JP2004046419A - Content checking server and content checking system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a content checking server for checking contents transmitted/ received by a P2P (Peer to Peer) communication system. <P>SOLUTION: This content checking server, being connected to the Internet for checking contents transmitted/ received by the P2P communication system, is equipped with a first means for holding a plurality of different kinds of software for executing the P2P communication, a second means for storing therein content ID (Identification) for a content to be checked, a third means for sequentially executing the communication software held by the first means to directly download a content from another computer connected to the Internet, a fourth means for extracting an electronic watermark embedded in the downloaded content to read its content ID, and a fifth means for checking the content ID read by the fourth means with the content ID stored in the second means. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

[0001]
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a content collation server, and more particularly to a technique effective in detecting illegal distribution of content in a peer-to-peer (P2P) communication system.
[0002]
[Prior art]
When selling content through the Internet for a fee, it is necessary to prevent illegal distribution and sale of the purchased content.
Therefore, for example, it is necessary to detect whether the content distributed on the Internet is illegal or not, and a content collation system is used for such an application.
[0003]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
In the conventional content collation technology, as shown in FIG. 13, the content collation system 1 has a content posted on a homepage (hereinafter, simply referred to as HP) of each web server (5a to 5c) connected to the Internet 2. Is searched by following a link set in the HP, and the content is downloaded and collated.
However, in the conventional method, any content posted on the HP can be downloaded and collated. However, content stored in a personal computer (hereinafter, simply referred to as a PC) connected to the Internet can be downloaded. In a method of directly transmitting and receiving contents between PCs, such as a P2P communication method in which another PC connected to the Internet searches and downloads directly, it is difficult to collate transmitted and received contents. There was a point.
[0004]
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the problems of the prior art, and it is an object of the present invention to collate contents transmitted and received by a P2P communication method in a content collation server and to register registered contents. It is an object of the present invention to provide a technology capable of notifying a verification requester by e-mail or HP when a content ID or a feature of a content is detected.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a content matching system using the content matching server of the present invention.
The above and other objects and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the description of the present specification and the accompanying drawings.
[0005]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
The following is a brief description of an outline of typical inventions disclosed in the present application.
That is, the present invention is a content collation server for collating content transmitted / received by the P2P communication method connected to the Internet, wherein the first means for holding a plurality of different software for executing the P2P communication includes: A second means for storing the content ID of the content, and a second means for sequentially executing the P2P communication software held in the first means to directly download the content from another computer connected to the Internet. A third means, a fourth means for extracting a digital watermark embedded in the downloaded content and reading the content ID, a content ID read by the fourth means, and storing the content ID in the second means And a fifth means for collating the content ID with the content ID.
[0006]
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, when the fifth means detects a content whose content ID matches the content ID stored in the second means, information relating to the matched content is transmitted to a collation request. A sixth means for automatically notifying a user by e-mail, or a seventh means for automatically posting the information on a web homepage.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, an eighth means for storing the feature amount of the content to be collated, a ninth means for extracting the feature amount of the downloaded content, and an extracting means for extracting the feature amount of the downloaded content There is provided a tenth means for comparing the feature quantity of the content with the feature quantity of the content stored in the eighth means.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, when the tenth means detects a content whose feature amount matches the feature amount of the content stored in the eighth means, information relating to the matched content is determined. An eleventh means for automatically notifying the verification requester by e-mail or a twelfth means for automatically posting the information on a web homepage is provided.
Further, the present invention is a content collation system including the content collation server described above and a web server for publishing information on the matched content.
[0007]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.
In all the drawings for describing the embodiments, components having the same function are denoted by the same reference numerals, and repeated description thereof will be omitted.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram for explaining the outline of the content collation system of the present invention.
In a content collation system 1 of the present invention, a plurality of P2P communication software is stored in a server in the system, and the software is sequentially activated to be connected to the Internet 2 and hold the content to be collated. The PCs (3a to 3c) that are considered to be stored are searched, the content is downloaded from the PC, and the content ID or the feature of the content embedded as an electronic watermark is checked.
[0008]
FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an overall configuration of the content collation system according to the embodiment of the present invention.
The content collation system 1 according to the present embodiment includes a web server 10, a collation server 11, and an operator terminal 13, which are connected to each other via a LAN 12 and to the Internet 2 via a gateway 14. .
The collation server 11 downloads the content from a PC connected to the Internet 2 by P2P communication software, reads out the content ID embedded in the content as an electronic watermark, and collates the content. It has a function to match features and notify customers if they match.
The web server 10 is for publishing information on the matched content, and can be viewed by a customer having a password and an operator of the verification system.
The operator terminal 13 is a terminal for inputting customer information, a content number, a content ID, a content feature, and the like to the matching server 11. If a match is detected as a result of the content collation, the result is also displayed.
[0009]
FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a functional block configuration of the matching server shown in FIG.
The P2P software storage unit 103 stores various types of P2P communication software that is commercially available or distributed free of charge, and is sequentially activated according to an instruction from the control unit 105 to set the content set in the customer information storage unit 107. Is downloaded from a PC connected to the Internet 2 under the control of the communication control unit 102. The downloaded content is stored in the content buffer 101.
FIG. 5 shows an example of an address table of the P2P software storage unit 103.
The digital watermark extracting unit 104 has a function of extracting a digital watermark from the downloaded content and reading the content ID. This function can be configured by a known technique.
The content ID storage unit 106 stores an ID assigned to the original content to be compared.
FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of the table configuration of the content ID storage unit 106. As shown in FIG. 6, the content ID is stored in association with the content number.
The collation of the content ID is executed by the control unit 105.
[0010]
The customer information storage unit 107 stores information of customers who want to detect illegal distribution of content by P2P communication software.
FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of a table configuration of the customer information storage unit 107 illustrated in FIG.
The customer ID 30 shown in FIG. 7 is a customer identification number uniquely set in the collation system of the present embodiment, and the customer name 31 is the name of the customer.
The customer mail address 32 is the mail address of the customer, and when the result of the matching of the content IDs matches, the mail address is notified to this mail address.
The content number 33 and the content title 34 represent the content number and the content title of the content desired to be detected, respectively.
In the collation period 35, the last date on which the collation of the content is performed is stored. After this date, the collation work of the content is not performed.
[0011]
FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a functional block configuration of a modification of the collation server shown in FIG. 2, and is a diagram showing a functional block configuration in a case where a function of content characteristic collation is added to the functional block configuration shown in FIG. It is.
The matching server 11 shown in FIG. 4 differs from the matching server 11 shown in FIG. 3 in that a content feature extraction unit 111, a content feature comparison unit 112, and a content feature storage unit 113 are added.
The content feature extraction unit 111 extracts a feature amount of the content by a certain algorithm. Here, as the feature amount of the content, for example, if the content is music or video, the frequency band is divided into a plurality of frequency regions, and the frequency component of each content included in the divided plurality of frequency regions is included. And the like, and can be configured by known techniques.
[0012]
The content feature storage unit 113 preliminarily processes the customer content by the feature extraction function and stores the feature amount.
FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of a table configuration of the content feature storage unit 113. As shown in FIG. 8, the content feature amount is stored in association with the content number.
The content feature comparison unit 112 compares the feature amount extracted from the downloaded content with the feature amount of the stored content. If the digital watermark extraction unit 104 cannot extract the content ID, Alternatively, when only incomplete content IDs can be extracted, the feature amount of the downloaded content is extracted, and the content feature comparison unit 112 compares the feature amount with the stored content feature amount.
[0013]
FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure of the matching server 11 shown in FIG. Hereinafter, the processing procedure of the matching server 11 of the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. First, the titles of all contents are acquired from the customer information storage unit 107 (step 121).
Next, the P2P software stored in the P2P software storage unit 103 is activated (Step 122), and the content related to the title is downloaded (Step 123).
Next, the digital watermark extracting unit 104 extracts a content ID from the downloaded content (step 124).
Next, it is determined whether or not the content ID has been extracted (step 125). If yes in step 125, the control unit 105 stores the extracted content ID and the content ID in the content ID storage unit 106. Collation with the content ID is performed (step 126), and it is determined whether or not the two content IDs match (step 127).
[0014]
If no in step 125, the feature amount is extracted by the content feature extraction unit 111 (step 128), and the extracted feature amount is compared with the feature amount stored in the content feature storage unit 113. (Step 129), and it is determined whether or not the two feature amounts match (step 130). Here, when the difference between the two feature amounts is equal to or smaller than a certain threshold, it is determined that the feature amounts match.
If yes in step 127 or yes in step 130, the customer's mail address is searched from the content number with reference to the table in the customer information storage unit 107 (step 131), and the downloaded content is stored in the customer information storage. The customer is notified by e-mail that the content matches the content stored in section 107 (step 132).
Also, the fact that the downloaded content matches the content stored in the customer information storage unit 107 is transferred to the web server 10 (step 133), and the operator is notified via the operator terminal 13 (step 134). FIG. 10 shows an example of information notified to a customer or an operator.
[0015]
If no in step 127 or no in step 130, or after step 134, it is determined whether or not there is content to be collated in the downloaded content (step 135). In such a case, the processing of steps 124 to 134 described above is repeated.
If no in step 135, it is determined whether there is unstarted P2P software (step 136), and if yes in step 136, the above-described steps 122 to 134 are repeated, and in step 136 If no, the processing is stopped.
As described above, in this flowchart, for each P2P communication software, all similar contents registered in the customer information storage unit 107 based on the title of the content that needs to be collated are downloaded, and the content ID or content characteristic is collated. When a match is detected, the customer and the operator are notified, and then the same operation is performed using other P2P communication software. However, the notification of the matching match is not made for each P2P software but for all P2P software. Can be performed collectively after the execution of.
[0016]
As described above, according to the content collation system of the present embodiment, P2P communication is not possible with the technology of searching the web server and downloading the same or similar content as the title and collating as in the related art. It can detect illegal distribution of content for software.
In addition, since not only the content ID collation by extracting the content ID by the electronic watermark but also the collation by the feature amount of the content is possible, it is possible to detect the illegal distribution of the content in which the content ID is not embedded.
Furthermore, since new P2P software is developed because P2P software is registered and sequentially activated to download contents, this software is newly stored in the P2P software storage unit 103 of the verification server 11. Thus, illegal distribution by new P2P communication software can be easily dealt with.
[0017]
FIGS. 11 and 12 are block diagrams showing a business model using the content collation system of the present invention.
FIG. 11 shows a model in the case of implementing an independent content collation business.
The content holder 50 entrusts content sales to a distributor operating the content distribution system 51 and receives the sales price.
In response to a request from the content holder 50, the matching company that operates the content matching system detects illegal distribution of the content sold by the content holder 50.
The reconciliation company obtains a reconciliation fee from the content holder 50 to establish a business. In this case, it is also possible to make a contract in which an additional fee is charged by detecting the illegal distribution of the content.
FIG. 12 shows a business model in which the distributor also performs collation.
In this case, there is a method of independently charging a collation fee to the content holder 50, but it is also possible to perform the collation service accompanying the content distribution free of charge and use it for enclosing the content holder.
As described above, the invention made by the inventor has been specifically described based on the embodiment. However, the present invention is not limited to the embodiment, and can be variously modified without departing from the gist of the invention. Needless to say,
[0018]
【The invention's effect】
The following is a brief description of an effect obtained by a representative one of the inventions disclosed in the present application.
(1) According to the content collation system of the present invention, it is possible to collate content transmitted and received by the P2P communication method.
(2) According to the content collation system of the present invention, when a registered content ID or a feature of the content is detected, it is possible to notify the collation requester by e-mail or HP.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram for explaining an outline of a content collation system of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an overall configuration of a content matching system according to the embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a functional block configuration of a matching server illustrated in FIG. 2;
FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a functional block configuration of a modification of the collation server shown in FIG. 2;
FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of an address table of a P2P software storage unit illustrated in FIGS. 3 and 4;
FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of a table configuration of a content ID storage unit illustrated in FIGS. 3 and 4;
FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of a table configuration of a customer information storage unit illustrated in FIGS. 3 and 4;
8 is a diagram illustrating an example of a table configuration of a content feature storage unit illustrated in FIG. 4;
FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating a processing procedure of a matching server illustrated in FIG. 4;
FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of information notified to a customer or an operator in the flowchart of FIG. 9;
FIG. 11 is a block diagram showing a business model using the content collation system of the present invention.
FIG. 12 is a block diagram showing a business model using the content collation system of the present invention.
FIG. 13 is a block diagram for explaining an outline of a conventional content collation system.
[Explanation of symbols]
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Content collation system, 2 ... Internet, 3, 3a-3c ... Personal computer (PC), 5a-5c, 10 ... Web server, 11 ... Collation server, 12 ... LAN, 13 ... Operator terminal, 14 ... Gateway, 50 ... Content holder, 51 ... Distribution system, 101 ... Content buffer, 102 ... Communication control unit, 103 ... P2P software storage unit, 104 ... Digital watermark extraction unit, 105 ... Control unit, 106 ... Content ID storage unit, 107 ... Customer information Storage unit 111: Content feature extraction unit 112: Content feature comparison unit 113: Content feature storage unit

Claims (7)

A content collation server connected to the Internet for collating content transmitted and received by a P2P communication method,
First means for holding a plurality of different pieces of software for performing P2P communication;
Second means for storing the content ID of the content to be collated,
Third means for sequentially executing the P2P communication software held in the first means and directly downloading content from another computer connected to the Internet;
Fourth means for extracting a digital watermark embedded in the downloaded content and reading the content ID;
A content matching server comprising: a fifth means for comparing the content ID read by the fourth means with the content ID stored in the second means. In the fifth means, when a content whose content ID matches the content ID stored in the second means is detected, information relating to the matched content is automatically notified to the verification requester by e-mail. The content matching server according to claim 1, further comprising: A seventh means for automatically posting information on the matched content on a web homepage when the fifth means detects a content whose content ID matches the content ID stored in the second means. The content matching server according to claim 1, further comprising: Eighth means for storing a feature amount of the content to be collated,
Ninth means for extracting a feature amount of the downloaded content;
4. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: tenth means for comparing a feature amount of the content extracted by said ninth means with a feature amount of the content stored in said eighth means. The content collation server according to any one of the above. When the tenth means detects a content whose feature amount matches the feature amount of the content stored in the eighth means, information relating to the matched content is automatically notified by e-mail to the verification requester. The content matching server according to claim 4, further comprising an eleventh means for performing the content matching. A twelfth means for automatically publishing information on the matched content on a web homepage when the tenth means detects a content whose feature amount matches the feature of the content stored in the eighth means. The content matching server according to claim 4, comprising: A content collation server according to claim 3 or 6,
And a web server for publishing information on the matched content.

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