JP2005157895A - Method for managing license of content and system for distributing content - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a license managing method and a content distributing system for executing the license management of a plurality of resources configuring contents in a batch. <P>SOLUTION: Each content is configured of one high-order resource (resource referred to at first in contents), at least one low-order resource (resource to be directly or indirectly referred to from the high-order resource) and one start document (information file for executing the license management processing of each resource configuring contents in a batch). The start document is described with at least the reference destination information of the high-order resource and license information for specifying a viewing license necessary for the viewing of each resource configuring the contents. When link information for performing access to other contents is described in each resource, information for performing access to the start document of the other contents is described. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a content license management method and a content distribution system, and more specifically, a server that distributes encrypted content, and reception that decrypts the content distributed from the server using a viewing license. The present invention relates to a license management method performed with a terminal and a content distribution system using the method.

  As is well known, in digital broadcasting and the Internet, various contents such as video, music, and programs are distributed from a server of a service provider that provides contents to a user's receiving terminal. These contents are composed of one or a plurality of resources (data files, program files, etc.), and the types are roughly classified into stream type contents and multimedia type contents. The stream type content is video / audio-centric content composed of only stream resources such as MPEG2-TS. The multimedia content is content composed of a plurality of resources such as stream resources, multimedia resources such as HTML / BML documents, and monomedia resources such as JPEG and PNG that are referred to from the multimedia resources.

In general, service providers encrypt content with copyright protection so that only a specific user can view the content. When viewing content that has been encrypted, the user obtains a viewing license that includes a decryption key issued by the service provider by paying consideration or providing personal information. The applied encryption is decrypted (see Patent Document 1).
JP 2002-342518 A

  Normally, service providers, with regard to multimedia-type content that includes copyright protection and consists of a plurality of resources, use a plurality of resources that constitute one content as a license target unit (scope), and one viewing for each content Grant a license. However, in the conventional technology, there is no way to know the relationship between the resource and content set by the service provider in the receiving terminal on the user side. Therefore, when the resource is accessed, it is impossible to specify to which content the resource belongs, that is, to which viewing license it corresponds. In addition, when a plurality of different encryptions are applied to resources in one content, there is no way for the receiving terminal on the user side to easily grasp the relationship between the resources set by the service provider and the encryption. .

  For this reason, in the conventional technology such as the above-mentioned Patent Document 1, information (for example, a license ID and a decryption key) for specifying a viewing license necessary for decryption is added to all the encrypted resources in the content. In addition, there is a problem that it is necessary to perform a license verification process between this information and the information held by the receiving terminal each time the receiving terminal accesses the resource. Such a license verification process for each resource access causes a delay in the viewing process at the receiving terminal.

  Therefore, an object of the present invention is to specify a viewing license corresponding to a resource immediately upon accessing the resource at a receiving terminal on the user side without adding information identifying the viewing license to the resource in the content. A content license management method and a content distribution system are provided.

  The present invention is directed to a license management method that is executed in a content distribution system including a server that stores one or more contents including a plurality of resources and a receiving terminal that receives distribution of contents from the server. . In order to achieve the above object, the main feature of the license management method of the present invention is that for each content, license information for identifying viewing licenses necessary for viewing all resources constituting the content is prepared. When the content including the resource requested from the receiving terminal is changed, the server notifies the receiving terminal of license information of the change destination content, and the receiving terminal receives the license information notification from the server. Until the next notification is received, the viewing processing of the resource distributed from the server is executed using the viewing license specified by the license information.

  More specifically, the content is an upper resource that is first referred to in the content, at least one lower resource that can be referred to from the upper resource, and an activation document that describes reference destination information and license information of the upper resource. The information that refers to the activation document of the other content is described in the link information configured to access the resource of the other content. The server determines whether the access request to the resource received from the receiving terminal is a reference to the activation document. If the request is not a reference to the activation document, the server presents the requested resource to the reception terminal. In the case of referencing the activation document, presentation of higher-order resources and notification of license information are performed to the receiving terminal based on the description of the activation document. The receiving terminal receives the license information notified from the server, and each time the license information is notified, the receiving terminal sets the viewing license specified by the license information for viewing processing, and uses the set viewing license. The viewing process of the resource distributed from the server is executed.

  Typically, the license information of the activation document describes information for identifying a viewing license having a key for decrypting one or more ciphers applied to resources in the content. The viewing license is specified by the identified information, and the resource is decrypted using the key of the specified viewing license.

  Here, the license information of the activation document further describes information indicating the correspondence between each encrypted resource and the key that can decrypt the encryption, and the receiving terminal refers to this correspondence. Thus, it is preferable that the resource decryption key can be uniquely specified.

  The present invention also provides a content distribution system including a server that stores one or more contents including a plurality of resources, and a receiving terminal that receives content distribution from the server, and a server that configures the content distribution system, It is also aimed at receiving terminals.

  The server obtains an upper resource that is first referred to in the content, at least one lower resource that can be referred to from the upper resource, reference information of the upper resource, and a viewing license necessary for viewing all resources constituting the content. It consists of an activation document that describes at least the license information for specifying, and stores the content in which the information for referring to the activation document of the other content is described in the link information for accessing the resource of the other content. When a request for access to a resource is received from the content storage unit and the receiving terminal, if the request is not a reference to the activation document, the requested resource is presented. If the request is a reference to the activation document, the activation document Based on the description, a notification is sent to the receiving terminal that presents the upper resource and notifies the license information. And a processing unit.

  The receiving terminal sets the viewing license specified by the license information for viewing processing every time the license information is notified, and the communication processing unit that receives the license information notified from the server. And a viewing processing unit that performs viewing processing of the resources distributed from the server.

  Preferably, this content license management method is provided in the form of a program for causing a server and a receiving terminal constituting the content distribution system to execute a series of processing procedures. This program may be recorded on a computer-readable recording medium.

  As described above, according to the present invention, license information (a startup document in which is described) is generated in advance for each content on the server side, and the license information (a startup document) is received only when the content to be viewed is changed. The terminal is notified. Each time the license information is notified, the receiving terminal side sets a new viewing license corresponding to the license information for decrypting the resource. With this process, once the receiving terminal is notified of the license information, it can easily grasp that all the resources to be viewed belong to the same content until the next notification of new license information is received. be able to. Therefore, every time a resource to be viewed is changed, it is not necessary to perform a license verification process for confirming whether or not the resource belongs to content having a viewing license.

  Further, if the license information includes information indicating the correspondence relationship between the decryption key for each resource constituting one content, the resource can be easily associated with the decryption key on the receiving terminal side. . In addition, since it is only necessary for the service provider to specify the reference destination of the activation document as the access destination of the content regardless of the type of content, an effect of facilitating management of the content selection screen and the like can be obtained. In addition, since the information about the key and the resource are separated, if it is necessary to include a specific resource in the configuration of each of a plurality of contents, one specific resource that has been subjected to predetermined encryption is included in the plurality of contents. The decryption key can be shared and described in each activation document. Furthermore, since the decryption process can be performed in a unified manner regardless of the type of resource, the process on the receiving terminal side is simplified.

  In the following embodiment, encrypted content is stored in the server on the service provider side, and in order to view the encrypted content on the receiving terminal on the user side, a predetermined viewing license is acquired. A content distribution system that needs to be decrypted will be described as an example.

  FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a content distribution system according to an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, the content distribution system of the present embodiment has a configuration in which a server 10 on the service provider side and a receiving terminal 20 on the user side are connected via a communication path 30 such as a network. The server 10 includes a communication processing unit 11, a content storage unit 12, and a license storage unit 13. The receiving terminal 20 includes a communication processing unit 21, a viewing processing unit 22, and an output processing unit 23.

  First, the outline | summary of each structure of the content delivery system of this embodiment is demonstrated.

  In the server 10, the communication processing unit 11 is a component that realizes a function serving as a window on the service provider side, receives access from the receiving terminal 20, notifies license information, distributes resources, and provides viewing licenses. Etc. The content storage unit 12 stores content 121 to 12n (n is an integer of 1 or more) having a configuration described later. The license storage unit 13 stores viewing licenses assigned to the contents 121 to 12n stored in the content storage unit 12.

  In the receiving terminal 20, the communication processing unit 21 is a component that executes a browsing function such as displaying a Web page, a client application function that performs system control of the entire terminal related to content distribution, and the like. A resource access request, license information acquisition from the server 10, resource download, and the like are performed. The viewing processing unit 22 has an area for storing the downloaded resource and the acquired viewing license, and performs a decryption process of the resource based on the viewing license. The output processing unit 23 performs display output of the resources decrypted by the viewing processing unit 22 and the like.

  As shown in FIG. 2, each of the contents 121 to 12n stored in the content storage unit 12 includes one upper resource 12b, at least one lower resource 12c, and one activated document 12a. The upper resource 12b is a resource (INDEX HTML) that is first referred to in the content for presenting initial information about the content. The lower resource 12c is a resource (such as HTML of MENU 1, 2) that can be directly or indirectly referenced from the upper resource 12b. The activation document 12a is an information file provided for collectively performing license management processing (DRM processing) of the resources 12b and 12c constituting the content, and constitutes reference destination information and content of the upper resource 12b. At least license information for specifying a viewing license necessary for viewing each of the resources 12b and 12c is described (FIG. 3). When providing a startup document for content that does not require encryption, only the reference destination information of the higher-level resource 12b needs to be described in the startup document.

  Each encrypted content is given a unique viewing license in advance, and this viewing license can be uniquely specified by identification information (license ID). For example, as shown in FIG. 3, the license information is composed of information indicating a correspondence relationship between this license ID and a key (decryption key) necessary for decryption for each resource constituting one content. . Note that the information indicating the correspondence relationship between the license ID and the resource and the decryption key may be managed in the form of another file that can be referred to from the activation document.

  In addition, when describing link information for accessing other contents in each resource, information for referring to the activation document is described instead of information for directly accessing a higher resource of other contents. With this description rule, the activation document of the content is referred to only when the viewing target is transferred from one content to another content (FIG. 4), and the transition state of the content to be viewed can be determined.

  As shown in FIG. 5, the viewing license stored in the license storage unit 13 decrypts the license ID that can uniquely identify the content and the encryption applied to the resource that constitutes the content identified by the license ID. With a decryption key. When resources in one content are encrypted with a plurality of keys, a plurality of decryption keys (keys 1 to 4) are included in the viewing license (FIG. 5A), and encrypted with a single key. In such a case, only one decryption key (key 5) is included in the viewing license (FIG. 5B). In this embodiment, an example in which the viewing license and the content are managed by the same server 10 will be described. However, the viewing license is managed by a server (such as a license server) other than the server 10 in which the content is stored. Also good.

  Note that the information indicating the correspondence between the resource and the decryption key may be described in the viewing license instead of the license information. In this case, information indicating the correspondence between the resource and the resource ID may be described in the license information of the activation document, and information indicating the correspondence between the resource ID and the decryption key may be described in the viewing license.

  Next, a license management method for content viewing performed in the content distribution system of the present embodiment having the above-described configuration will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the processing procedure of the license management method performed by the receiving terminal 20.

  When viewing specific content, the user needs to obtain a viewing license for the specific content in advance. For example, when the user wants to view content A and content B, the user's receiving terminal 20 accesses the server 10 to access the content A viewing license (license ID: 200) and the content B viewing license (license ID: license ID: 300) in advance. The viewing license is acquired by paying a service provider or providing personal information. The viewing license acquired from the server 10 is stored in the viewing processing unit 22 of the receiving terminal 20.

  When actually viewing the content resource, the user instructs the receiving terminal 20 to request access to the desired resource (step S601). The receiving terminal 20 determines whether or not the access request instructed by the user refers to the activation document (step S602). This determination may be made by confirming the resource name or the like.

  When the access request designated by the user refers to the activation document (Yes in step S602), the receiving terminal 20 requests and obtains the activation document from the server 10 (steps S603 and S604). Next, the receiving terminal 20 extracts license information included in the acquired activation document (step S605). Then, in accordance with the extracted license information, the receiving terminal 20 sets the viewing license specified by the license information as a viewing license used for decryption (step S606). When the setting of the viewing license is completed, the receiving terminal 20 extracts the reference destination information described in the activation document (step S607), and sends an access request to the upper resource specified by the reference destination information to the server 10. Transmit (step S608). Thereby, the receiving terminal 20 acquires the higher-order resource presented from the server 10 (step S609).

  On the other hand, when the access request instructed by the user does not refer to the activation document (No in step S602), the receiving terminal 20 transmits the access request instructed by the user to the server 10 (step S608). The resource requested for access presented from 10 is acquired (step S609). Note that if the resource requested for access has already been stored by prior download or the like, the resource is not acquired by the receiving terminal 20 in step S609, and the resource is confirmed by presentation from the server 10 or the like.

  Then, the receiving terminal 20 decrypts the encryption applied to the acquired resource using the decryption key included in the set viewing license (step S610). That is, when license information is newly acquired, a decryption key based on the acquired new license information is used, and when license information is not acquired, decryption based on the currently set license information is performed. Using the key, decrypt the cipher applied to the resource. The decrypted resource is displayed on the screen by the output processing unit 23 (step S611).

  If the license information is managed in the form of a separate file that can be referred to from the startup document, after acquiring the startup document in step S604 as shown in FIG. 7, a request to acquire another file described in the startup document is obtained. To obtain license information separately (steps S701 and S702). In addition to the above method, the determination as to whether the access request is for the activation document may be made by confirming the contents of the resource downloaded from the server 10.

  Further, usage conditions such as “viewable until Y / Z / Y,” “viewable for one week”, “viewable three times” are described in advance in each viewing license. In step S610, the usage conditions are checked, and if the usage conditions are not satisfied, the decryption is not performed. Thereby, more various content sales forms can be realized.

  More specifically, in the above example, the following license management is performed by this processing.

  When the viewing target is transferred from another content to the content A, the activation document of the content A is first accessed. Accordingly, the license information including the license ID: 200 is notified to the receiving terminal 20, and the viewing license with the license ID: 200 is set for decryption in the receiving terminal 20. Thereafter, even if the resource to be viewed in the content A is changed, access to the activation document does not occur. Therefore, the receiving terminal 20 decrypts the resource with the decryption key of the viewing license set with the license ID 200. To continue.

  Thereafter, when the viewing target is moved from the content A to the content B, the activation document of the content B is first accessed. Accordingly, the license information including the license ID: 300 is notified to the receiving terminal 20, and the viewing license of the license ID: 300 is newly set (updated) for decryption at the receiving terminal 20. Thereafter, even if the resource to be viewed in the content B is changed, access to the activation document does not occur. Therefore, the receiving terminal 20 uses the decryption key of the viewing license with the newly set license ID: 300 to Continue to decrypt.

  Further, after that, when the viewing target is moved to another content, the activation document of the content is similarly accessed first, and the above-described processing is performed.

  As described above, according to the license management method and the content distribution system according to an embodiment of the present invention, the activation document is generated in advance for each content on the server side, and the activation document is only changed when the content to be viewed is changed. The license information is notified to the receiving terminal. Each time the license information is notified, the receiving terminal side sets a new viewing license corresponding to the license information for decrypting the resource.

  With this process, once the receiving terminal is notified of the license information, it can easily grasp that all the resources to be viewed belong to the same content until the next notification of new license information is received. be able to. Therefore, every time a resource to be viewed is changed, it is not necessary to perform a license verification process for confirming whether or not the resource belongs to content having a viewing license.

  In addition, since the license information includes information indicating a correspondence relationship between the decryption key for each resource constituting one content, the resource can be easily associated with the decryption key on the receiving terminal side. .

  In addition, since it is only necessary for the service provider to specify the reference destination of the activation document as the access destination of the content regardless of the type of content, an effect of facilitating management of the content selection screen and the like can be obtained.

  In addition, since the information about the key and the resource are separated, if it is necessary to include a specific resource in the configuration of each of a plurality of contents, one specific resource that has been subjected to predetermined encryption is included in the plurality of contents. The decryption key can be shared and described in each activation document.

  Furthermore, since the decryption process can be performed in a unified manner regardless of the type of resource, the process on the receiving terminal side is simplified.

  In the above embodiment, a case has been described in which a plurality of resources constituting one content are stored in the same server. However, these resources may be distributed and stored in a plurality of servers. Moreover, although the case where the activation document is stored in the same server as a plurality of resources has been described, the activation document may also be stored in a different server separately from the resources.

  Further, in the above-described embodiment, the method of accessing the activation document of each content from the menu screen or the like of the Web page (such as a web shop HP) displayed with the browser function has been described. However, in addition to this access method, an access method using metadata in which a content access destination (URL) is described is also conceivable. In this method, a predetermined application different from the browser is used to download desired metadata from a database storing metadata, and a content activation document is directly accessed from a menu screen generated from the metadata. It is.

  INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY The present invention can be used in a content distribution system that decrypts encrypted content using a predetermined viewing license, and in particular, license management of a plurality of resources constituting the content is collectively performed for each content. It is suitable when performing.

1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a content distribution system according to an embodiment of the present invention. The figure which shows the internal structural example of the content stored in the content storage part 12 The figure which shows an example of the starting document contained in content Diagram explaining start document description rules The figure which shows an example of the viewing-and-listening license stored in the license storage part 13 The flowchart which shows the process sequence of the license management method which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. Other flowchart which shows the process sequence of the license management method which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. The figure which shows the example of an internal structure of the conventional content

Explanation of symbols

10 server 11, 21 communication processing unit 12 content storage unit 13 license storage unit 20 receiving terminal 22 viewing processing unit 23 output processing unit 30 communication path 121 to 12n content 12a activation document 12b upper resource 12c lower resource

Claims (9)

A license management method executed in a content distribution system, comprising: a server that stores one or more contents composed of a plurality of resources; and a receiving terminal that receives content distribution from the server,
For each content, license information for specifying a viewing license necessary for viewing all resources constituting the content is prepared in the server,
When content including resources requested from the receiving terminal is changed, the server notifies the receiving terminal of the license information of the content to be changed,
When the receiving terminal receives the notification of the license information from the server, the receiving terminal uses the viewing license specified by the license information to process the viewing of the resource distributed from the server until the next notification is received. A license management method, wherein the license management method is executed. The content is
The top resource referenced first in the content,
At least one lower resource that can be referred to by the upper resource;
It is composed of reference information of the upper resource and a startup document describing the license information,
Information referring to the activation document of other content is described in the link information for accessing the resource of other content,
The server
When the access request to the resource received from the receiving terminal is not a reference to the activation document, a presentation step of presenting the access requested resource to the receiving terminal;
If the access request to the resource received from the receiving terminal is a reference to the activation document, the higher-level resource is presented and the license information is notified to the receiving terminal based on the description of the activation document. And a notification step to perform,
The receiving terminal is
Receiving the license information notified from the server;
A setting step of setting a viewing license specified by the license information for viewing processing each time the license information is notified;
The license management method according to claim 1, further comprising: an execution step of executing a process of viewing a resource distributed from the server using the set viewing license. The license information of the activation document describes information for identifying a viewing license having a key for decrypting one or more ciphers applied to resources in the content,
The receiving terminal setting step specifies a viewing license based on the identification information, and the execution step performs decryption of a resource using a key of the specified viewing license. 2. The license management method according to 2. The license information of the activation document further describes information indicating a correspondence relationship between each encrypted resource and a key that can decrypt the encryption,
The license management method according to claim 3, wherein the execution step of the receiving terminal uniquely specifies a key for decrypting a resource with reference to the correspondence relationship. A content distribution system including a server that stores at least one content composed of a plurality of resources, and a receiving terminal that receives content distribution from the server,
The server
In order to identify the upper resource first referred to in the content, at least one lower resource that can be referred from the upper resource, the reference information of the upper resource, and the viewing license necessary for viewing all the resources constituting the content Content storage unit that stores content in which information that refers to a startup document of another content is described in link information for accessing resources of other content When,
When a request for access to a resource is received from the receiving terminal and the request is not a reference to the activation document, the requested resource is presented, and when the request is a reference to the activation document, the activation document is described. A communication processing unit that performs the presentation of the higher-level resource and the notification of the license information based on the receiving terminal,
The receiving terminal is
A communication processing unit for receiving the license information notified from the server;
Each time the license information is notified, the viewing license specified by the license information is set for viewing processing, and the viewing processing of the resource distributed from the server is executed using the set viewing license A content distribution system comprising a processing unit. A server that stores one or more contents composed of a plurality of resources distributed to a receiving terminal,
In order to identify the upper resource first referred to in the content, at least one lower resource that can be referred from the upper resource, the reference information of the upper resource, and the viewing license necessary for viewing all the resources constituting the content Content storage unit that stores content in which information that refers to a startup document of another content is described in link information for accessing resources of other content When,
When a request for access to a resource is received from the receiving terminal and the request is not a reference to the activation document, the requested resource is presented, and when the request is a reference to the activation document, the activation document is described. A communication processing unit that performs the presentation of the higher-level resource and the notification of the license information to the receiving terminal based on the server. A receiving terminal that receives distribution of content from a server that stores at least one content composed of a plurality of resources,
A communication processing unit that receives from the server license information for specifying a viewing license necessary for viewing all resources constituting the content each time content including a resource to be viewed is changed;
Each time the license information is received, the viewing process specified by the license information is set for viewing processing, and the viewing processing of the resource distributed from the server is executed using the set viewing license A receiving terminal. A program executed by a content distribution system, which includes a server that stores at least one content composed of a plurality of resources, and a receiving terminal that receives content distribution from the server,
In order to identify the upper resource first referred to in the content, at least one lower resource that can be referred from the upper resource, the reference information of the upper resource, and the viewing license necessary for viewing all the resources constituting the content And the content in which the information referring to the activation document of the other content is described as the link information for accessing the resource of the other content.
To the server,
When the access request to the resource received from the receiving terminal is not a reference to the activation document, a presentation step of presenting the access requested resource to the receiving terminal;
If the access request to the resource received from the receiving terminal is a reference to the activation document, the higher-level resource presentation and the license information notification are sent to the receiving terminal based on the description of the activation document. The notification step to be performed,
In the receiving terminal,
Receiving the license information notified from the server;
A setting step of setting a viewing license specified by the license information for viewing processing each time the license information is notified;
A program for executing an execution step of executing a process for viewing a resource distributed from the server, using the set viewing license. A computer-readable recording medium recording a program executed by a content distribution system, which includes a server that stores at least one content composed of a plurality of resources and a receiving terminal that receives content distribution from the server. There,
In order to identify the upper resource first referred to in the content, at least one lower resource that can be referred from the upper resource, the reference information of the upper resource, and the viewing license necessary for viewing all the resources constituting the content And the content in which the information referring to the activation document of the other content is described as the link information for accessing the resource of the other content.
To the server,
When the access request to the resource received from the receiving terminal is not a reference to the activation document, a presentation step of presenting the access requested resource to the receiving terminal;
If the access request to the resource received from the receiving terminal is a reference to the activation document, the higher-level resource presentation and the license information notification are sent to the receiving terminal based on the description of the activation document. The notification step to be performed,
In the receiving terminal,
Receiving the license information notified from the server;
A setting step of setting a viewing license specified by the license information for viewing processing each time the license information is notified;
The recording medium which records the program which performs the execution step which performs the viewing-and-listening process of the resource delivered from the said server using the set viewing license.

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