Peer-to-Peer Digital Content Usage Control via Rights Objects
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current digital rights management systems, such as OMA DRM 1.0 and OMA DRM 2, do not effectively address peer-to-peer control of digital content usage, where user devices act as both clients and servers, lacking mechanisms for direct usage control and trust establishment without relying on network entities.
Innovation Solution
A method where a sending user device encrypts digital content with a content encryption key, which is then associated with a rights object that includes decryption information, allowing the receiving user device to access the content while maintaining control by the content owner, using asymmetric key algorithms and a rights management server for validation and signature generation, ensuring secure and transparent usage rights management.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If current DRM standards (OMA DRM 1.0 and 2) are used, then content protection and usage control are provided, but peer-to-peer control mechanisms are lacking and network entities are required for trust establishment
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the trust establishment and usage control functions from centralized DRM servers and relocates them to peer devices. Each device generates its own cryptographic key pair and digitally signs its identity, enabling self-contained trust verification without requiring network entities. This extraction of control mechanisms from the network infrastructure resolves the contradiction by maintaining reliability through cryptographic verification while eliminating the complexity of centralized DRM architecture.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements self-service by enabling devices to autonomously establish trust relationships through local cryptographic operations. Each device independently generates its own digital certificate and uses it to verify the sender's identity and authenticate the rights object. This self-service mechanism eliminates dependency on external DRM servers, maintaining reliable usage control while simplifying the system architecture to pure peer-to-peer communication.
2Ease of operation
If centralized DRM servers are used for rights management, then trust establishment is simplified, but peer-to-peer direct control and autonomy are reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by pre-generating cryptographic key pairs and digital certificates on each device before peer-to-peer interaction. Devices come pre-configured with their own identity certificates that can be immediately used for authentication and trust establishment. This preliminary preparation enables both ease of operation (automatic authentication without manual intervention) and peer-to-peer autonomy (no centralized server needed), resolving the contradiction between operational simplicity and system independence.
3Reliability
If digital content is encrypted with content encryption key, then security is improved, but access control and usage rights management become more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the content encryption key (CEK) with the rights object information into a single integrated structure. The rights object contains both the usage rights metadata and the CEK necessary for decryption, allowing the receiving device to obtain both authentication and decryption capabilities in one operation. This merging simplifies rights management by combining security and access control functions into a unified mechanism, resolving the contradiction between maintaining security and reducing complexity.
Data Source
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Figure 2A~2B
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AI summary
The invention refers to a method of supporting a sending user device (14) to enforcing a usage control of digital content embedded in a content object, CO, wherein a rights object, RO, associated to the CO is required for using the digital content of the CO at a receiving user device (16), the method comprising generating at the sending user device (14) a encryption information for decrypting the encrypted digital content and inserting the decryption information into the RO, and sending the RO to a rights management server (12) to be forwarded to the receiving user device (16). The invention further refers to a corresponding method of receiving at a rights management server (12) a rights object generation request to be forwarded to the receiving user device (16), and to a corresponding user device server and a corresponding server.