JP2003345763A - Integrated system for managing contents distribution - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To process contents encapsulation with a unified method and to easily introduce a new DRM (digital rights management) system in encapsulating contents with a plurality of different DRMs. <P>SOLUTION: A contents distribution management integrated system is provided with: an IPR-DB; a contents DB; a plurality of encapsulation programs corresponding to DRM types; a plurality of DRM adapters for respectively accessing the plurality of encapsulation programs, making the plurality of encapsulation programs perform encapsulation processing and outputting encapsulated contents to the contents DB; a DRM integrating part for determining a DRM type used in encapsulation and an attribute, a use condition and right information set in the encapsulation on the basis of the attribute, use condition and right information stored in the IPR-DB, accessing a corresponding DRM adapter and making the corresponding DRM adapter perform encapsulation processing under this condition; and a control means for managing the IPR-DB, contents DB and DRM integrating part, designating a contents ID to access the DRM integrating part and instructing the DRM integrating part to encapsulate corresponding contents. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention controls content browsing conditions by encrypting content data using an encryption technique and adding (encapsulating) information on the browsing conditions. Content distribution management (DRM (Digital Ri
ghts Management)) related to the system. In particular, multiple D
The present invention relates to a content distribution management integrated system that integrates an RM system and performs content distribution management (copyright management).

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Specific examples of conventional DRM systems include Content Guard, DigiBox, and WMT. These DRM systems are based on usage conditions such as a viewable period and the number of times of reproduction,
The specification method and description method are different. Therefore, when distributing the same content using multiple DRM systems,
Encapsulation work had to be performed for each individual DRM. This encapsulation work consists of designation of content to be encapsulated and usage conditions. Conventionally, usage conditions have been set individually for each DRM type.

[0003]

[0005] Conventional DRM systems include a type of content such as audio and video of the content,
It is necessary to select the most suitable one according to the usage environment such as the encoding system such as MPEG1 or MPEG2, and it is necessary to select the one according to the service content, the distribution system and the user terminal. Therefore, it is not always possible to use only one DRM system. Therefore, it is necessary to use a plurality of DRM systems properly. However, the conventional method of using the DRM differs for each system and cannot be used by a unified method.

[0004] It is an object of the present invention to provide a content distribution management integrated system that can process content in a plurality of different DRMs in a unified manner and facilitates introduction of a new DRM system. I do.

[0005]

The contents distribution management integrated system of the present invention stores an intellectual property rights database (IPR-DB) storing contents IDs, attributes, usage conditions, and rights information of contents, and stores contents data. Content database (content DB) and DRM
A plurality of encapsulation programs for encapsulating the content for each type, a plurality of DRM adapters for calling the plurality of encapsulation programs to perform the encapsulation processing, and outputting the encapsulated content to the content DB, Based on the attributes, usage conditions, and rights information stored in the IPR-DB, the DRM type used for encapsulation and the attributes, usage conditions, and rights information to be set in the encapsulation are determined, and the corresponding DRM adapter is called to determine this condition. A DRM integration unit for performing encapsulation processing in the DRM integration unit; a control unit that manages the IPR-DB, the content DB, and the DRM integration unit, specifies the content ID, calls the DRM integration unit, and instructs the corresponding content to be encapsulated. Is provided.

In addition, the contents distribution management integrated system of the present invention provides an intellectual property database (IP) storing contents IDs, attributes, usage conditions, and rights information of contents.
R-DB), a content database (content DB) storing content data, a plurality of encapsulation programs for respectively encapsulating content for each DRM type, and a plurality of encapsulation programs are called to perform encapsulation processing. A plurality of DRMs to output the encapsulated content to the content DB
An attribute set by encapsulation based on the adapter, attributes, usage conditions, and rights information stored in the IPR-DB;
Judges usage conditions and rights information, and specifies DR
A DRM integration unit that calls a DRM adapter corresponding to the M type and performs encapsulation processing under this condition;
A control unit that manages the DB, the content DB, and the DRM integration unit, calls the DRM integration unit by designating a content ID and a DRM type, and instructs encapsulation of the corresponding content.

[0007] In the IPR-DB, an area for recording a special attribute that cannot be described in a common format between DRMs may be provided for each DRM type, and the special attribute may be acquired for each DRM type. .

A DRM processing content database (DRM-DB) for storing information required for the DRM integration unit to create a command for calling the DRM adapter is provided, and the DRM integration unit operates based on the information. May be created.

[0009]

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of a content distribution management integrated system according to the present invention. In the figure, the content distribution management integrated system includes an intellectual property database (IPR) connected to the component controller 1.
-DB) 2, DRM processing content database (DRM-D
B) 3, content database (content DB) 4
And DRM integration unit 5 and encapsulation programs (DRM1 to DRMn) for performing different encapsulation processes
6-1 to 6-n, a DRM adapter 7-1 for connecting the DRM integration unit 5 and each of the encapsulation programs 6-1 to 6-n
To 7-n.

<IPR-DB> The intellectual property rights database (IPR-DB) 2 stores attribute information of contents expressed in a standardized form and usage condition descriptions (content metadata). Here, the content attribute information and the usage condition description are described and stored in a format common to a plurality of DRM schemes for each content. Content attribute information includes attributes such as content title and type,
It consists of copyright information such as the name of the creator and the date of production. The use condition description includes, as conditions under which use of the content is permitted, for example, information on a use period, a use period, the number of uses, and permitted operations (playback, recording, and the like). Also,
As one attribute of the use condition, there is data designating a DRM type used for processing the content. Also, a content identifier (content ID) is managed to uniquely identify the content.

[0011] Further, in the DRM, use control of content is performed under various use conditions and control conditions, so that there may be use conditions that cannot be described in a common format between DRMs. In order to record the special attribute, an area for each DRM type is provided for each content in the IPR-DB, and a special description for each DRM type is provided.

A specific example of the IPR-DB is a database of a content ID management center defined by the content ID forum (www.cidf.org/). Here, an identifier (content ID) is assigned to each content, and data in the IPR-DB can be searched using the identifier as a key. If necessary, an IPR-DB can be realized by adding a region for each DRM type.

<DRM-DB> The DRM processing content database (DRM-DB) 3 stores information necessary for the DRM integration unit 5 to create a call command for the DRM adapters 7-1 to 7-n and to call the same. I have. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 2, the command name and the setting file name of the adapter corresponding to the command template item of the DRM integration unit 5 are recorded for each DRM type. This setting file stores setting information (environment variables of the encapsulation program, etc.) that each DRM process requires independently. Also, the size of the content that can be processed per unit time of each DRM is recorded as speed information. This speed information is used for calculating the scheduled DRM processing time in the DRM adapter.

In the DRM-DB 3, items are entered when a new encapsulation program 6 is connected to the system via the DRM adapter 7.

<Content DB> The content database (content DB) 4 stores the content data before the encapsulation processing and serves as an output destination of the encapsulated content after the encapsulation processing.

<Description of Operation> An operation example of the content distribution management integrated system of the present invention will be described. The component controller 1 calls the DRM integration unit 5 by specifying a processing type, a content ID, and a content file.
The processing type is mainly content encapsulation processing, but there are other tasks such as control initialization, activation confirmation, termination processing, status acquisition processing, and the like. If necessary, a list of DRM types to be processed is specified as an argument. When the DRM type used for the process is specified in the IPR-DB2, the DRM type is selected according to the type. However, when the DRM type is not specified or not used, the input to the DRM integration unit 5 is performed. The DRM type is designated as (claim 2).

When the encapsulation processing is designated by the component controller 1, the DRM integration section 5 performs the following processing. IPR-D with content ID as key
B2 is accessed, and information used for DRM processing of the content is acquired from the registered content metadata. If the DRM type is specified in the argument, a list of DRM types is obtained from the argument. Further, the DRM used for processing the content is obtained from this information.
Determine the type. Further, it checks and determines the encoding method of the content stored in the content DB 4.

Next, the processing content of the individual DRM corresponding to the determined DRM type is acquired from the DRM-DB3. Then, a scheduled DRM processing time is calculated from the content size and the acquired DRM speed information, and it is determined whether or not the given content encoding scheme can be supported by the DRM.

Next, the individual D obtained from the DRM-DB 3
A DRM processing command is generated based on the processing content of the RM. Note that the DRM integration unit 5 has a command template for command generation. Therefore, the command generation includes the DRM-DB3
Apply the corresponding content obtained from. The items in the template include the command name of the DRM adapter call and the setting file name of the DRM adapter, and replace these with character strings necessary for the program call of each DRM adapter. For the command generated in this way, arguments (content I
D, content file, etc.) and generate an actual call command. That is, the format of the generated command is: command name / setting file / content ID
/ Content file. The DRM integration unit 5 calls the DRM adapter by executing the DRM processing command.

The DRM adapters 7-1 to 7-n are provided with the encapsulation programs 6-1 to 6 corresponding to the respective DRM types.
−n. DRM adapter 7-1 to 7-n
Is called from the DRM integration unit 5, and the calling format is common to each DRM type by the command template of the DRM integration unit 5. The DRM adapters 7-1 to 7-n access the IPR-DB2 based on the content ID specified by the DRM integration unit 5 and transmit information necessary for encapsulation including usage conditions, control conditions, and content attributes of the content. get. Then, the information expressed using the common description is converted into a format necessary for calling each encapsulated program. Next, a command for calling the encapsulation programs 6-1 to 6-n is created from this information, and the corresponding encapsulation program is called.

The encapsulation programs 6-1 to 6-n are:
This is a program for encapsulating specified contents, and has different functions. The content encapsulated here is stored in the content DB 4 via the DRM adapters 7-1 to 7-n. In some DRM technologies, a license server is prepared separately from the encapsulated content, and the license is managed there. The DRM adapter also outputs data necessary for license management to the content DB 4 if necessary according to the function of the corresponding DRM type.

When a series of processing ends, the DRM adapter notifies the component controller 1 of the processing result and ends. If the processing does not end even after the scheduled DRM processing time has elapsed, it is regarded as an error and the result is notified to the component controller 1.

[0023]

As described above, according to the present invention,
By acquiring information necessary for DRM processing from the IPR-DB, encapsulation processing corresponding to a plurality of DRM types can be shared. In addition, by connecting different encapsulation programs to the system via the DRM adapter and the DRM integration unit, differences between DRMs can be absorbed, and even when a new DRM is connected to the system, the entire system is not changed. , Can be easily handled.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a content distribution management integration system of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a DRM processing content database (DRM-DB)
FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a configuration example of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Component controller 2 Intellectual property database (IPR-DB) 3 DRM processing content database (DRM-DB) 4 Content database (content DB) 5 DRM integration section 6. Encapsulation program 7 DRM Adapter

   ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page    (72) Inventor Ryuji Yamamoto             2-3-1 Otemachi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo Sun             Within the Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (72) Inventor Hiroyuki Tanaka             2-3-1 Otemachi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo Sun             Within the Telegraph and Telephone Corporation F term (reference) 5B017 AA03 BB10 CA15 CA16                 5B085 AA08 AE02 AE23 AE29 BA07                       BG03 BG07

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. An intellectual property right database (IPR-DB) storing content IDs, attributes, usage conditions, and rights information of contents; a content database (content DB) storing content data; A plurality of encapsulation programs for encapsulating content; a plurality of DRM adapters for respectively calling the plurality of encapsulation programs to perform encapsulation processing and outputting the encapsulated content to the content DB; -Determine the DRM type used for encapsulation and the attribute, usage condition, and right information set in the encapsulation based on the attribute, usage condition, and right information stored in the DB, call the corresponding DRM adapter, and A DRM integration unit for performing an encapsulation process; PR-DB, the content DB and the DR
Manages the M integration unit and designates the content ID to
Control means for calling an M integration unit and instructing encapsulation of the corresponding content. 2. An intellectual property rights database (IPR-DB) storing content IDs, attributes, usage conditions, and rights information of the content, a content database (content DB) storing the content data, and a DRM type, respectively. A plurality of encapsulation programs for encapsulating content; a plurality of DRM adapters for respectively calling the plurality of encapsulation programs to perform encapsulation processing and outputting the encapsulated content to the content DB; -Based on attributes, usage conditions, and rights information stored in the DB, attributes and usage conditions set by encapsulation,
A DRM integration unit that determines rights information, calls a DRM adapter corresponding to a DRM type specified from the outside, and performs encapsulation processing under these conditions, the IPR-DB, the content DB, and the DR
Control means for managing the M integration unit, calling the DRM integration unit by designating a content ID and a DRM type, and instructing encapsulation of the corresponding content. 3. The content distribution management integrated system according to claim 1, wherein the IPR-DB records a special attribute that cannot be described in a common format between DRMs for each DRM type. And a content distribution management integrated system characterized in that a special attribute is acquired for each DRM type. 4. The DRM integration system according to claim 1, wherein the DRM integration unit stores necessary information for creating a command for calling the DRM adapter.
A processing content database (DRM-DB);
A content distribution management integration system, wherein the RM integration unit creates a command for calling the DRM adapter based on the information.