. The computer program product of claim 21, wherein the second instructions for processing the access rights tags in the source code of the portion of the web page include instructions for parsing the access rights tags to identify a manner by which the file data is to be presented to a user of the computing device.

23. The computer program product of claim 21, wherein the file data represents one of a document and an image.

24. The computer program product of claim 21, wherein the access rights tags include information pertaining to one or more of a cost of accessing the file data, an entity to which a fee for accessing the file data is to be paid, degrading a quality of the representation of the file data, a portion of the representation of the file data that may be altered according to the access rights information, and how the portion of the representation of the file data may be altered based on a access level of a user.

25. The computer program product of claim 19, further comprising fourth instructions for obtaining the user access level for a user of the computing device, wherein the user access level is determined dynamically based on whether or not the user changes an original access level to obtain greater access rights to the content.

26. The computer program product of claim 19, further comprising:

fourth instructions for obtaining a user login identification; and

fifth instructions for obtaining the user access level for a user of the computing device, wherein the fifth instructions for obtaining the user access level include instructions for retrieving a user profile based on the user login identification.

27. An apparatus for controlling access to content, comprising:

means for receiving a request from a computing device to perform a function on a portion of a web page;

means for processing access rights tags in source code for the portion of the web page to determine allowable access to content in the portion of the web page, wherein means for processing the access rights tags in the portion of the web page to determine allowable access to the content includes means for determining the allowable access based on a combination of the access rights tags and a user access level associated with a user of the computing device; and

means for controlling access by the computing device to the content based on the allowable access determined from the access rights tags in the source code of the portion of the web page, wherein a plurality of functions may be performed on the portion of the web page, and wherein the access rights tags provide information regarding subsets of the plurality of functions that may be performed for each defined user access level, and wherein the means for determining the allowable access based on a combination of the access rights tags and a user access level includes means for determining if the request to perform a function on the portion of the web page requests a function that is within a subset of functions associated with the user access level of the user of the computing device.

28. The apparatus of claim 27, wherein the access rights tags are provided in a file header associated with the portion of the web page.

29. The apparatus of claim 28, wherein the file header contains a pointer to file data and a pointer to access rights information.

30. The apparatus of claim 29, wherein the means for processing the access rights tags in the source code of the portion of the web page includes means for parsing the access rights tags to identify a manner by which the file data is to be presented to a user of the computing device.

31. The apparatus claim 29, wherein the file data represents one of a document and an image.

32. The apparatus of claim 29, wherein the access rights tags include information pertaining to one or more of a cost of accessing the file data, an entity to which a fee for accessing the file data is to be paid, degrading a quality of the representation of the file data, and a portion of the representation of the file data that may be altered according to the access rights information, and how the portion of the representation of the file data may be altered based on a access level of a user.

33. The apparatus of claim 27, further comprising means for obtaining the user access level for a user of the computing, wherein the user access level is determined dynamically based on whether or not the user changes an original access level to obtain greater access rights to the content.

34. The apparatus of claim 27, further comprising:

means for obtaining a user login identification; and

means for obtaining the user access level for a user of the computing, wherein the means for obtaining the user access level includes means for retrieving a user profile based on the user login identification.