Encrypted Authorization URL for DRM Usability
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing Digital Rights Management (DRM) technologies inhibit the usability of digital content for lawful purchasers while failing to effectively control access and prevent abusive sharing of unsecured content.
Innovation Solution
A method involving transaction systems that generate and manage encrypted authorization URLs, allowing users to access digital content while enforcing access constraints such as download limits and time frames, decoupling entitlement creation from authorization and validation processes.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If strong DRM technology is used to control access to digital content, then protection against piracy is improved, but usability of content for lawful purchasers deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the access control mechanism into two parts: a public, unencrypted authorization URL that is easily shareable and accessible, and a private, encrypted rights information structure that contains the actual access constraints. This segmentation allows the surface layer to be user-friendly while the underlying mechanism maintains strong protection capabilities.
Solution Approach 2:
The encrypted rights information structure acts as an intermediary between the user's purchase entitlement and the actual content access. It mediates by containing the access constraints in an encrypted form that can be validated by the system while presenting a simple, clean URL to the user, thus bridging the gap between strong protection and ease of use.
2Reliability
If access control mechanisms are implemented for unsecured digital content, then control against abusive sharing is improved, but ease of use for lawful content deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a copy of the authorization mechanism in the form of a standardized URL structure that can be easily transmitted and stored. The URL itself serves as a portable copy of the authorization that can be shared without revealing any sensitive information, maintaining ease of use while enabling control.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the parameters of access control from traditional authentication methods (requiring passwords or complex verification) to a parameter-based system using encrypted rights information within URLs. This allows for simple sharing and access while maintaining control through the encrypted constraint parameters.
Data Source
AI summary
Aspects include a mechanism of entitling users to transacted-for digital content access, indicating download authorization with discrete authentication URLs, and validating download attempts using each such URL. The authentication mechanism comprises producing an encrypted string included in a URL provided to a user. The encrypted string comprises transaction identifier information, and information about the transacted-for entitlement. When a user wishes to exercise the transacted-for entitlement, the user activates the URL, which is resolved to a location that has/can obtain access to the key(s) used in producing the encrypted string, decrypt the string, and use the information in it to validate the URL and the entitlement. The validation can use data retrieved from a database, using the transaction identifier as a key. The entitlement information included in the now-decrypted string can be compared with the prior download information.