Maintaining tracking information for electronic documents

• US 7,933,874 B2
• Filed: 11/14/2006
• Issued: 04/26/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/14/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Sadovsky, Vladimir, Stokes, Michael D., Ternasky, Joseph D., Van Hoof, Hubert
• Primary Examiner(s): Alam; Hosain T
• Assistant Examiner(s): OBERLY, VAN HONG
• Application Number:
  US11/559,650
• Publication Number:
  US 20080114768A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,624 Days
• Field of Search: 707/648, 707/999.01, 707/999.107
• US Class Current: 707/648
• 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

Abstract

A plurality of parts for an electronic document are generated. The plurality of parts include a root relationship part that identifies one or more of the plurality of parts, a payload part that stores data for the electronic document, and a tracking information part that stores tracking information for the electronic document. All of these parts are stored in a single package.

Claims

1. One or more computer storage media having a plurality of instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to:

generate an electronic document comprising;

a root relationship part that identifies each of a payload part, a tracking information part and a plurality of digital rights management (DRM) parts;

the payload part that stores data for the electronic document;

the tracking information part that stores tracking information for the electronic document, wherein the tracking information is configured to store routing information relating to one or more computing devices the electronic document passes through when the electronic document is sent to each recipient in a list of recipients;

a first DRM part identifying the payload part via a first DRM relationship part, and storing information protecting access to the payload part; and

a second DRM part identifying the tracking information part via a second DRM relationship part, and storing information protecting access to the tracking information part, wherein the first DRM part and the second DRM part assign different DRM rights to the payload part and the tracking information part; and

store each of the payload part, the tracking information part, the first DRM part, and the second DRM part of the electronic document in a single package for communication.

2. One or more computer storage media as recited in claim 1, wherein the tracking information identifies, for each recipient in the list of recipients, when the single package is sent to each of the recipients and when the single packaged is accessed by each recipient.

3. One or more computer storage media as recited in claim 1, wherein the first DRM part and the second DRM part store information restricting access to the payload part but not restricting access to the tracking information part.

4. One or more computer readable storage as recited in claim 1, wherein the first DRM part and the second DRM part store information restricting access to the tracking information part but not restricting access to the payload part.

5. One or more computer readable storage as recited in claim 1, wherein the single package is stored as a ZIP file.

6. One or more computer storage media as recited in claim 1, wherein the electronic document further comprises one or more relationship parts associated with the payload part, wherein the one or more relationship parts:

identify a resource external to the single package or another part in the single package; and

are directly identified by the payload part instead of the root relationship part.

7. One or more computer storage media having a plurality of instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:

access a package storing a plurality of parts of an electronic document, the plurality of parts including;

a root relationship part that identifies one or more of the plurality of parts;

a payload part that stores data for the electronic document;

a tracking information part that stores tracking information for the package, wherein the tracking information identifies one or more recipients of the package, when the package was sent to each of the one or more recipients, and routing information relating to one or more computing devices the package passes through when the package is sent to each of the one or more recipients; and

a digital rights management part that stores information protecting access to the payload part and the tracking information part, wherein different digital rights management protection is assigned to the payload part and the tracking information part;

attempt to access the tracking information part;

check whether the digital rights management part indicates that the tracking information part can be accessed; and

retrieve the tracking information if the digital rights management part indicates that the tracking information part can be accessed.

8. One or more computer storage media as recited in claim 7, wherein the plurality of instructions further cause the one or more processors to:

attempt to modify the tracking information;

check whether the digital rights management part indicates that the tracking information can be modified; and

make a modification to the tracking information if the digital rights management part indicates that the tracking information can be modified.

9. One or more computer storage media as recited in claim 7, wherein the package is stored as a single ZIP archive file.

10. One or more computer storage media as recited in claim 7, wherein the tracking information identifies, for each of the one or more recipients, when the package was accessed by the recipient.

11. One or more computer storage media as recited in claim 7, wherein the digital rights management part indicates that the tracking information cannot be accessed even though the payload part can be accessed.

12. One or more computer storage media as recited in claim 7, wherein the plurality of parts further include one or more relationship parts associated with the payload part, wherein the one or more relationship parts:

identify a resource external to the package or another part in the package; and

are directly identified by the payload part instead of the root relationship part.

13. A method comprising:

accessing, by one or more processors configured with executable instructions, a package storing a plurality of parts of an electronic document, the plurality of parts comprising;

a root relationship part that identifies one or more of the plurality of parts;

a payload part, identified by the root relationship part, that stores data for the electronic document;

a tracking information part, identified by the root relationship part, that stores tracking information for the electronic document, wherein the tracking information identifies one or more recipients of the package, when the package was sent to each of the one or more recipients, and routing information relating to one or more computing devices the package passes through when the package is sent to each of the one or more recipients;

one or more digital rights management parts that store information protecting access to the payload part and the tracking information part, wherein different digital rights management protection is assigned to the payload part and the tracking information part;

attempting to modify the tracking information in the tracking information part;

checking whether the digital rights management part indicates that the tracking information can be modified; and

making a modification to the tracking information only if the digital rights management part indicates that the tracking information can be modified.

14. A method as recited in claim 13, wherein the package is stored as a single ZIP archive file.

15. A method as recited in claim 13, further comprising:

creating the package storing the plurality of parts of the electronic document, wherein creating the package comprises;

specifying a content type property for each of the parts; and

specifying a growth hint property for each of the parts, wherein the growth hint property identifies the number of bytes to reserve for each part to grow.