Method for protecting digital content from unauthorized use by automatically and dynamically integrating a content-protection agent

Abstract

A content processor application is loaded into memory from a master image to form a runtime content processor application image. An integration agent dynamically integrates a protection agent into the loaded runtime content processor application image to form a customized content processor application with extended functionality. Only the runtime content processor application image is extended with the protection agent—the application master image remains unaltered.

Description

RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 10 / 194,655, filed Jul. 11, 2002, which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60 / 305,589, filed on Jul. 13, 2001.[0002]The entire teachings of the above applications are incorporated herein by reference.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0003]As more and more digital content is transacted electronically, there is an increasing demand for technologies that can secure the content from unauthorized use and distribution. Unlike physical goods, digital content is easily copied and distributed. The only way to prevent this is for the content provider to establish a trusted environment on the end user's machine that can act as a proxy for securing the content from illegal copying and distribution after it is shipped to an authorized end user.[0004]Cryptographic solutions such as Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) (available from Network Associates) and RSA (available from RSA Security, Inc.), secure d...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0026]By dynamically performing the integration, the present invention only modifies the already loaded memory image of the DLL, and never its disk image, thus avoiding the above problems.

[0027]In addition, static modification of applications can create serious adoption barriers for content publishers interested in distributing protected content files to machines that are outside their jurisdiction. For example, a department within enterprise A wishing to send a protected PDF file to a department within enterprise B cannot require enterprise B to modify all installed copies of their Acrobat PDF reader application in order to view the protected PDF file.

[0031]In summary, the present invention allows any digital content protection solution to be deployed easily, without disrupting an existing installed base of legacy applications, or preventing upgrades or replacement of these applications. It effectively disassociates the content protection enforcement from the content processor application, thereby empowering content publishers to use any content protection method of their choice, without tying it to a specific content processor application. It is also content processor application “agnostic,” allowing a single solution to work across a variety of applications that may all be capable of processing the same content format type. The invention also does not rely on the existence of a plugin interface in the application, allowing it to work even with future upgrades of the current application.

[0034]The protection agent preferably executes within the same address space as the customized content processor application, and is thus easily able to support editing of protected content without the loss of protection, for example by intercepting I / O function calls, memory storage calls, cut / paste calls, etc.

Problems solved by technology

What makes the “last mile” difficult to solve in the real world is the fact that most content publishers do not control the source code for the content player applications that process their content.

This makes market penetration for such approaches very difficult.

This creates an additional barrier to deployment, especially if the end user has to pay for the upgrade.

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