Method for delivering electronic content from an online store

• US 6,587,837 B1
• Filed: 12/01/1998
• Issued: 07/01/2003
• 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: Spagna, Richard, Lybrand, David P., Milsted, Kenneth Louis, Downs, Edgar
• Primary Examiner(s): Millin, Vincent
• Assistant Examiner(s): AKERS, GEOFFREY R
• Application Number:
  US09/203,315
• Time in Patent Office: 1,673 Days
• Field of Search: 705/50, 705/51, 705/52, 705/54, 705/1, 705/26, 380/4, 380/21, 380/24, 380/25, 380/44
• US Class Current: 705/52
• 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

A method for permitting the electronic delivery of digital content. Metadata is acquired which has been previously associated with content. Promotional metadata is extracted for use with a electronic store. At least one of the metadata is altered to create offer data. And at least one of the metadata is altered to create transaction data. In accordance with another aspect of the invention, a computer readable medium is described to carry out the above method.

Claims

1. A computer readable medium containing program instructions for permitting the electronic delivery of digital content from an electronic store to one or more user systems, the program instructions for execution at the electronic store comprising instructions for:

acquiring metadata including usage conditions which has been previously associated with digital content and a first decrypting key for decrypting previously encrypted digital content, the first decrypting key previously encrypted with a second encrypting key from a trusted custodian for rights management and metering;

extracting at least part of the metadata;

altering, as permitted by the usage conditions, at least one of the metadata to create offer data;

receiving a request from at least one user system for the offer data, wherein the offer data includes a transaction id;

sending to the one or more user systems the offer data which has been requested;

receiving a request from the at least one user system for transaction data corresponding to the offer data including the transaction id previously sent and a third encrypting key from the at least one user system;

altering at least one of the metadata to create transaction data; and

sending the transaction data to the one or more user systems that requested the transaction data, wherein the transaction data includes usage conditions for the digital content along with the third encrypting key which is subsequently used by the trusted custodian for rights management and metering to reencrypt the first decrypting key, which was previously encrypted with the second encrypting key.

2. The computer readable medium according to claim 1 further comprising instructions for:

acknowledging that a customer'"'"'s system has requested the purchase of the content described in the offer data; and

transmitting the transaction data to the customer'"'"'s system.

3. The computer readable medium according to claim 1 further comprising instructions for:

querying if the electronic store has paid for at least part of the promotional metadata; and

allowing at least that part of promotional metadata which has been paid for by the electronic store to be extracted.

4. The computer readable medium according to claim 1, wherein the step of receiving a request includes receiving a request from one or more user systems for transaction data corresponding to the offer data including the transaction id previously sent and an encryption key from the one or more user systems and the step of sending the transaction data includes sending the transaction data to the one or more user systems that requested the transaction data, wherein the transaction data includes usage conditions for the content and the encryption key from the one or more user systems.

5. The computer readable medium according to claim 1, further comprising instructions for:

prompting an authorized operator of the electronic store for one or more addresses for an account reconciliation house and the electronic store; and

placing any addresses entered by an authorized operator into the transaction data.

6. The computer readable medium according to claim 1, further comprising instructions for:

logging offer data and transaction data sent to a customer'"'"'s system; and

reconciling the transaction data sent from the customer'"'"'s system to a clearinghouse with the transaction data sent to the customer'"'"'s system by the electronic store for the same content.

7. The computer readable medium according to claim 1, further comprising an instruction for

presenting the non-encrypted content of the metadata to an authorized operator of the electronic store after the metadata has been acquired.

8. The computer readable medium according to claim 1, further comprising an instruction for

presenting the non-encrypted content of the metadata to an authorized operator for reviewing the metadata before acquiring the metadata.

9. The computer readable medium according to claim 8, wherein the instruction for presenting the non-encrypted content is presented through a web browser interface.

10. The computer readable medium according to claim 8, further comprising instructions for

previewing the metadata containing one or more types of data associated with a musical recording at least one of graphic data, song clip data, album data, artist data, and lyric data.

11. The computer readable medium according to claim 1, further comprising instructions for:

extracting usage conditions from the metadata;

prompting an authorized operator of the electronic store for modifications to the usage conditions;

validating the modifications of the usage conditions from the operator with the usage conditions that have been extracted; and

placing the validated usage conditions into the offer data.

12. The computer readable medium according to claim 11, further comprising instructions for:

constructing a license having terms and conditions of the use for the content based on the usage conditions placed into the transaction data; and

placing the license into the transaction data.

13. A method for permitting the electronic delivery of digital content from an electronic store to one or more user systems the method for execution at the electronic store comprising the steps of:

acquiring metadata including usage conditions which has been previously associated with digital content and a first decrypting key for decrypting previously encrypted digital content, the first decrypting key previously encrypted with a second encrypting key from a trusted custodian for rights management and metering;

extracting at least part metadata;

altering, as permitted by the usage conditions, at least one of the metadata to create offer data as provided by the usage conditions;

receiving a request from at least one user system for the offer data, wherein the offer data includes a transaction id;

sending to the one or more user systems the offer data which has been requested;

receiving a request from the at least one user system for transaction data corresponding to the offer data including the transaction id previously sent and a third encrypting key from the at least one user system;

altering at least one of the metadata to create transaction data; and

sending the transaction data to the one or more laser systems that requested the transaction data, wherein the transaction data includes usage conditions for the digital content along with the third encrypting key which is subsequently used by the trusted custodian for rights management and metering to reencrypt the first decrypting key, which was previously encrypted with the second encrypting key.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising the steps of:

acknowledging that a customer'"'"'s system has requested the purchase of the content described in the offer data; and

transmitting the transaction data to the customer'"'"'s system.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising the steps of:

querying if the electronic store has paid for at least part of the promotional metadata; and

allowing at least that part of promotional metadata which has been paid for by the electronic store to be extracted.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the step of receiving a request includes receiving a request from one or more user systems for transaction data corresponding to the offer data including the transaction id previously sent and an encryption key from the one or more user systems and the step of sending the transaction data includes sending the transaction data to the one or more user systems that requested the transaction data, wherein the transaction data includes usage conditions for the content and the encryption key from the one or more user system.

17. The method of claim 13, further comprising the steps of:

prompting an authorized operator of the electronic store for one or more addresses for an account reconciliation house and the electronic store; and

placing any addresses entered by an authorized operator into the transaction data.

18. The method of claim 13, further comprising the steps of:

logging offer data and transaction data sent to a customer'"'"'s system; and

reconciling the transaction data sent from the customer'"'"'s system to a clearinghouse with the transaction sent to the customer'"'"'s system by the electronic store for the same content.

19. The method of claim 13, further comprising the steps of:

presenting the non-encrypted content of the metadata to an authorized operator of the electronic store after the metadata has been acquired.

20. The method of claim 13, further comprising the steps of:

presenting the non-encrypted content of the metadata to an authorized operator for reviewing the metadata before acquiring the metadata.

21. The method of claim 20 wherein the instruction for presenting the non-encrypted content is presented through a web browser interface.

22. The method of claim 20, further comprising the step of

previewing the metadata containing one or more types of data associated with a musical recording at least one of graphic data, song clip data, album data, artist data, and lyric data.

23. The method of claim 13 further comprising the steps of:

extracting usage conditions from the metadata;

prompting an authorized operator of the electronic store for modifications to the usage conditions;

validating the modifications of the usage conditions from the operator with the usage conditions that have been extracted; and

placing the validated usage conditions into the offer data.

24. The method of claim 23 further comprising the steps of:

constructing a license having terms and conditions of the use for the content based on the usage conditions placed into the transaction data; and

placing the license into the transaction data.

25. An electronic store for permitting the decryption of electronic content comprising:

a secure container packing tool including;

means for acquiring metadata including usage conditions which has been previously associated with digital content and a first decrypting key for decrypting previously encrypted digital content, the first decrypting key previously encrypted with a second encrypting key from a trusted custodian for rights management and metering;

means for extracting promotional metadata by an electronic store;

means for altering, as permitted by the usage conditions, at least one of the metadata to create offer data as provided by the usage conditions;

means for receiving a request from at least one user system for the offer data, wherein the offer data includes a transaction id;

means for sending to the one or more user systems the offer data which has been requested;

means for receiving a request from the at least one user system for transaction data corresponding to the offer data including the transaction id previously sent and a third encrypting key from the at least one user system;

a transaction processor module interfaced with the secured container packer tool for altering at least one of the metadata to create transaction data; and

wherein the transaction data is sent to the one or more user systems that requested the transaction data, wherein the transaction data includes usage conditions for the digital content along with the third encrypting key which is subsequently used by the trusted custodian for rights management and metering to reencrypt the first decrypting key, which was previously encrypted with the second encrypting key.

26. The electronic store of claim 25 further comprising:

means for querying if the electronic store has paid for at least part of the promotional metadata; and

means for allowing at least that part of promotional metadata which has been paid for by the electronic store to be extracted.

27. The electronic store of claim 25 further comprising:

means for prompting an authorized operator of the electronic store for one or more addresses for an account reconciliation house and the electronic store; and

means for placing any addresses entered by an authorized operator into the transaction data.

28. The electronic store of claim 25 further comprising:

means for logging offer data and transaction data sent to a customer'"'"'s system; and

means for reconciling the transaction data sent from the customer'"'"'s system to a clearing house transaction data sent to the customer'"'"'s system by the electronic store for the same content.