Method and system for dynamic digital rights bundling

• US 8,713,696 B2
• Filed: 01/13/2006
• Issued: 04/29/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 01/13/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Leaf Group Ltd. (Graham Holdings Company)
• Original Assignee: Demand Media Incorporated (Graham Holdings Company)
• Inventors: Bozeman, Neal
• Primary Examiner(s): Coppola, Jacob C.
• Application Number:
  US11/331,829
• Publication Number:
  US 20070168288A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,028 Days
• Field of Search: 705 50- 79, 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]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2111 Location-sensitive, e.g. geographical location, GPS
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/382 insuring higher security of transaction

Abstract

Methods and systems for dynamically bundling portions into secured destination files are provided. Example embodiments provide a Dynamic Digital Rights Bundling System (“DDRBS”), which dynamically bundles a set of portions each variously containing digital rights management components, user interface controls, and content, into a secured destination file in response to a designated content request. In one embodiment, the DDRBS comprises a bundling engine, a translation engine, a merging engine, and an assortment of data repositories. These components cooperate to dynamically assemble and provide customized secured destination files comprising the requested content together with specialized user interface and digital rights management controls. This abstract is provided to comply with rules requiring an abstract, and it is submitted with the intention that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method in a content server for dynamically creating a bundle of content protected by digital rights management, comprising:

storing user information for a plurality of users, including a first user;

receiving over a network a request for content, the request having an indication of a bundle and an indication of a user identity, the user identity corresponding to the first user;

in response to the request and the user identity, automatically determining, using at least one computer system, a set of source portions that correspond to the indicated bundle, the determining including selecting the set of source portions based at least in part on one or more user-specific attributes, obtained using the user identity from the user information stored for the first user, to comprise at least one digital rights management portion, at least one user interface portion, and at least one content portion, the at least one user interface portion to control access to and rendering of the at least one content portion, the at least one digital rights management portion to limit access to the at least one content portion to an authorized user, and wherein the one or more user-specific attributes is at least one of the following;

a geographic location of the first user, a subscription level associated with the first user, a demographic property of the first user, a usage history of the first user, and an activity preference of the first user;

generating, using the at least one computer system, a set of intermediate portions by translating each portion of the determined set of source portions into a corresponding intermediate portion;

merging, using the at least one computer system, each intermediate portion of the generated set of intermediate portions into a secured destination file that corresponds to the requested content; and

forwarding the secured destination file over the network.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the request further comprises at least one of an indication of a hardware or software environment associated with a user or an indication of a geographic location of the user.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the automatically determining the set of source portions further comprises determining a set of source portions based at least in part on a hardware or software environment associated with a client computing system.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the automatically determining the set of source portions further comprises determining the set of source portions based at least in part on one or more user specific attributes and one or more other attributes.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein at least one of the one or more other attributes is at least one of an aggregate usage history associated with multiple users, an agreement with a third-party advertisement provider, a news item, and a weather report.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the automatically determining the set of source portions further comprises determining a set of source portions based at least in part on at least one of a geographic location or an activity type indicated by a content portion.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the determined at least one content portion is at least one of a trail guide, a city guide, an image, a map, an advertisement, a coupon, an news article, an editorial, a reference manual, an encyclopedia entry, a magazine article, game content, a journal article, a short story, a novel, or a textbook.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the determined at least one content portion is a dynamically generated content portion that is based at least in part on the request.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the dynamically generated content portion is at least one of a weather report, a trail report, road conditions, snow conditions, a city guide, or an entertainment guide.

10. The method of claim 8 wherein the dynamically generated content portion is at least one of a travel itinerary, booking information, flight availability information, flight reservation details, a web log entry, a user-submitted review, a user-submitted rating, a user-submitted photo, or a restaurant guide.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the determined at least one content portion is an active content portion configured to automatically provide content based on future current conditions.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the active content portion is at least one of a weather reporter, an active map, a road conditions updater, or a trail conditions updater.

13. The method of claim 11 wherein the active content portion is at least one of a stock ticker, a price watcher, a dining locator, a sport score updater, an instant messenger, a departure time updater, an arrival time updater, a coupon provider, a travel bargain listing provider, a price watcher, or an entertainment listing provider.

14. The method of claim 11 wherein the active content portion is further configured to automatically fetch the provided content from one or more content providers.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein the determined at least one digital rights management portion limits display of the determined at least one content portion to an authorized user.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein the determined at least one digital rights management portion is configured to prevent access to the determined at least one content portion unless the secured destination file has been downloaded from a predetermined network location.

17. The method of claim 1 wherein the determined user interface portion manages the display of the determined at least one content portion.

18. The method of claim 1 wherein the user interface portion includes controls for at least one of zooming, scrolling, printing, or paginating the at least one content portion.

19. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one of the determined set of source portions has an associated source file format that is at least one of a scripting language format, a programming language format, a word processing application format, a desktop publishing application format, an application data format, a page description format, XML, HTML, or text.

20. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one of the generated set of intermediate portions has an associated intermediate file format that is one of SWF bytecode, Java®

bytecode, Perl bytecode, Common Language Runtime bytecode, or Python bytecode.

21. The method of claim 1 wherein the secured destination file has an associated intermediate file format that is interpretable by an interpreter.

22. The method of claim 21 wherein the file format is SWF bytecode.

23. The method of claim 21 wherein the file format is one of Java bytecode, Common Language Runtime bytecode, Microsoft Windows®

executable, Mach-O, Preferred Executable Format, or Executable and Linking Format.

24. The method of claim 21 wherein the interpreter is a software virtual machine or a hardware instruction-processing unit.

25. The method of claim 1 wherein the secured destination file has an associated secured destination file format and an associated interpreter that provides an accurate indication of a point of network origin to the secured destination file upon interpretation of the secured destination file.

26. The method of claim 1 wherein the generating the set of intermediate portions further comprises generating a set of intermediate portions based at least in part on a hardware or software environment associated with a user.

27. The method of claim 1 wherein the generating the set of intermediate portions further comprises generating a set of intermediate portions based at least in part on a file format of the secured destination file.

28. The method of claim 1 wherein the merging each intermediate portion into the secured destination file further comprises conjoining each intermediate portion with the secured destination file.

29. The method of claim 1 wherein the merging each intermediate portion into the secured destination file further comprises binding a reference in a first intermediate portion of the set of intermediate portions to a definition in a second intermediate portion of the set of intermediate portions.

30. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having contents which when executed by a computer processor perform a method comprising:

receiving over a network a request for content, the request having an indication of a bundle and an indication of a user identity for a first user;

in response to the request and the user identity, automatically determining a set of source portions that correspond to the indicated bundle, the determining including selecting the set of source portions based at least in part on one or more user-specific attributes, obtained using the user identity from user information stored for the first user, to comprise at least one digital rights management portion, at least one user interface portion, and at least one content portion, the at least one user interface portion to control access to and rendering of the at least one content portion;

generating a set of intermediate portions by translating each portion of the determined set of source portions into a corresponding intermediate portion;

merging each intermediate portion of the generated set of intermediate portions into a secured destination file that corresponds to the requested content; and

forwarding the secured destination file over the network;

wherein the at least one digital rights management portion is configured to prevent access to the at least one content portion unless the secured destination file has been downloaded from a predetermined network location;

wherein the one or more user-specific attributes includes at least one of a geographic location of a user, a subscription level associated with a user, and a demographic property of a user.

31. The computer-readable medium of claim 30 wherein the computer-readable medium is a memory of a computing device.

32. The computer-readable medium of claim 30 wherein the contents are instructions that when executed cause the computer processor to perform the method.

33. The computer-readable medium of claim 30 wherein the determined at least one content portion comprises at least one of a trail guide, a city guide, an image, a map, an advertisement, a coupon, an news article, an editorial, a reference manual, an encyclopedia entry, a magazine article, game content, a journal article, a short story, a novel, a textbook, or a dynamically generated content portion.