Method and Apparatus for Protecting Information and Privacy

• US 20100212019A1
• Filed: 04/27/2010
• Published: 08/19/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/02/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: RPX Corporation
• Original Assignee: ShieldIP, Inc.
• Inventors: Caceres, Ramon, Molnar, David, Karia, Timir, Beinart, Yossi, Shasha, Dennis E., Rolinson, Sean, Rabin, Michael O.
• Granted Patent: US 8,327,453 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/26
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/1077 Recurrent authorisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6254 by anonymising data, e.g. decorrelating personal data from the owner's identification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/725 operating on a secure reference time value
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/367 involving electronic purses or money safes

Abstract

A system for protecting software against piracy while protecting a user'"'"'s privacy enables enhancements to the protection software in a user device and extended protections against piracy. The protection system allows the user device to postpone validation of purchased tags stored in a tag table for installed software and to re-establish ownership of a tag table to recover from invalidation of a tag table identifier value resulting from revelation of a tag table identifier value. Continued use of the tag table is provided by the use of credits associated with a tag table. A protection center is protected against denial of service attacks by making calls to the protection center cost time or money to the attackers.

Claims

1. A computer implemented system of detecting usage of second-level content on a user device comprising:

one or more computer processors executing a supervising program;

the supervising program detecting use of an executing substrate on a user device, the executing substrate capable of accessing second-level content;

the supervising program locating portions of the second-level content based on information about the functionality of the executing substrate; and

the supervising program using protection information to identify the second-level content.

2. The computer implemented system of claim 1 wherein the supervising program responds to the detection of the second-level content by determining whether use of the second-level content is permitted on the user device.

3. The computer implemented system of claim 2 wherein the supervising program determines whether use of the second-level content is permitted on the user device by:

determining whether there is a valid tag for the second-level content in the tag table; and

if there is a valid tag in the tag table, allowing use of the second-level content.

4. The computer implemented system of claim 3 wherein in response to determining that there is no valid tag for the second-level content in the tag table but a valid tag is necessary, the supervising program determining whether there is a tag for other related content that permits use of the second-level content;

in response to determining that there is a tag for the other related content, the supervising program allowing use of the second-level content; and

in response to determining that there is no tag but a tag is necessary, the supervising program disallowing use of the second-level content.

5. The computer implemented system of claim 1 wherein the executing substrate that is capable of accessing the second-level content on the user device is a reader software application program.

6. The computer implemented system of claim 1 wherein the executing substrate that is capable of accessing the second-level content on the user device is a virtual machine.

7. The computer implemented system of claim 1 wherein the executing substrate capable of accessing the second-level content on the user device is a media player.

8. The computer implemented system of claim 1 wherein the second-level content is one of the following:

an electronic book capable of being executed by a reader software application program, a Java program capable of being executed by a Java Virtual Machine, a computer game capable of being executed by a gaming application, or an electronic media capable of being executed by a media player.

9. The computer implemented system of claim 1 wherein the protection information includes at least one of:

one or more superfingerprints, a software validator, a software patch, a device-validator, digital signature verification keys and associated digital signature verification keys, a parameter package, a list of one-way function values, or a software update set.

10. The computer implemented system of claim 9 wherein a superfingerprint includes portions of the second-level content used to identify which second-level content is being accessed on the user device.

11. The computer implemented system of claim 9 wherein the software validator includes a hash function value of a portion of the second-level content.

12. The computer implemented system of claim 9 wherein the software patch includes new code for the supervising program.

13. The computer implemented system of claim 9 wherein the device-validator checks a property of the user device.

14. The computer implemented system of claim 9 wherein the digital signature verification key lists include names of entities authorized to sign messages employed in protection of the second-level content and those entities'"'"' associated digital signature verification keys.

15. The computer implemented system of claim 9 wherein the parameter package includes parameter values to be employed by a supervising program on the user device for protection of the second-level content.

16. The computer implemented system of claim 9 wherein the parameter values are employed by the supervising program to enforce the second-level content protection.

17. A computer implemented system of controlling usage of second-level content on a user device comprising:

one or more computer processors executing a supervising program;

the supervising program detecting usage of second-level content on a user device by;

detecting use of a reader software application program on the user device, where the reader is capable of accessing second-level content;

locating portions of the second-level content based on information about the functionality of the reader; and

using protection information to identify the second-level content; and

the supervising program responding to the detection of the second-level content by determining whether use of the second-level content is permitted on the user device.

18. The computer implemented system of claim 17 wherein the supervising program determines whether use of the second-level content is permitted on the user device by:

determining whether there is a valid tag for the second-level content in the tag table; and

if there is a valid tag in the tag table, allowing use of the second-level content.

19. A computer product capable of executing on one or more computer processors, the computer program product having computer readable instructions for controlling usage of second-level content on a user device, the computer readable instructions including instructions for:

detecting usage of second-level content on a user device by;

detecting use of a reader software application program on the user device, where the reader is capable of accessing second-level content;

locating portions of the second-level content based on information about the functionality of the reader; and

using protection information to identify the second-level content; and

responding to the detection of the second-level content by determining whether use of the second-level content is permitted on the user device.