DIGITAL CONTENT RETRIEVAL UTILIZING DISPERSED STORAGE

• US 20140317694A1
• Filed: 06/27/2014
• Published: 10/23/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/29/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Pure Storage, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Cleversafe Incorporated (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Grube, Gary W., Markison, Timothy W.
• Granted Patent: US 9,507,735 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/4
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/1408 by using cryptography for digital transmission H04L9/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/1416 by checking the object accessibility, e.g. type of access defined by the memory independently of subject rights G06F12/1458 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/1458 by checking the subject access rights
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/1083 Partial license transfers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/1052 Security improvement
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/154 Networked environment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2151 Time stamp
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/30 Compression, e.g. Merkle-Damgard construction
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/34 Encoding or coding, e.g. Huffman coding or error correction
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/603 Digital right managament [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/102 Entity profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1097 for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/085 Secret sharing or secret splitting, e.g. threshold schemes
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2181 comprising remotely distributed storage units, e.g. when movies are replicated over a plurality of video servers distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS], H04L67/1097
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23116 involving data replication, e.g. over plural servers synchronization of replicated data G06F11/1658; error detection or correction by means of data replication G06F11/2053; replication in distributed file systems G06F16/10; replication in distributed file systems G06F16/27; replication or mirroring of data in data networks H04L67/1095
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/232 Content retrieval operation locally within server, e.g. reading video streams from disk arrays storage management G06F3/0604; details of querying and searching of video data from a database G06F16/739

Abstract

A method begins by a DS processing module, when operable within a computing device, causing the computing device to receive a request for retrieval of a set of encoded content data slices from a dispersed storage network (DSN) memory, wherein the request includes at least the identity of the set of encoded content data slices. The method continues by determining user access rights based on a content timestamp. The method continues by determining the current timestamp and whether user access rights compare favorably to the content timestamp and current timestamp or can be modified to be favorable. The method continues by retrieving encoded data slices from the DSN memory and decoding the encoded data slices utilizing an error coding dispersed storage function and in accordance with the read operational parameters producing the content and sending the content and/or the encoded data slices to the requester.

Claims

1. A method for execution by one or more processing modules of a dispersed storage network (DSN), the method comprises:

receiving a request from a requester for retrieval of content previously stored within a DSN memory, wherein the request includes at least the identity of sets of encoded data slices representing the content;

determining user access rights associated with the request based on a comparison of one or more timestamps associated with a user to a timestamp of the requested content;

when the user access rights compare favorably, retrieving the sets of encoded data slices from the DSN memory and decoding the encoded data slices utilizing an error coding dispersed storage function to produce the content; and

sending the content to the requester.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the requester includes one or more of:

a set top box;

a user device;

a dispersed storage (DS) managing unit;

a storage integrity processing unit;

another DS processing unit;

a DS unit; and

another source.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprises the request including one or more of:

a user ID;

a content type indicator;

digital rights management (DRM) information;

a DRM policy; and

read operational parameters.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the determining of user access rights is based on one or more of:

the user ID;

a user access rights table lookup;

a content timestamp table lookup;

a content type indicator;

the DRM information;

the DRM policy;

user information;

system parameters;

a vault lookup and read operational parameters.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprises determining if the user had access rights at the time of storage of the content into the DSN memory and, if so, providing a favorable user access rights comparison.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprises determining if the user has access rights to the content at the time of the request and, if so, providing a favorable user access rights comparison.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprises determining if the user access rights can be modified to support a favorable user access rights comparison.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising determining, when the user access rights compare favorably, read operational parameters.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the read operational parameters include one or more of:

pillar width;

read threshold;

pillars allowed to retrieve from;

a decode method;

a de-slice method;

a decryption method;

a decryption key; and

pillar combinations for the requester.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprises, when determining that the user access rights do not compare favorably to the timestamps, providing any of the following to the user:

an error message;

capability to purchase the user access rights; and

capability to pay a premium for unlimited lifetime access to the content.

11. The method of claim 1 further comprises, prior to receiving the request, an ingest dispersed storage (DS) processing unit receiving the content, determining an identity of sets of encoded data slices representing the content, determining a current timestamp and storing in a content ingestion table a content ID in a content ID field and further storing the current timestamp as the content timestamp in a content timestamp field.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprises a retrieval DS processing unit utilizing information from the content ingestion table to determine when the content was ingested into the DSN memory.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the current timestamp determination is based on one or more of:

a system clock;

an ingest dispersed storage (DS) processing unit clock;

a command;

a message; and

a query.

14. A method for execution by one or more processing modules of a dispersed storage network (DSN), the method comprises:

receiving a request for content stored in DSN memory;

determining if each of a plurality of users has access rights to a content identifier (ID) associated with the requested content;

when determining that each of the plurality of users have the access rights to the content ID, determining if a start timestamp is before a content timestamp based on a comparison of the two timestamps;

when determining that the start timestamp is before the content timestamp, determining if an end timestamp is after the content timestamp based on a comparison of the two timestamps;

when determining that the end timestamp is not after the content timestamp, determining that the access rights compare favorably to the timestamps; and

sending the content to the requester.

15. The method of claim 14 further comprises determining if the user had the access rights to the content identifier (ID) at time of storage of the content into the DSN memory and, if so, providing a favorable access rights comparison.

16. The method of claim 14 further comprises determining if the user has the access rights to the content at time of the request and, if so, providing a favorable access rights comparison.

17. The method of claim 14 further comprises, when determining that the user access rights do not compare favorably to the timestamps, providing any of the following to the user:

an error message;

an opportunity to purchase the user access rights; and

an opportunity to pay a premium for unlimited lifetime access to the content.

18. The method of claim 14 further comprises, when determining that the user access rights do not compare favorably to the timestamps, enabling purchasing of time stamps or ranges of time stamps retroactively.

19. A dispersed storage (DS) module comprises:

a first DS processing module, when operable within a computing device, causes the computing device to;

receive a request for retrieval of a set of encoded content data slices from a dispersed storage network (DSN) memory, wherein the request includes at least an identity of the set of encoded content data slices;

determine user access rights based on a content timestamp;

determine a current timestamp;

determine if the user access rights compare favorably to the content timestamp and current timestamp;

when the user access rights compare favorably to the timestamps, determine read operational parameters;

retrieve encoded data slices from the DSN memory and decode the encoded data slices utilizing an error coding dispersed storage function and in accordance with the read operational parameters produce the content; and

send the content and/or the encoded data slices to the requester.

20. The dispersed storage (DS) module of claim 19 further comprises, when determining that the user access rights do not compare favorably to the timestamps, providing any of the following to the user:

an error message;

an opportunity to purchase the user access rights; and

an opportunity to pay a premium for unlimited lifetime access to the content.