Rights Management System and Methods
First Claim
1. A system for rights management comprising:
- a personal computer including;
a memory; and
electronic processing circuitry in communication with said memory through a communications bus, wherein said memory includes computer executable software instructions stored therein for execution on said electronic processing circuitry, the software instructions including instructions to;
i) handle content including a content identifier steganographically embedded within the content;
ii) decode the steganographically embedded content identifier from the content;
iii) enable use of the content according to usage rules, the usage rules being associated with the content identifier; and
iv) track the use of the content.
6 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A method of performing digital asset management of content is provided. The content is identified with an identifier. The identifier can be identified with a digital watermark, header file, or both. The identifier is linked to usage rules to regulate usage and protect the content. The usage rules can be maintained on a remote or local database or server. Once extracted, an identifier is used to index the database to locate a corresponding usage rule, and can be used to override copy control information with proper purchase and subsequent protection. Content can be managed from such. In another embodiment, an identifier is used to track usage, such as amount of content viewed, time played, and copies made. In yet another embodiment, a content identifier is used to regulate content throughout a distribution chain, and a distributed set of databases with information relevant only to the owner of the database act as one database due to a central router.
162 Citations
25 Claims
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1. A system for rights management comprising:
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a personal computer including;
a memory; and
electronic processing circuitry in communication with said memory through a communications bus, wherein said memory includes computer executable software instructions stored therein for execution on said electronic processing circuitry, the software instructions including instructions to;
i) handle content including a content identifier steganographically embedded within the content;
ii) decode the steganographically embedded content identifier from the content;
iii) enable use of the content according to usage rules, the usage rules being associated with the content identifier; and
iv) track the use of the content. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A method to regulate a content distribution chain including a plurality of participants, said method comprising:
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providing a unique identifier for a content item, the content item to be handled in the content distribution chain;
associating a plurality of usage rule sets with the unique identifier, wherein each of the plurality of sets corresponds to at least one of the plurality of participants; and
regulating the content item for a participant according to its respective usage rule set. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 15)
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16. A method of regulating distribution of digitally watermarked content comprising:
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decoding a digital watermark in the digitally watermarked content, the digital watermark comprising at least one component related to copy usage and at least one component related to content identification;
obtaining the copy usage component and the content identification component from the decoded digital watermark; and
prohibiting the distribution of the digitally watermarked content according to the copy usage component unless a permission to distribute the content is received, and then a decision of whether to prohibit distribution of the digitally watermarked content is determined based on the permission instead of on the copy usage component. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20)
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21. A distribution system to handle content including at least one identifier steganographically embedded therein, said system comprising:
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a plurality of databases, wherein each of the plurality of databases is associated with a system participant;
a central router to communicate with each of the plurality of databases; and
at least one content database to communicate with the central router, wherein the content database communicates a unique set of usage rules associated with the content identifier to each of the plurality of databases via the central router, the unique sets of usage rules being determined at least in part on usage requirements for each of the databases.
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22. A method to regulate content in a distribution chain, the content including an identifier, the method comprising:
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for at least a first participant and a second participant in the distribution chain, storing a first set of usage rules and a second set of usage rules, respectively, at each of a first participant site and a second participant site; and
at each of the first participant site and second participant site, respectively regulating use of the content in accordance with the first set of usage rules and second set of usage rules. - View Dependent Claims (14, 23, 24, 25)
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Specification