DRM Conversion System for Digital Content Interoperability
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional digital right management (DRM) schemes are often incompatible across different digital media players, causing inconvenience to consumers who wish to switch between devices supporting different DRM schemes, as they restrict playback of encrypted digital content to specific manufacturers' devices.
Innovation Solution
A method and apparatus that verifies a user's rightful ownership of digital content encrypted with one DRM scheme and generates a second copy encrypted with a different DRM scheme, allowing interoperability between protection schemes by obtaining an unencrypted copy from the original content provider and re-encrypting it for compatibility with alternative media players.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If digital content is encrypted using a specific DRM scheme, then the content is protected from unauthorized copying, but the content becomes incompatible with media players that do not support that specific DRM scheme
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a second copy of the digital content encrypted with a different DRM scheme. The conversion system obtains the original content, re-encrypts it with an alternative DRM scheme, and delivers it to the user. This copying approach allows the same content to be accessible on different device ecosystems without compromising the security of either DRM scheme.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the encryption parameter (DRM scheme) of the digital content while maintaining the underlying content intact. By applying a different encryption scheme to create a second copy, the system enables the content to be played on media players with different DRM support, effectively changing the compatibility parameter without altering the core content.
2Reliability
If DRM schemes are made more restrictive to prevent copying, then copyright protection is strengthened, but consumer convenience deteriorates when switching between devices
Solution Approach 1:
The system creates an authorized second copy of the content with different DRM encryption. This allows consumers to maintain their legally purchased content across different device ecosystems, improving ease of operation while the restrictive DRM schemes remain intact for copyright protection on each respective platform.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a DRM conversion system as an intermediary between the content owner and the consumer. This intermediary verifies ownership, obtains the original content, and generates a compatible copy, thereby mediating between the conflicting requirements of restrictive copyright protection and consumer convenience across multiple devices.
3Adaptability or versatility
If content is converted between different DRM schemes, then interoperability between devices is improved, but the complexity of the system increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a centralized DRM conversion system that acts as an intermediary between different DRM ecosystems. This intermediary handles the complex tasks of verifying ownership, obtaining original content, and performing re-encryption, thereby isolating the complexity from the end-user devices and simplifying their design while enabling interoperability.
Solution Approach 2:
The system manages complexity by creating separate encrypted copies rather than attempting to modify or translate between DRM schemes in place. This copying approach allows each DRM scheme to remain independent and simple, while the conversion system handles the complexity of managing multiple encrypted versions of the same content.
Data Source
AI summary
Some embodiments of a method and an apparatus to provide interoperability between different digital content protection schemes have been presented. In one embodiment, a first copy of digital content encrypted using a first protection scheme is received from a user. In response to a request from the user, it is verified that the user is a rightful owner of the first copy without decrypting the first copy. A second copy of the digital content encrypted using a second protection scheme is sent to the user if the user is a rightful owner of the first copy.