JP2003331145A - Method and program for selling contents - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To make flexible a method of selling digital contents by smoothly reissuing a license key when the digital contents are sold. <P>SOLUTION: At a contents purchase request from a user terminal, a server side generates and records ticket information including information regarding a license key of contents uniquely to the contents purchase request from the user terminal and transmits the license key of the contents to the user terminal according to the ticket information. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a distribution system for distributing digital contents on a network.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, a technique for distributing digital contents via a network has become widespread. In such content distribution, various technologies related to so-called DRM (Digital Rights Management) for protecting the copyright of the content have been developed.

As an example of implementing DRM in a system for delivering streaming data such as music and video,
There is known a system in which a homepage is a membership system, authentication is performed by an ID and a password, the number of times of downloading of paid contents is recorded, and the fee is charged for each purchase.

[0004]

However, in the conventional copyright-protected content sales, each content can only be sold individually. In addition, since the content viewing time limit, the number of playbacks, the number of reproducible terminals, etc. are limited to the license key for unlocking the encrypted content, when changing them, the client side must re-enter the system side. On the other hand, it is necessary to obtain a license key that involves inputting user information and billing information.
Lack of flexibility in selling content.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and enables smooth reissuance processing of a license key in content sales and flexibility in a content sales method. The purpose is to provide technology.

[0006]

The above-mentioned problems can be solved by the means in the following invention.

The invention according to claim 1 is a content selling method in which a content selling device sells content through a network, and when the content selling device receives a content purchase request from a user terminal, the user sells the content. A step of generating and recording ticket information including information about a license key of the content uniquely corresponding to a content purchase request from the terminal, and the content selling device uses the license key of the content based on the ticket information to the user. Sending to the terminal.

According to the present invention, ticket information is generated and recorded for each purchase of content (also referred to as a product),
Since the license key is issued based on the ticket information, it is possible to easily reissue the license key by changing the ticket information. That is, the license key issuance management based on the ticket is performed on the server side, so that the license key reissue process can be smoothly performed.

According to the invention of claim 2, in claim 1, the ticket information includes the number of issuable license keys of the content for the user ID in the content purchase request, and the license of the content for the user ID. When there is a request to issue a key,
The content sales apparatus has a step of issuing a license key to reduce the number of issuable times. According to the present invention, it is possible to provide content to the terminals for the number of issuable times.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, the ticket information includes an expiration date of the content, and when a license key issuance request for the content is issued within the expiration date, the content The selling device comprises the step of transmitting the license key to the user terminal.

Since the ticket information is provided with the expiration date of the content, it is possible to easily provide a service such as extension of the expiration date by changing the expiration date.

The invention according to a fourth aspect is the invention according to any one of the first to third aspects, wherein the content selling device changes the information included in the ticket information without a request from a user. Enabling, and reissuing the license key based on the changed ticket information. By changing the ticket information, it becomes possible to reissue the license and change the viewing period, the number of viewings, and the like without a user operation.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, the content sales device has a purchase management table for recording a purchase type for each user ID, and a purchase type in a content purchase request from a user terminal. Is the coupon ticket system, and if the purchase type of the coupon ticket system corresponding to the user ID is already recorded in the purchase management table, the content selling device determines that the user ID
The step of reducing the number of valid times of the coupon ticket recorded corresponding to. According to the present invention, it is possible to realize a selling method based on a coupon ticket system.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, the content selling device has a purchase management table for recording a purchase type for each user ID, and a purchase type in a content purchase request from a user terminal. Is a membership system for a predetermined period, the content sales device generates the ticket information after confirming that the expiration date condition recorded in the purchase management table corresponding to the user ID is satisfied. To do. According to the present invention, for example, it becomes possible to sell contents in a monthly membership system.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, the content sales device has a usage history management table for recording an ID of a content group to which the content belongs in association with a user ID, The content sales device checks whether the ID of the content group to which the content requested in the content purchase request belongs is recorded in the usage history management table in correspondence with the user ID in the content purchase request, If the content is recorded, the content sales device does not perform processing related to charging, and generates ticket information corresponding to the content requested in the content purchase request.

According to the present invention, when the content belonging to the same group as the previously purchased content is purchased,
It is possible to provide a set sale service of issuing a license key for the content that is purchased later without performing a billing process for the content.

According to an eighth aspect of the invention, in the seventh aspect, the content sales device is a content ID.
Has a product master table in which a content group ID is recorded in association with
Hold the content ID for the additional service. With such a configuration, it is possible to provide an additional service for providing a user who has purchased a content belonging to a certain group with another content.

The inventions described in claims 9 to 16 are inventions of a program executed in a content selling apparatus suitable for carrying out the above method.

[0019]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 shows an example of a home page displayed on the terminal of a purchaser (user) when selling contents using the contents selling device of the present invention.

When the user purchases digital contents, the screen shown in FIG. 1 is displayed. In the example shown in FIG. 1, purchase as a monthly member 10, purchase for each title 11 (viewing period is one week, one month). Purchase a coupon ticket that can be purchased 5 times 1
Two types of purchase methods, 2 (viewing period is 1 week, 1 month), are displayed, and the purchaser can select one of them. In the conventional content sales, only one title is sold, but according to the present invention, such a flexible sales method can be adopted.

FIG. 2 shows the configuration of the content sales system of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 2, in the content sales system of the present invention, the client terminal 20, the ticket management server 22, the content distribution management server 23, the license issuing server 24, and the content (streaming) server 25 are connected to the communication network 21 such as the Internet. It is configured to be connected via. Further, the ticket management server 22 manages a ticket management table described later,
The content delivery management server 23 manages a purchase management table, a usage history table, and a product master table, which will be described later, and the content server 25 delivers the actual encrypted content.

Each of the above servers can be configured by using a separate computer, or a plurality of servers can be configured by using one computer. In this specification, a configuration including the ticket management server 22, the content distribution management server 23, and the license issuing server 24 may be referred to as a content sales device regardless of the number of computers. Further, the function of the content selling apparatus can be realized by a program installed in a computer for executing the processing of the present invention.

In the configuration of FIG. 2, the terminal 20 requests the purchase of the content, the content sales device issues the license key, and the content server delivers the content. In the present invention, by managing the member information and the purchase information together, it is possible to sell the content using various selling methods such as a coupon ticket system and a monthly membership system. In addition, since information about the user's license is held as a ticket and the license key is issued based on the information in the ticket, services such as reissue of the license key and extension of the viewing period without the user having to make a purchase operation again. It is possible to provide flexibly. Furthermore, in the present invention, the concept of a product group is introduced, and when a product belonging to a certain product group is purchased and another product belonging to the product group is purchased, a license key is not newly added and a license key is not performed. It is possible to issue, and so-called set sale is possible.

Next, the process until the license key is issued when there is a content purchase request from the terminal 20 will be described in detail with reference to FIG. The above functions can be realized by providing the following tables and the processes corresponding thereto.

In FIG. 3, first, when the user purchases the content, the terminal 20 transmits the user ID, the password, the purchased product ID, the ticket type, and the user terminal information to the content sales device as the purchase information. It should be noted that this purchase request is in the operation at the stage of purchasing individual products (contents).

The content sales device writes the user information including the user ID, the password, and the user terminal information in the user management table 31, and registers the user information.

Next, the purchase management table 33 is searched based on the entered user ID, and whether the user already has a coupon ticket based on the ticket type (ticket type:
2) No, or if you are a monthly member (ticket type:
1) Check whether or not. As a result of the check, if the user does not have a coupon ticket and is not a monthly member, the data of the ticket type (3: single item purchase) is additionally registered with the user ID. Further, when the coupon ticket is provided, the valid number of coupon tickets is subtracted by one. If you are a monthly member, confirm that you are a valid monthly member. For example, the expiration date in the purchase management table 33 is confirmed. This expiration date is, for example,
Recorded at first purchase. In this specification, the ticket type is also referred to as the purchase type.

Next, the product group to which the purchased content this time belongs is extracted from the product master table 32, and the product ID, the product group, and the number of times of use (0) are registered in the usage history management table 34 using the user ID as a key. The data in the product master table 32 is registered when the content is encrypted.

In this way, the usage history management table 34
By recording the product group of the product purchased by a certain user, it is possible to determine whether or not the user's next and subsequent purchased products belong to the same product group as the previously purchased product. It is possible to realize the set sale etc.

The "expiration date" in the purchase management table 33 indicates the expiration date of the purchased coupon / monthly membership system, and the "expiration date" in the usage history management table 34 indicates the expiration date for the purchased product (content). (Absolute / relative expiration date is distinguished depending on the purchase method), and the “expiration date” in the product master table 32 indicates the expiration date of the content.

Next, a ticket is issued based on the user information and the purchased product information and registered in the ticket management table 35. When the ticket issuance is completed, the license server 36 performs a license key issuance process based on the ticket information, and transmits the license key to the terminal 20.

The "ticket" (ticket name) in the ticket management table 35 is a value obtained by combining the product name (product ID), the purchase date and time, and the user ID. Also, the "usable number" is the number of times the license corresponding to the product corresponding to the ticket can be issued, and the user obtains the license keys for the number of terminals corresponding to the number of available times so that the content can be displayed at each terminal. It becomes possible to watch.

The "number of times of use" indicates the number of times the license key is issued to the product corresponding to the ticket. Since the user terminal information is registered in the user management table 31, it can be determined that a license key issuance request has come from a terminal other than the terminals that have been registered up to now, and if such a license key issuance request comes in, With the issuance of the license key, the "number of times of use" will be counted up. “Expiration date” in the ticket management table 35 indicates the expiration date of the purchased product ticket.

Next, the information of the ticket management table 35 will be shown in more detail with reference to FIG. When the ticket is issued, the ticket ID (the above "ticket") that is the key when issuing the ticket
D, product name, purchase date and time, etc. are calculated so as to have a globally unique value, and the purchase ticket type (1: monthly membership, 2
= Coupon ticket, 3: purchase a single item, the corresponding product group name of the purchased product, ticket expiration type (1: absolute expiration date,
(2: Relative expiration date from purchase date, 3: Monthly renewal), ticket expiration date, ticket fee, expiration date of content, usable count and actually used count are registered. In addition,
The ticket expiry date is the expiry date of the ticket itself. For example, if there is a license key request after this expiry date, the user terminal is replied that there is no license key, and the ticket is within the expiry date, but the content is valid. If the time limit has expired, a reply indicating that the viewing time limit has expired is given. Note that the usable count can be set in various ways. For example, by determining the usable count for each product and registering it in the product master table in association with the product, the usable count of the product can be set. It can be set by referring to the table.

Next, the communication between the terminal and the content selling device from the request for purchasing the content to the issuance of the license key will be described with reference to FIG.

As described above, since the present invention incorporates the concept of a product group, the procedure differs depending on whether a new content is purchased or a product belonging to the same product group as a previously purchased product. Therefore, the case will be described separately. (1) When purchasing new content First, the user selects a content on the terminal screen and makes a purchase request (step 1). Server (content sales device)
Receives a purchase request from the terminal, confirms the purchase history and usage history of the user, and requests the input of user information for billing in the case of purchase of new content (step 2),
The user inputs information necessary for payment (step 3).

After accepting the information necessary for payment, the content selling device registers the relevant information in the user management table, purchase management table, ticket management table, and usage history management table based on the user information / purchase information, and completes. The screen is displayed on the terminal (step 4).

Then, when the user makes a license key issuance request (step 5), the content sales device issues a license key based on the ticket issued corresponding to the product purchased by the user (step 6). (2) When purchasing a product in the same product group as a product purchased previously The user makes a purchase request for the content included in the product group purchased previously (step 1). The content sales device confirms the purchase product ID of the user and, if it judges that the product group belongs to the product group that has been collectively purchased before, does not perform processing related to charging, and registers the purchase management table, the ticket management table, and the usage history management table in step 4. And the ticket issue completion screen is displayed. Then, the user issues a license key issuance request (step 5), and issues a license key for viewing the requested content (step 6).

In the above procedure, when there is a license key issuance request from the user, the content sales device refers to the ticket management table, and refers to the remaining number of license key issuances (usable count-usage count) to issue the license key. Issue a license key if possible. And user I
D, the license key is issued based on conditions such as the viewing time limit of the purchased content and the number of times the license key is issued (the number of times of use) is incremented by one.

In FIG. 6, after the purchase (after obtaining the license key)
The following shows how to view the content.

When the user reproduces the purchased content, the validity of the license key 50 stored in the user terminal is confirmed. If the key is valid, the purchased content 5 is confirmed.
The encryption of 1 is released, the content information shown in 52 is referenced, and the reproduction is started. If the license key has not been issued to the user terminal or the content has expired, an error is displayed.

As described above, in the present invention, the concept of a ticket is introduced for issuing a license key, and the concept of a product group is introduced, so that flexible content sales can be realized. For example, the following selling method is realized. It becomes possible to do.

[Set sale] As described in the above procedure, when the user makes a purchase request for a certain product, the product group corresponding to the product ID of the product is extracted from the product master table and is stored in the usage history management table. Lever User I
If the purchase history of the product group D is checked and the product belonging to the same product group has been purchased before, the new charging process is not performed and only the ticket registration process is performed. By issuing the license key of the corresponding content after registering the ticket, it becomes possible to realize set sale using different license keys. That is, in the prior art, in order to sell individual products based on different license keys, purchase / billing processing was required for each product, but according to the present invention, it is possible to purchase a product. For example, it is possible to provide a service in which other products can be purchased for free (without any operation for charging).

[Change of viewing time limit / play count] Since the viewing time limit and the number of playback times of the content are limited to the content of the license key at the time of issuance, when the license expires, the time limit is extended and the number of playback times is changed. It is necessary to reacquire the license key in order to add, but in the conventional technology,
It was necessary to input information for reissuing the license key (the same process as when purchasing a new product) from the terminal side.

On the other hand, according to the present invention, since the concept of the ticket as described above has been introduced, the license key reissuing process for extending the content viewing time limit, changing the number of reproductions, etc. can be smoothly performed. You can That is, when a product is purchased, a ticket including the information shown in FIG. 4 is issued and held, and the license key is issued based on the ticket information (which can also be called user license information). By changing the content expiration date of this ticket on the content selling device side, it becomes possible to reissue the license key without requiring a purchase operation by the user again. Further, by increasing the number of times that the content can be used (the number of times that the license can be issued), the number of terminals that can reproduce the content can be expanded.

By being able to flexibly change the viewing time limit and the number of playbacks, for example, a service for extending the viewing time limit of a specific content is provided, or the viewing of the content is performed within the time limit due to a malfunction of the device on the user side. When it is not possible, it becomes easy to provide a service such as extending the viewing time limit of the content.

[Additional service provision] Further, in the present invention, since the sales information is managed by the purchase management table, for example, by adding the number of valid times of the coupon ticket once, a free purchase ticket or a product can be added. By registering a product ID of an additional service in a certain product group in the management table and providing the product of that product ID as an additional service to the user who purchased the product belonging to that product group, the free content is provided to the user. Such various services can be realized.

The present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiments, and various modifications and applications are possible within the scope of the claims.

[0049]

As described above, according to the present invention, DR
In content sales with a copyright management function using M, by managing member information and purchase information together, it is possible to provide a wide range of sales models such as a coupon ticket system and a monthly membership system.

Further, by introducing the ticket, the user can reissue the license key without inputting charging information such as credit information again. By using this method, it is possible to change the viewing period, the number of times viewing is possible, etc. without the user being aware of it, only by changing the settings on the server side.

Since the concept of a product group is introduced to manage not only a single product but also a plurality of products as a product group in the product master table, set sale with different license keys is realized. can do. Further, by managing the sales information, it becomes possible to provide the purchasing user with additional services such as free contents.

Further, in the user management table, the user ID,
Since the password and the terminal information are managed, it is possible to identify whether or not the terminal that has issued the license key issuance request is in the user management table, and by using the ticket function, it is possible to limit the number of terminals used.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of a purchase method selection screen.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of a content sales system in one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining processing in processing from a purchase request to issuance of a license key.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing information in a ticket management table.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing interactions between a terminal and a content sales device from a purchase request to issuance of a license key.

FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining an encrypted content viewing method.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 Monthly Member Selection Button 11 Successive purchase button 12 times ticket (5 times spelling) purchase selection button 20 user terminals 21 Internet 22 Ticket Management Server 23 Content Delivery Management Server 24 License issuing server 25 Content (streaming) server 50 license key 51 Encrypted content 62 Purchased Content

   ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued front page    (72) Inventor Keiichiro Miyazato             1-1-6 Uchisaiwaicho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo             Nutty Communications Inc.             Inside the company (72) Inventor Shintaro Hoshina             1-1-6 Uchisaiwaicho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo             Nutty Communications Inc.             Inside the company F-term (reference) 5B085 AA08 AE06 AE29 BA07 BE04                       BG02 BG03 BG07 CA02 CA04

Claims (16)

[Claims] 1. A content selling method for selling content through a network by a content selling device, wherein when the content selling device makes a content purchase request from a user terminal, it is unique to the content purchase request from the user terminal. To generate ticket information including information about the license key of the content,
A content selling method comprising: a step of recording and a step of transmitting, by a content selling device, a license key of the content to a user terminal based on the ticket information. 2. The ticket information includes the number of issuable license keys of the content with respect to the user ID in the content purchase request, and when the content key issuing request for the content with respect to the user ID is issued, the content selling device The content selling method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of issuing a license key to reduce the number of issuable times. 3. The ticket information includes an expiration date of the content, and when there is a license key issuance request for the content within the expiration date, the content selling device transmits the license key to a user terminal. The content selling method according to claim 1, which has. 4. The content selling device is capable of changing the information contained in the ticket information without a request from a user, and has a step of reissuing a license key based on the changed ticket information. Through 3
The method for selling contents according to any one of the items. 5. The content selling device has a purchase management table for recording a purchase type for each user ID, and corresponds to the user ID when the purchase type in a content purchase request from a user terminal is a coupon ticket system. When the purchase type of the coupon ticket method is already recorded in the purchase management table, the content selling device has a step of reducing the valid coupon ticket number recorded corresponding to the user ID. Content sales method described in. 6. The content selling device has a purchase management table for recording a purchase type for each user ID, and when the purchase type in a content purchase request from a user terminal is a membership system for a predetermined period, the content selling device, The content selling method according to claim 1, wherein the ticket information is generated after confirming that the expiration date condition recorded in the purchase management table corresponding to the user ID is satisfied. 7. The content sales device has a usage history management table for recording the ID of a content group to which the content belongs in association with a user ID, and stores the content group to which the content requested in the content purchase request belongs. The step of the content selling device checking whether the ID is recorded in the usage history management table corresponding to the user ID in the content purchase request, and if the ID is recorded, the content selling device performs a process related to charging. The step of generating ticket information corresponding to the content requested in the content purchase request without performing the above step. 8. The content sales device is configured to provide a content I.
The product master table in which a content group ID is recorded in association with D, and the product master table holds a content ID for an additional service in addition to a content ID belonging to a content group. Content sales method. 9. A content sales program for causing a computer to execute processing for selling content via a network, when a content purchase request is made from a user terminal,
A procedure for generating and recording ticket information including information about the license key of the content by uniquely responding to the content purchase request from the user terminal, and transmitting the license key of the content to the user terminal based on the ticket information. A content sales program that causes a computer to perform the steps to do. 10. The ticket information includes the number of issuable license keys of the content for the user ID in the content purchase request, and the license key is issued when there is a request to issue the license key of the content for the user ID. 10. The content sales program according to claim 9, which causes a computer to execute a procedure of reducing the number of issuable times. 11. The ticket information includes an expiration date of the content, and when a license key issuance request for the content is made within the expiration date, the computer is caused to execute a procedure of transmitting the license key to a user terminal. The content sales program according to claim 9. 12. The information contained in the ticket information can be changed without a request from a user, and the computer is made to execute a procedure for reissuing a license key based on the changed ticket information. The content sales program according to any one of the above. 13. A procedure for searching a purchase management table for recording a purchase type for each user ID, and when the purchase type in a content purchase request from a user terminal is a coupon ticket system, the number of times corresponding to the user ID. 10. The content sales according to claim 9, wherein if the purchase type of the ticket type is already recorded in the purchase management table, the computer is caused to execute the procedure of reducing the number of times of the number of tickets valid recorded corresponding to the user ID. program. 14. A procedure for searching a purchase management table for recording a purchase type for each user ID, and if the purchase type in a content purchase request from a user terminal is a membership method for a predetermined period, purchase corresponding to that user ID. The content sales program according to claim 9, which causes the computer to execute the procedure of generating the ticket information after confirming that the expiration date condition recorded in the management table is satisfied. 15. A procedure for searching a usage history management table that records the ID of a content group to which the content belongs in association with the user ID, and the ID of the content group to which the content requested in the content purchase request belongs A procedure for checking whether or not the content is recorded in the usage history management table corresponding to the user ID in the content purchase request, and if the content is recorded, without performing processing related to charging,
The content sales program according to claim 9, which causes a computer to execute a procedure for generating ticket information corresponding to the content requested in the content purchase request. 16. The computer has a product master table in which a content group ID is recorded in association with a content ID, and the product master table has a content ID for a supplementary service in addition to a content ID belonging to a certain content group. 16. The content sales program according to claim 15, which holds the.