Using trusted third parties to perform DRM operations

• US 8,245,308 B2
• Filed: 06/04/2008
• Issued: 08/14/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/04/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Dubhashi, Kedarnath A., Reneris, Kenneth S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Lipman, Jacob
• Application Number:
  US12/133,356
• Publication Number:
  US 20090307780A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,532 Days
• Field of Search: 726/27
• US Class Current: 726/27
• 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

Various embodiments utilize a third party, such as a trusted third-party, to perform DRM operations such as “move” operations. In at least some embodiments, the trusted third-party is utilized for both “move” operations as well as local content access such as playback and the like. In at least some embodiments, a third-party maintains a database that includes an association of clients, content, and move version numbers. A client—termed a “source client” maintains at least a move version number locally in a secure fashion. The version number is incremented each time the source client performs a move operation. Both the source client and the third-party increment the version number each time a piece of content is moved. When the client attempts to perform a move operation, it contacts the third-party to ascertain the third-party'"'"'s move version number. If the move version numbers match and the source client owns the license/content, then, in at least some embodiments, a move operation is permitted.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

maintaining at least a move version number and a client move list on a client computing device, the client move list describing content that has been moved from the client computing device to one or more other computing devices, the move version number being associated with the content that has been moved to the one or more other computing devices;

sending a message to a trusted third-party indicating that a move operation is desired for a particular piece of content;

receiving a communication from the trusted third-party indicating approval of the move operation, the communication including a server move list that describes the content that has been moved from the client computing device to the one or more other computing devices and which cannot be consumed by the client computing device, the approval being based on a determination that the client computing device has not performed a previous move operation on the particular piece of content;

conducting the move operation on the particular piece of content if the particular content is not listed in the server move list;

incrementing the move version number; and

updating the client move list to indicate that the particular piece of content has been moved from the client computing device to another computing device.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a list of license IDs from the trusted third-party and maintaining the list of license IDs in the client move list.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the trusted third-party comprises a server.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the trusted third-party comprises an entity other than a server.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising, responsive to conducting the move operation, deleting an associated license and content associated with the license from the client computing device.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

sending a request to the trusted third-party for a move version number maintained by the trusted third-party;

receiving a message indicating the move version number maintained by the trusted third-party;

comparing the move version number maintained by the trusted third-party with the move version number maintained by the client computing device; and

allowing consumption of associated content if the move version numbers match.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein said sending a request is performed responsive to attempting to bind a license to the particular piece of content.

8. The method of claim 6 further comprising ascertaining whether a license ID associated with the particular piece of content appears on the client move list maintained by the client computing device, and performing said allowing if the license ID does not appear on the client move list.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein said allowing is performed if the client move list has been updated within a defined period of time.

10. A client computing device, comprising:

one or more computer readable media; and

a processor configured to execute one or more applications that reside on the computer-readable media, the one or more applications configured to;

maintain at least a move version number and a client move list on the client computing device, the client move list describing content that has been moved from the client computing device to one or more other computing devices, the move version number being associated with the content that has been moved from the client computing device to the one or more other computing devices;

send a message to a trusted third-party indicating that a move operation is desired;

receive a communication from the trusted third-party indicating approval of the desired move operation, the communication comprising a server move list that describes content that cannot be consumed by the client computing device based at least in part on movement to another device, the approval based on a determination that the client computing device has not performed a previous move operation on content sharing a same license ID as a license ID associated with a subject of the desired move operation;

conduct the desired move operation if the subject of the desired move operation is not listed in the server move list;

increment the move version number; and

update the client move list to indicate that the subject of the desired move operation has been moved from the client computing device.

11. The client computing device of claim 10, wherein the one or more applications are further configured to:

receive a list of license IDs from the trusted third-party; and

maintain the list of license IDs in the client move list.

12. The client computing device of claim 10, wherein the trusted third-party comprises a server.

13. The client computing device of claim 10, wherein the one or more applications are further configured to send a request to the trusted third-party for a move version number maintained by the trusted third party in response to an attempt to bind a license to a particular piece of content.

14. The client computing device of claim 10, wherein the one or more applications are further configured to, responsive to the move operation being conducted, delete an associated license and content associated with the license from the client computing device.

15. The client computing device of claim 10, wherein the one or more applications are further configured to:

send a request to the trusted third-party for a move version number maintained by the trusted third-party;

receive a message indicating the move version number maintained by the trusted third-party;

compare the move version number maintained by the trusted third-party with the move version number maintained by the client computing device; and

allow consumption of associated content if the move version numbers match.

16. One or more computer-readable storage media embodying computer-readable instructions which, when executed, implement a method comprising:

maintaining at least a client move list and a move version number on a client computing device, the client move list describing content that has been moved from the client computing device to one or more other computing devices, the move version number being associated with the content that has been moved to the one or more other computing devices;

sending a message to a trusted third-party indicating that a move operation is desired for particular content;

receiving a communication from the trusted third-party indicating approval of the move operation, the communication including a server move list that describes the content that has been moved to the one or more other computing devices by the client computing device, the server move list describing content that cannot be consumed by the client computing device, the approval being based on a determination that the particular content has not been previously moved by the client computing device;

conducting the move operation based on the approval and based on the server move list lacking the particular content;

incrementing the move version number; and

updating the client move list to include information associated with the conducted move operation to indicate that the particular content has been moved from the client computing device to another computing device.

17. The one or more computer-readable storage media of claim 16, further comprising receiving a list of license IDs from the trusted third-party and maintaining the list of license IDs in the client move list.