Method and system for managing a data object so as to comply with predetermined condition for usage

• US 8,479,306 B1
• Filed: 05/27/1999
• Issued: 07/02/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 02/01/1995
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Rovi Solutions Corporation (Adeia Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Rovi Solutions Corporation (Adeia Inc.)
• Inventors: Benson, Greg, Urich, Gregory H., Knauft, Christopher L.
• Primary Examiner(s): VON BUHR, MARIA N
• Application Number:
  US09/321,386
• Time in Patent Office: 5,150 Days
• Field of Search: 707/9, 707/10, 707/103, 707781-788, 705/54, 705/59, 705 50- 52, 713/150, 713/160, 713/161, 726 26- 33
• US Class Current: 726/31
• 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 21/6236 between heterogeneous systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2211/007 Encryption, En-/decode, En-/decipher, En-/decypher, Scramble, (De-)compress
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2103 Challenge-response
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2111 Location-sensitive, e.g. geographical location, GPS
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2137 Time limited access, e.g. to a computer or data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2141 Access rights, e.g. capability lists, access control lists, access tables, access matrices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2151 Time stamp
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99939 Privileged access

Abstract

A method and a system for managing a data object so as to comply with predetermined conditions for usage of the data object. To control the usage of the data object, a set of control data, defining uses of the data object, which comply with the predetermined conditions, is created for the data object. The data object is concatenated with the user set of control data, encrypted and transferred to the user. When the user wants to use the data object, a special user program checks whether the usage complies with the control data. If so, the usage is enabled. Otherwise it is disabled.

Claims

1. A method of controlling the usage by a user of data objects so as to comply with a variable number of conditions for usage of the data objects, comprising:

providing at least two data packages, each data package comprising a data object and a user set of control data, which comprises at least one usage control element defining a usage of the data object which complies with the variable number of conditions, the data object being encrypted;

examining the usage control elements of the at least two data packages to find a match;

checking whether a data processor is capable of executing a security procedure specified in a security control element of the at least one usage control element, and disabling the usage when the data processor is not capable of executing the security procedure; and

performing an action being specified in the user sets of control data of the at least two data packages and decrypting the data objects.

2. The method of claim 1, additionally comprising:

updating the at least one usage control element of each data package; and

re-encrypting each of the data objects of each data package.