Digital Rights Management Clock Tampering Detection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Digital rights management systems face challenges in preventing unauthorized digital copies and tampering with system clocks to extend temporal rental and play windows for copyrighted content on mobile devices, allowing users to manipulate the system clock to circumvent time restrictions.
Innovation Solution
A method that tracks both the beginning and end points of rental and play windows, and maintains a log of system clock values to detect inconsistencies, ensuring that altering the clock does not change the effective duration of these windows, and denies or restricts access if tampering is detected.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the system only tracks one endpoint (beginning or end) of rental and play windows, then the system complexity is reduced, but the ability to detect clock alterations and maintain window integrity deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments the time window tracking into multiple components: it separately tracks both the beginning and ending timestamps of rental windows and play windows, rather than relying on a single endpoint. This segmentation allows the system to detect clock alterations by comparing the relationship between these timestamp pairs, thereby maintaining integrity without requiring a single complex tracking mechanism.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary action by recording both the beginning and ending timestamps when the digital content is obtained or played. These pre-recorded timestamp pairs serve as reference points that can later be used to detect any clock alterations, ensuring that the window duration remains enforced even if the system clock is modified by the user.
2Reliability
If the system does not monitor system clock alterations, then the ease of operation is improved, but the ability to prevent unauthorized access deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements feedback by continuously monitoring the system clock against the recorded timestamp pairs and providing feedback when inconsistencies are detected. When a user attempts to alter the clock to extend windows, the system detects this discrepancy and responds by denying access to the digital content, thereby maintaining secure access control while remaining transparent to normal user operations.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses an intermediary mechanism (the timestamp pair comparison logic) that sits between the user's clock alteration attempts and the content access. This intermediary detects clock inconsistencies and blocks unauthorized access without requiring the user to interact with or understand the monitoring mechanism, thus maintaining ease of operation for legitimate users while preventing unauthorized access.
3Duration of action of moving object
If the system allows users to manipulate the system clock, then the ease of operation is improved, but the duration of authorized access deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies preliminary anti-action by pre-establishing the relationship between the beginning and ending timestamps before any clock manipulation can occur. When a user attempts to manipulate the clock to extend access duration, the system already has the reference timestamp pairs in place to detect and counter this attempt, thereby maintaining the intended access duration while allowing users to operate the clock freely for legitimate purposes.
Data Source
AI summary
A method and apparatus for improved digital rights management is provided.