Digital Rights Management Policy Aggregation via Template Inheritance
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Solution Overview
Problem
Digital rights management systems face inefficiencies due to the proliferation of duplicate and similar policies, leading to 'policy clutter' and increased complexity in managing permissions for digital content, as existing systems require new policies for each document or set of documents, even when permissions differ only slightly.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of a digital rights management system that allows for the creation of aggregated policies using templates and inheritance of permissions, enabling the reuse of common permissions and reducing the need for duplicate policies by defining customized policies that combine existing templates and base policies, with the option to represent these as 'hidden' policies not exposed to users.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If new policies are defined for each document or set of documents, then permission assignments can be customized, but the number of policies increases leading to policy clutter and management complexity
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments permission assignments into reusable policy components that can be independently defined and then combined through templates. Instead of creating monolithic policies for each document, permissions are broken down into modular units that can be assembled through template-based inheritance, reducing the overall number of policies needed while maintaining customization capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates universal policy templates that can serve multiple documents and purposes. A single policy template can be inherited by multiple documents, allowing the same permission structure to be reused across different contexts. This multi-functional approach eliminates the need to redefine identical permission sets for each document, reducing policy clutter while maintaining adaptability.
2Reliability
If many policies are created to cover different permission scenarios, then coverage is improved, but the system becomes harder to maintain and manage
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements preliminary action by pre-defining policy templates with common permission patterns before they are needed. These templates contain pre-configured permission assignments that can be directly applied to documents. This preliminary structuring ensures comprehensive permission coverage is available while simplifying maintenance, as updates to permission patterns only require modifying the template rather than numerous individual policies.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses copying through template inheritance, where policy templates serve as reusable blueprints that can be copied and applied to multiple documents. Instead of maintaining many unique policies, the system copies permission structures from templates, ensuring consistent coverage while reducing maintenance burden. Changes to the template automatically propagate to all documents using it.
3Adaptability or versatility
If duplicate policies are created for similar permission needs, then specific requirements can be met, but redundancy increases system complexity
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges duplicate or similar policies by consolidating them into single reusable templates. Documents that previously required separate policies with similar permission structures can now inherit from a common template. This merging reduces the total number of policies in the system while maintaining the ability to meet specific permission requirements through template customization and inheritance hierarchies.
Data Source
AI summary
Method and apparatus are described wherein, in one example embodiment, there is provided one or more policy templates that may define a set of policy permissions or other attributes that may be desirable to specify in a policy. One or more policy templates may be specified in a user interface of a policy creation and maintenance program that may run oh the policy server and/or run on a workstation computer. Each policy template specified by a user may include permissions for how a user may access and use a document. The maintenance program may, in one embodiment, associate both templates to a policy used for a specific unit of digital content, or, for example, an electronic document. The permissions for the policy are determined by aggregating the permissions associated with each respective templates chosen by the user. According to another example embodiment, a user selects a policy template and defines one or more additional permissions to form an augmented policy.