Digital license with referral information

• US 7,366,915 B2
• Filed: 04/30/2002
• Issued: 04/29/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: DeMello, Marco A., Waxman, Peter David, Narin, Attila, Venkatesh, Chandramouli, Madonna, Christopher Robert Richard
• Primary Examiner(s): Moazzami; Nasser
• Assistant Examiner(s): Okoronkwo; Chinwendu C
• Application Number:
  US10/135,303
• Publication Number:
  US 20030204723A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,191 Days
• Field of Search: 713/193, 380277-286
• US Class Current: 713/193
• 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: H04L 2463/101 applying security measures for digital rights management data processing systems or methods, specially adapted for commerce, e.g. marketing, shopping, billing, auctions or e-commerce G06Q30/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2463/102 applying security measure for e-commerce data processing systems or methods, specially adapted for e-commerce G06Q30/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0807 using tickets, e.g. Kerberos cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication using tickets or tokens H04L9/3213
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/10 for controlling access to devices or network resources

Abstract

A digital license corresponds to encrypted digital content and includes a content key for decrypting same. The content key is encrypted and is decryptable by a decryption key available only to the first persona, the license thereby being tied to the first persona. The license is a first license and further includes referral information specifying a first location at which a second persona may obtain a second license for the content tied thereto. The second persona requests to render the content by way of the first license and the request is denied because the first license is not tied to the second persona. The referral information is obtained from the first license and employed to initiate contact with the specified first location and obtain the second license tied to the second persona.

Claims

1. A method, the method being performed with regard to a first digital license corresponding to a piece of encrypted digital content, the encrypted digital content provided via a retailer, the first license including a content key for decrypting the encrypted content, the content key being encrypted, the first license being tied to a first persona by way of the encrypted content key of the first license being decryptable by a first decryption key available only to the first persona;

the first license further including referral information specifying a location of a licensor, the method being performed as a computer process on a computing device and comprising;

receiving a request from a second persona to render the content by way of the first license;

determining that the second persona does not have the first decryption key available only to the first persona and therefore that the first license is not tied to the second persona;

denying the request from the second persona based on the first license not being tied to the second persona;

obtaining the referral information from the first license, the first license comprising a Universal Resource Locator (URLL) of a site at which the second license may be obtained from the licensor and a friendly name representative of the URL and an identifier (ID) of the first persona;

obtaining the location of the licensor specified in the obtained referral information;

initiating contact with the licensor at the obtained location;

performing a transaction with the contacted licensor at the obtained location to obtain a second license tied to the second persona;

receiving the second license from the licensor including the content key for decrypting the encrypted content, the content key in the second license being encrypted, the second license being tied to the second persona by way of the encrypted content key of the second license being decryptable by a second decryption key available only to the second persona;

as a result of the transaction obtaining the second license, receiving from the retailer a bounty credit provided to the first persona, the first persona identified using the ID of the first persona in the referral information from the first license;

determining that the second persona has the second decryption key available only to the second persona and therefore that the second license is tied to the second persona;

granting the request from the second persona based on the second license being tied to the second persona.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the first persona has a public/private key pair (PU-1, PR-1), the second persona has a public private key pair (PU-2, PR-2), the first license includes the content key encrypted according to (PU-1), and the second persona has (PR-2) but not (PR-1), (PR-1) being necessary to decrypt the encrypted content key of the first license, (PR-2) being necessary to decrypt the encrypted content key of the first license,.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the site is a network site and the address is a network address, the method comprising employing the obtained referral information to initiate contact with the network site by way of a network connection.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the site is an Internet site and the address is a URL, the method comprising employing the obtained referral information to initiate contact with the Internet site.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein performing the transaction comprises transmitting information to the licensor at the location to be employed by the licensor to tie the second license to the second persona.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein tying the second license to the second persona is accomplished by the licensor by encrypting the content key for the content within the second license by a public key of the second persona, and wherein transmitting information comprises transmitting such public key of the second persona to the licensor at the location.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein receiving the second license comprises receiving the second license including referral information specifying a location at which a third persona may obtain a third license for the content tied thereto.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein receiving the second license comprises receiving the content including the second license integral therewith.