Electronic content delivery system

• US 6,226,618 B1
• Filed: 08/13/1998
• Issued: 05/01/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 08/13/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Level 3 Communications LLC (Lumen Technologies, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Lotspiech, Jeffrey B., Gruse, George Gregory, Milsted, Kenneth Louis, Hurtado, Marco M., Lehman, Christopher T., Downs, Edgar
• Primary Examiner(s): Trammell, James P.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nguyen, Nga B.
• Application Number:
  US09/133,519
• Time in Patent Office: 992 Days
• Field of Search: 705/4, 705/51, 705/53, 705/57, 705/59, 705/71, 705/26, 705/27, 380/4, 380/44, 380/23, 380/25, 380/281, 380/282, 380/279, 707/9
• US Class Current: 705/51
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2135 Metering
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3674 involving authentication
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/382 insuring higher security of transaction
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3829 involving key management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0617 Representative agent
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0623 Item investigation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0633 Lists, e.g. purchase orders, compilation or processing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/603 Digital right managament [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2463/101 applying security measures for digital rights management data processing systems or methods, specially adapted for commerce, e.g. marketing, shopping, billing, auctions or e-commerce G06Q30/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2463/102 applying security measure for e-commerce data processing systems or methods, specially adapted for e-commerce G06Q30/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0428 wherein the data content is protected, e.g. by encrypting or encapsulating the payload
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/0822 using key encryption key
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/0825 using asymmetric-key encryption or public key infrastructure [PKI], e.g. key signature or public key certificates
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services

Abstract

Disclosed is a method and apparatus of securely providing data to a user'"'"'s system. The data is encrypted so as to only be decryptable by a data decrypting key, the data decrypting key being encrypted using a first public key, and the encrypted data being accessible to the user'"'"'s system, the method comprising the steps of: transferring the encrypted data decrypting key to a clearing house that possesses a first private key, which corresponds to the first public key; decrypting the data decrypting key using the first private key; re-encrypting the data decrypting key using a second public key; transferring the re-encrypted data decrypting key to the user'"'"'s system, the user'"'"'s system possessing a second private key, which corresponds to the second public key; and decrypting the re-encrypted data decrypting key using the second private key.

Claims

1. A method of securely providing data to a user'"'"'s system, said method comprising the steps of:

encrypting the data using a first encrypting key;

encrypting a first decrypting key using a second encrypting key;

transferring the encrypted data, which has been encrypted with the first encrypting key, to the user'"'"'s system;

transferring the encrypted first decrypting key, which has been encrypted with the second encrypting key, to the user'"'"'s system;

transferring the encrypted first decrypting key, which has been encrypted with the second encrypting key, to a clearing house that possesses a second decrypting key;

decrypting the first decrypting key using the second decrypting key; and

transferring the decrypted first decrypting key to the user'"'"'s system.

2. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein the step of transferring the decrypted first decrypting key includes the sub-steps of:

re-encrypting the first decrypting key using a third encrypting key;

transferring the decrypted and re-encrypted first decrypting key to the user'"'"'s system; and

decrypting the re-encrypted first decrypting key using a third decrypting key.

3. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein the first encrypting key and the first decrypting key are symmetric keys.

4. The method as defined in claim 3, wherein the second encrypting key is a public key of the clearinghouse and the second decrypting key is a corresponding private key of the clearinghouse.

5. The method as defined in claim 4, wherein the step of transferring the decrypted first decrypting key includes the sub-steps of:

re-encrypting the first decrypting key using a third encrypting key, the third encrypting key being a public key of the user;

transferring the decrypted and re-encrypted first decrypting key to the user'"'"'s system; and

decrypting the re-encrypted first decrypting key using a third decrypting key, the third decrypting key being a corresponding private key of the user.

6. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein the step of transferring the encrypted first decrypting key to the user'"'"'s system is performed by an electronic merchant and includes the sub-steps of:

initiating a purchase of the data or a license for the data from the electronic merchant; and

sending the encrypted first decrypting key and purchase transaction data to the user'"'"'s system.

7. The method as defined in claim 6,

wherein the step of transferring the encrypted first decrypting key to the user'"'"'s system further includes the sub-step of charging the user for the data or the license, and

the step of decrypting the first decrypting key is performed by the clearinghouse and includes the sub-steps of:

verifying that the user has paid for the data or the license; and

decrypting the first decrypting key using the second decrypting key.

8. The method as defined in claim 6, wherein the step of decrypting the first decrypting key is performed by the clearinghouse and includes the sub-steps of:

charging the user for the data or the license; and

decrypting the first decrypting key using the second decrypting key.

9. The method as defined in claim 1, further comprising the step of decrypting the data using the first decrypting key.

10. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein the data includes music data.

11. A method of securely providing data to a user'"'"'s system, the data being encrypted so as to only be decryptable by a data decrypting key, the data decrypting key being encrypted using a first public key, and the encrypted data being accessible to the user'"'"'s system, said method comprising the steps of:

transferring the encrypted data decrypting key to a clearing house that possesses a first private key, which corresponds to the first public key;

decrypting the data decrypting key using the first private key;

re-encrypting the data decrypting key using a second public key;

transferring the re-encrypted data decrypting key to the user'"'"'s system, the user'"'"'s system possessing a second private key, which corresponds to the second public key; and

decrypting the re-encrypted data decrypting key using the second private key.

12. The method as defined in claim 11, wherein the step of transferring the encrypted data decrypting key to a clearing house includes the sub-steps of:

transferring the encrypted data decrypting key to the user'"'"'s system; and

subsequently transferring the encrypted data decrypting key from the user'"'"'s system to the clearing house.

13. The method as defined in claim 12, wherein the sub-step of transferring the encrypted data decrypting key to the user'"'"'s system is performed by an electronic merchant and includes the sub-steps of:

initiating a purchase of the data or a license for the data from the electronic merchant; and

sending the encrypted data decrypting key and purchase transaction data to the user'"'"'s system.

14. The method as defined in claim 13,

wherein the sub-step of transferring the encrypted data decrypting key to the user'"'"'s system further includes the sub-step of charging the user for the data or the license, and

the step of decrypting the data decrypting key is performed by the clearinghouse and includes the sub-steps of:

verifying that the user has paid for the data or the license; and

decrypting the data decrypting key using the first private key.

15. The method as defined in claim 13, wherein the step of decrypting the data decrypting key is performed by the clearinghouse and includes the sub-steps of:

charging the user for the data or the license; and

decrypting the data decrypting key using the first private key.

16. The method as defined in claim 11, further comprising the step of decrypting the encrypted data using the data decrypting key.

17. A method of operating a clearinghouse to provide integrity in a channel of commerce that includes a provider, a distributor, and a purchaser, the provider producing data and encrypting the data so as to only be decryptable by a data decrypting key, the encrypted data being accessible to the purchaser, said method comprising the steps of:

encrypting the data decrypting key using a public key of the clearinghouse;

sending the encrypted data decrypting key from the provider to the distributor;

when the purchaser desires to purchase the data or a license to use the data, sending the encrypted data decrypting key from the distributor to the purchaser;

sending the encrypted data decrypting key from the purchaser to the clearing house;

decrypting the data decrypting key using a private key of the clearinghouse and re-encrypting the data decrypting key using a public key of the purchaser; and

sending the re-encrypted data decrypting key from the clearinghouse to the purchaser.

18. The method as defined in claim 17,

wherein the distributor charges the user a fee before sending the encrypted data decrypting key to the purchaser, and

the clearinghouse verifies that the user has paid the fee before sending the re-encrypted data decrypting key to the purchaser.

19. The method as defined in claim 17, wherein the clearinghouse charges the user a fee before sending the re-encrypted data decrypting key to the purchaser.

20. The method as defined in claim 17, further comprising the steps of:

decrypting the re-encrypted data decrypting key using the private key of the purchaser; and

decrypting the encrypted data using the data decrypting key.

21. A system for securely providing data to a user'"'"'s system, the system comprising:

a content system;

a first public key;

a first private key;

which corresponds to the first public key;

a data encrypting key;

a data de-encrypting key for de-encrypting data encrypted using the data encrypting key;

first data encryption means for encrypting data so as to be decryptable only by a data decrypting key;

second data encryption means, using the first public key, for encrypting the decrypting key;

a clearing house;

first transferring means for transferring the data decrypting key which has been encrypted to the clearing house, wherein the clearinghouse possesses the first private key;

first decrypting means for decrypting the data decrypting key using the first private key;

a second public key;

a second private key;

which corresponds to the second public key;

re-encryption means for re-encrypting the data decrypting key using the second public key;

second transferring means for transferring the re-encrypted data decrypting key to the user'"'"'s system, wherein the user'"'"'s system possesses the second private key; and

second decrypting means for decrypting the re-encrypted data decrypting key using the second private key.

22. The system as defined in claim 21, wherein the first transferring means further comprises:

a third transfer means for transferring the encrypted data decrypting key to the user'"'"'s system; and

a fourth transfer means for subsequently transferring the encrypted data decrypting key from the user'"'"'s system to the clearinghouse.

23. The system as defined in claim 22, wherein the third transfer means is performed by an electronic merchant and further comprises:

initiating means for initiating a purchase of the data or a license for the data from the electronic merchant; and

sending means for sending the encrypted data decrypting key and purchase transaction data to the user'"'"'s system.

24. The system as defined in claim 23, wherein the sending means further comprises:

charging means for charging the user for the data or the license; and

wherein the first decrypting means is performed by the clearinghouse and further comprises;

verifying means for verifying that the user has paid for the data or the license; and

third decrypting means for decrypting the data decrypting key using the first private key.

25. The system as defined in claim 23, wherein the first decrypting means is performed by the clearinghouse and further comprises:

charging means for charging the user for the data or the license; and

fourth decrypting means for decrypting the data decrypting key using the first private key.

26. The system in claim 21, further comprises:

data decrypting key decrypting means for decrypting the encrypted data using the data decrypting key.