Method and system for real-time control of document printing

• US 7,664,956 B2
• Filed: 05/07/2002
• Issued: 02/16/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/14/1998
• Status: Expired

• Current Assignee: Kioba Processing, LLC (IP Investments Group LLC)
• Original Assignee: Finjan Software Limited (SoftBank Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Goodman, Daniel I.
• Primary Examiner(s): Shiferaw, Eleni A
• Application Number:
  US10/141,308
• Publication Number:
  US 20030009672A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,842 Days
• Field of Search: 380/252, 380/51, 380/30, 380/279, 380/55, 713/176, 707/7, 399/366
• US Class Current: 713/176
• 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 21/84 output devices, e.g. displays or monitors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2119 Authenticating web pages, e.g. with suspicious links
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/12 Digital output to print unit , e.g. line printer, chain printer
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/103 Formatting, i.e. changing of presentation of documents automatic justification G06F40/189; automatic line break hyphenation G06F40/191
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/109 Font handling; Temporal or kinetic typography
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/126 Character encoding
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/102 Bill distribution or payments
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00244 with a server, e.g. an internet server fax-servers or the like for store and forward H04N1/324
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32776 using an interactive, user-operated device, e.g. a computer terminal, mobile telephone H04N1/32782, H04N1/32784 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/4426 involving separate means, e.g. a server, a magnetic card
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/444 to a particular document or image or part thereof
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/4486 using digital data encryption
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/0039 Connection via a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3249 data relating to a linked page or object, e.g. hyperlink
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99937 Sorting
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99939 Privileged access
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 : Object-oriented database structure processing

Abstract

A method for secure printing is presented. A document management system (DMS) is provided within a server computer for storing, displaying and printing a plurality of documents. At least a portion of the documents require authentication information for displaying and printing. A web-based capture protection system is provided that prevents proprietary content displayed on a display device from being screen-captured. The web-based capture protection system is combined with the DMS to augment the DMS with capture protection of displayed documents, including intercepting retrieval requests from a client computer to display documents from the DMS.

Claims

1. A method for secure printing, comprising:

providing a document management system (DMS) that stores and retrieves a plurality of documents, wherein at least a portion of the documents require authentication information for access, and have DMS print restrictions associated therewith;

providing a web-based capture protection system that prevents proprietary content displayed on a display device from being screen-captured, wherein such proprietary content has web-based print restrictions which limit its being printed;

intercepting a retrieval request from a client computer, to retrieve a designated document from the DMS;

deriving combined print restrictions for the designated document by combining (1) the DMS print restrictions associated with the designated document and (2) the web-based print restrictions to restrict printing of proprietary content contained in the designated document;

encrypting the designated document using a document encryption key;

using a header encryption key, encrypting the combined print restrictions, the document encryption key, and the authentication information associated with the designated document;

appending the encrypted combined print restrictions, the encrypted document encryption key, and the authentication information to the encrypted designated document, within a document header;

decrypting, by the client computer, the encrypted document encryption key using the header encryption key;

decrypting, by the client computer, the encrypted designated document using the decrypted document encryption key;

subsequently intercepting a print request from the client computer, to print the designated document;

transmitting, by the client computer, an identifier of the designated document, the encrypted combined print restrictions, and the encrypted authentication information, to a printer server;

decrypting, by the printer server, the encrypted combined print restrictions and the encrypted authentication information;

requesting, by the printer server, retrieval of the designated document from the DMS based on the identifier of the designated document and the decrypted authentication information;

obtaining, by the printer server, print options from the client computer; and

determining, by the printer server, whether the client computer is allowed to print the designated document, based on the decrypted combined print restrictions and the obtained print options.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the web-based print restrictions include a list of permissible printers.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the identifier of the designated document is a URL for the designated document.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the authentication information includes a username and a password.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein said decrypting, by the client computer, the encrypted document encryption key comprises obtaining the header encryption key from a key server.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the web-based print restrictions include watermark attributes, and wherein said determining, by the printer server, whether the client computer is allowed to print the designated document comprises identifying a visible watermark to overlay on the designated document based on the watermark attributes.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of documents stored in the DMS include web pages.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of documents stored in the DMS include application documents.

9. A method for secure printing, comprising:

providing a document management system (DMS) that stores and retrieves a plurality of documents, wherein at least a portion of the documents require authentication information for access, and have DMS print restrictions associated therewith;

providing a web-based capture protection system that prevents proprietary content displayed on a display device from being screen-captured, wherein such proprietary content has web-based print restrictions which limit its being printed;

intercepting a retrieval request from a client computer, to retrieve a designated document from the DMS;

deriving combined print restrictions for the designated document by combining (1) the DMS print restrictions associated with the designated document and (2) the web-based print restrictions to restrict printing of proprietary content contained in the designated document;

encrypting the designated document using a document encryption key;

using a header encryption key, encrypting the combined print restrictions, the document encryption key, and the authentication information associated with the designated document;

appending the encrypted combined print restrictions, the encrypted document encryption key, and the authentication information to the encrypted designated document, within a document header;

decrypting, by the client computer, the encrypted combined print restrictions, the encrypted document encryption key, and the authentication information using the header encryption key;

decrypting, by the client computer, the encrypted designated document using the decrypted document encryption key;

subsequently intercepting a print request from the client computer, to print the designated document;

transmitting, by the client computer, an identifier of the designated document, the decrypted combined print restrictions, and the decrypted authentication information, to a printer server;

requesting, by the printer server, retrieval of the designated document from the DMS based on the identifier of the designated document and the decrypted authentication information;

obtaining, by the printer server, print options from the client computer; and

determining, by the printer server, whether the client computer is allowed to print the designated document, based on the decrypted combined print restrictions and the obtained print options.

10. A method for secure printing, comprising:

providing a document management system (DMS) that stores and retrieves a plurality of documents, wherein at least a portion of the documents require authentication information for access, and have DMS print restrictions associated therewith;

providing a web-based capture protection system that prevents proprietary content displayed on a display device from being screen-captured, wherein such proprietary content has web-based print restrictions which limit its being printed;

intercepting a retrieval request from a client computer, to retrieve a designated document from the DMS;

deriving combined print restrictions for the designated document by combining (1) the DMS print restrictions associated with the designated document and (2) the web-based print restrictions to restrict printing of proprietary content contained in the designated document;

encrypting the designated document using a document encryption key;

using a header encryption key, encrypting the combined print restrictions, the document encryption key, and the authentication information associated with the designated document;

appending the encrypted combined print restrictions, the encrypted document encryption key, and the authentication information to the designated document, within a document header;

transmitting, by the client computer, the encrypted combined print restrictions, the encrypted document encryption key, and the authentication information to a key server for decryption;

receiving, by the client computer from the key server, decrypted combined print restrictions, a decrypted document encryption key and decrypted authentication information;

decrypting, by the client computer, the encrypted document using the decrypted document encryption key;

subsequently intercepting a print request from the client computer, to print the designated document;

transmitting, by the client computer, an identifier of the designated document, the decrypted combined print restrictions and the decrypted authentication information to a printer server;

requesting, by the printer server, retrieval of the designated document from the DMS based on the identifier of the designated document and the decrypted authentication information;

obtaining, by the printer server, print options from the client computer; and

determining, by the printer server, whether the client computer is allowed to print the designated document, based on the decrypted combined print restrictions and the obtained print options.