Digital work structure

• US 6,920,436 B2
• Filed: 02/06/2003
• Issued: 07/19/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 11/23/1994
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: ContentGuard Holdings, Inc. (Pendrell Corporation)
• Original Assignee: ContentGuard Holdings, Inc. (Pendrell Corporation)
• Inventors: Pirolli, Peter L. T., Stefik, Mark J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Trammell, James P.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Reagan, James A.
• Application Number:
  US10/359,100
• Publication Number:
  US 20030115144A1
• Time in Patent Office: 894 Days
• Field of Search: 705 50- 59, 705/64, 705/65, 705/69, 380/201, 707/9, 707/104.1, 713182-186
• 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 2211/007 Encryption, En-/decode, En-/decipher, En-/decypher, Scramble, (De-)compress
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2115 Third party
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2135 Metering
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/12 specially adapted for electronic shopping systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/1235 with control of digital rights management [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3674 involving authentication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/14 Charging , metering or billing arrangements for data wireline or wireless communications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1403 Architecture for metering, charging or billing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/146 using digital cash
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1485 Tariff-related aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1496 involving discounts
• 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 61/00 Network arrangements, protocols or services for addressing or naming
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/45 Network directories; Name-to-address mapping
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0428 wherein the data content is protected, e.g. by encrypting or encapsulating the payload
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0442 wherein the sending and receiving network entities apply asymmetric encryption, i.e. different keys for encryption and decryption cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for public-key encryption H04L9/30
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0464 using hop-by-hop encryption, i.e. wherein an intermediate entity decrypts the information and re-encrypts it before forwarding it
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/062 for key distribution, e.g. centrally by trusted party cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for key distribution involving a central third party H04L9/0819
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0807 using tickets, e.g. Kerberos cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication using tickets or tokens H04L9/3213
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0823 : using certificates cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication involving certificates H04L9/3263
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/10 : for controlling access to devices or network resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/101 : Access control lists [ACL]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/102 : Entity profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/105 : Multiple levels of security
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/123 : received data contents, e.g. message integrity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 : Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2541 : Rights Management protecting software against unauthorised usage in a vending or licensing environment G06F21/10; security in data switching network management H04L41/28; security management or policies for network security H04L63/20; access security in wireless networks H04W12/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/835 : Generation of protective data, e.g. certificates protecting software against unauthorised usage in a vending or licensing environment G06F21/10
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99939 : Privileged access
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 : Object-oriented database structure processing

Abstract

A digital work for use within a rights management system for controlling use of the digital work in accordance with usage rights. The work is organized into an acyclic structure and includes a contents file including information related to content that can be interpreted by an interpreter, and a description tree file including descriptor blocks organized in a hierarchical manner. At least some of the descriptor blocks contain usage rights associated with the content. The usage rights specify a manner of use for the content.

Claims

1. A digital work organized into an acyclic structure for use within a system for enforcing usage rights associated with content, said digital work comprising:

a contents file including information related to content that can be interpreted by an interpreter; and

a description tree file including descriptor blocks organized in a hierarchical manner, at least some of said descriptor blocks containing usage rights associated with the content, said usage rights specifying a manner of use for the content,

wherein at least one of said descriptor block comprises a content identifier and a rights portion, said content identifier including a unique identifier of content and said rights portion containing said usage rights,

wherein said contents file comprises plural content portions,

wherein said rights portion comprises a rights code field containing a code indicative of a manner of use of the digital content and a status information field containing information relating to a state of the manner of use,

wherein at least one of said descriptor blocks does not include a content identifier and includes a pointer to a child descriptor block and a usage rights portion containing usage rights information associated with said child descriptor block, and

wherein said usage rights portion comprises a transactional component including a specification of said manner of use for the associated digital content and a specifications component specifying conditions that must be satisfied to exercise the manner of use or transaction related parameters.

2. A digital work as recited in claim 1, wherein said usage rights information is contained in a data structure.

3. A digital work as recited in claim 2, wherein said data structure is a lookup table containing the usage rights information.

4. A digital work as recited in claim 1, wherein the interpreter is a rendering device for rendering the content into a desired form.

5. A digital work as recited in claim 1, wherein said contents file comprises a stream of addressable bytes representing the information related to the content.

6. A digital work as recited in claim 1, wherein said content portions are stored linearly.

7. A digital work as recited in claim 1, wherein each of the content identifiers include a pointer to one of said content portions.

8. A digital work as recited in claim 1, wherein the content comprises at least one content object.

9. A digital work as recited in claim 1, wherein the content comprises audio information.

10. A digital work as recited in claim 1, wherein the content comprises video information.

11. A digital work as recited in claim 1, wherein the content comprises textual information.

12. A digital work as recited in claim 1, wherein the content comprises graphical information.

13. A digital work as recited in claim 1, wherein the content comprises a computer program.

14. A digital work as recited in claim 13, wherein the manner of use is a manner of executing the computer software.

15. A digital work as recited in claim 1, wherein said contents file and said description tree file are adapted to be stored on the same device.

16. A digital work as recited in claim 1, wherein said contents file and said description tree file are adapted to be stored on different devices.

17. A digital work as recited in claim 1, wherein said contents file remains with said description tree file.

18. A digital work as recited in claim 1, wherein said transaction related parameters specify a financial account.

19. A digital work as recited in claim 1, wherein said usage rights portion further comprises a label indicating the manner of use specified by the transactional component.

20. A digital work as recited in claim 1, wherein said transactional component further comprises software instructions which implement the manner of use specified by the usage right.

21. A digital work as recited in claim 1, wherein the manner of use is a manner of rendering and the content.

22. A digital work as recited in claim 21, wherein the content is adapted to be rendered by a rendering system as the interpreter.

23. A digital work as recited in claim 21, wherein the manner of rendering is a manner of displaying.

24. A digital work as recited in claim 21, wherein the manner of rendering is a manner of playing.

25. A digital work as recited in claim 21, wherein the manner of rendering is a manner of printing.

26. A data structure for specifying usage rights that can be associated with content for use within a system for enforcing use of the content in accordance with the usage rights, said data structure comprising:

a description tree file including descriptor blocks organized in a hierarchical manner, at least some of said descriptor blocks containing usage rights associated with the content, said usage rights specifying a manner of use for the content, at least one of said descriptor block comprises a unique identifier of content and a rights portion comprising a rights code field containing a code indicative of a manner of use of the digital content and a status information field containing information relating to a state of the manner of use,

wherein said content comprises plural content portions,

wherein at least one of said descriptor blocks does not include a content identifier and includes a pointer to a child descriptor block and a rights portion containing usage rights information associated with said child descriptor block, and

wherein said rights portion comprises a transactional component including a specification of said manner of use for the content and a specifications component specifying conditions that must be satisfied to exercise the manner of use or transaction related parameters.

27. A data structure as recited in claim 26, wherein said rights portion further comprises a label indicating the manner of use.

28. A data structure as recited in claim 26, wherein the manner of use is a manner of rendering and the content.

29. A data structure as recited in claim 28, wherein the manner of rendering is a manner of displaying.

30. A data structure as recited in claim 28, wherein the manner of rendering is a manner of playing.

31. A data structure is as recited in claim 28, wherein the manner of rendering is a manner of printing.

32. A data structure as recited in claim 26, wherein the manner of use is a manner of executing the computer software.