Method and system for monitoring use of digital works

• US 6,735,699 B1
• Filed: 09/24/1999
• Issued: 05/11/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 09/24/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Ryuichi Sasaki
• Original Assignee: Ryuichi Sasaki
• Inventors: Mineno, Yusuke, Washimi, Kazuo, Sasaki, Ryuichi
• Primary Examiner(s): Peeso, Thomas R.
• Assistant Examiner(s): ZAND, KAMBIZ
• Application Number:
  US09/404,543
• Time in Patent Office: 1,691 Days
• Field of Search: 713/200, 713/176, 705/59
• US Class Current: 726/28
• 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]

Abstract

A digital work utilization monitoring method and system for preventing illegal use such as unpermitted copying of digital works so that use of the digital works can be monitored by judging whether or not the use is legally permitted and for facilitating a smooth and appropriate circulation of digital works by promoting payments of use fees for use of digital works. A use license is issued on the basis of a permission application for using a digital work and the license is embedded into the digital work by means of a digital watermark. With the license having an identification code of a device used by a user, it is judged whether or not the use of the distributed digital work is legally permitted by monitoring. The license can be issued on condition that a use fee has been paid.

Claims

1. A method of monitoring use of digital works, comprising the steps of:

(a) registering a digital work in a rights registration database according to an identification code of the digital work;

(b) receiving an application of permission for a use of the digital work, together with the identification code of the digital work used by a user and an identification code of a user device;

(c) collating the identification code of the digital work and the identification code of the user device with said rights registration database on the basis of the application of the permission for using the digital work and, if the permission for using the digital work is granted, issuing a license including the identification code of the user device; and

(d) embedding the license in the digital work by means of a digital watermark so that the user can use the digital work with the license in the user device.

2. The method of monitoring use of digital works according to claim 1, further comprising checking whether a use fee has been paid from the user device before issuing the license, if utilization permission information is not registered for the user device regarding the identification code of the digital work as a result of the collation in said step (c).

3. The method of monitoring use of digital works according to claim 2, further comprising sending a warning to the user device, when the utilization permission information is not registered for the user device regarding the identification code of the digital work as a result of the collation in said step (c) and a use fee has not been paid from the user device.

4. The method of monitoring use of digital works according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of licenses sequentially granted to an identical digital work are added to the digital work in order so that the licenses can be deciphered retroactively.

5. The method of monitoring use of digital works according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of licenses sequentially granted to an identical digital work are renewed every time.

6. A system for monitoring use of digital works, comprising:

a rights registration database for registering a digital work and a user device with identification codes, the use device being used by a user for recording and reproducing the digital work;

a user-side encoder, comprising;

an application sending section, arranged in the user device, for sending an application of permission for a use of a digital work with work and device identification codes, the work identification code being an identification code of the digital work used in said user device, and the device identification code being an identification code of said user device, and

a license embedding section for embedding a license including said device identification code into the digital work by means of a digital watermark on the basis of a license grant instruction; and

a digital rights center comprising;

an application receiving server for receiving said work and device identification codes from said application sending section and for collating said work and device identification codes with said rights registration database, and

a license issuing server for sending the license grant instruction granting the license including said device identification code to said license embedding section if the utilization permission is granted.

7. The system for monitoring use of digital works according to claim 6, further comprising an accounting system,

wherein said accounting system sends an instruction of granting a license to said license issuing server on condition that a use fee has been already paid, if the device identification code is not registered for the work identification code as a result of collating the both work and device identification codes with said rights registration database.

8. The system for monitoring use of digital works according to claim 7, further comprising an accounting database,

wherein said user-side encoder further has a payment processing section and said digital rights center has an accounting server;

wherein said application receiving server outputs a final application request instruction to said payment processing section if the device identification code of the user device is not registered for the work identification code of the digital work as a result of collating both work and device identification codes with said rights registration database;

wherein the payment processing section performs the final application to said accounting server according to the final application request instruction and perform the payment processing of a use fee via said accounting system; and

wherein, when the final application and the payment of the use fee have been completed, said accounting server instructs the license issuing server to issue the license to the user device, stores the processing result into said rights registration database, and stores the accounting information into said accounting database.

9. The system for monitoring use of digital works according to claim 6, wherein the user device is formed by a computer and computers of a plurality of users are connected to the digital rights center via an information network.

10. The system for monitoring use of digital works according to claim 9, wherein the information network is the Internet.

11. The system for monitoring use of digital works according to claim 6, comprising a plurality of digital rights centers, wherein these digital rights centers are connected to each other via the information network.

12. The system for monitoring use of digital works according to claim 11, wherein a single digital rights center is arranged for each area.

13. The system for monitoring use of digital works according to claim 11, wherein the plurality of digital rights centers are classified into a supervisory digital rights center, a plurality of area digital rights centers each of which is arranged in each area and is controlled by the supervisory digital rights center, and terminal digital rights centers under control of each area digital rights center.

14. The system for monitoring use of digital works according to claim 13, wherein each area digital rights center is arranged for each country.

15. The system for monitoring use of digital works according to claim 13, wherein each area digital rights center includes an accounting system so that the area digital rights center in each area performs accounting processing in the area while the supervisory digital rights center performs a distribution and accounting processing of the digital work between different areas.

16. The digital work recording unit for use in the system for monitoring use of digital works according to claim 6, the digital work recording unit comprising:

a user-side encoder including the application sending section and the license embedding section; and

a recording section for recording a digital work with a license embedded by means of a digital watermark into a detachable storage medium.

17. A digital work reproducing unit used together with the digital work recording unit according to claim 16, the digital work reproducing unit comprising:

a reproducing section for reading a content recorded in the storage medium; and

a protector, including a previously stored identification code of said digital work recording unit, for inhibiting an output of the digital work read by said reproducing section, if the license added to the digital work read by said reproducing section does not match the identification code of said digital work recording unit.