JP4612475B2 - How to provide a license - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a license providing technique for providing a new usage condition to a receiver holding a plurality of licenses when a license server issues a license including the usage conditions.

  In the conventional technology, when providing a license for digital content, the license provider prepares the content usage conditions and the decryption key in advance, and the license server generates a license from the usage conditions and the decryption key and sends it to the receiver. Provided. The receiver uses the content within the usage conditions described in the license.

  A conventional license providing system will be described with reference to FIG.

  In this system, a usage condition registration unit 91 that accepts registration of usage conditions, a decryption key registration unit 92 that receives registration of a decryption key necessary for decrypting content, and a registered usage condition and decryption key are recorded in the license server 90. A license recording unit 93, a license issuance management unit 94 that receives a license issuance request and issues a license, and a history recording unit 95 that records a history of issuance are provided. Further, the receiver 100 is provided with a license processing unit 101 that requests and acquires a license and a recording unit 102 that records the license.

  In this system, a series of operations from when the license server 90 issues a license to the receiver 100 until the receiver 100 views the content using the license will be described below.

  First, the use condition registration unit 91 and the decryption key registration unit 92 register the use condition and the decryption key in the license recording unit 93 in advance.

  When receiving a user license acquisition instruction, the receiver 100 transmits a license issuance request to the license server 90.

  The license server 90 receives a license issuance request from the license issuance management unit 94, extracts the usage conditions and decryption key of the requested license from the license recording unit 93, and generates a license.

  The license server 90 transmits the generated license to the receiver 100.

  The receiver 100 that has received the license stores it in the recording unit 102.

  Upon receiving the user's content viewing request, the receiver 100 retrieves the license of the content requested for viewing from the recording unit 102, decrypts the content with the license decryption key in accordance with the license usage conditions, and presents the content to the viewer. .

In this way, the license is generated by the license server 90, and the receiver 100 decrypts the content according to the usage conditions of the license received from the license server (see, for example, Non-Patent Document 1).
“NTT Technical Journal”, Telecommunications Association, published on November 1, 2002, p. 62-63

  In the conventional technology, when using content, the usage conditions described in the license are not changed by the receiver.

  For example, when it is intended to provide a new usage condition such as extending the viewing period as a privilege to a receiver that holds both licenses X and Y, the usage condition cannot be changed at the receiver. .

  Accordingly, it is necessary for the license provider to define the usage conditions for the license Z as a new package including the usage conditions for extending the viewing period of the license X and the license Y, and for the receiver to acquire the license Z. . If the user who operates the receiver intends to acquire the license X and the license Y and wants to obtain the benefit of extending the viewing period, the license Z must be acquired instead of the license X and the license Y.

  An object of the present invention is to give a new usage condition to a receiver without transmitting a license as a package.

  In order to solve the above problem, the invention described in claim 1 is a license providing method in a license server that provides a license for reproducing packaged content, in which the table creation unit includes a content ID and a content ID. A license information table creating step for creating a license information table from the use condition information and the decryption key input in association with the license name, and a license rule that is the use condition information when the table creation unit acquires a plurality of target licenses And a license rule table creation step for creating a license rule table by receiving the target license name, and the license issuance management unit receives the content license request from the receiver, searches the license information table, and corresponds to the license Interest A license creation step for obtaining condition information and a decryption key to create a license; and a license rule for the license issuance management unit to search the license rule table for a license rule that includes the created license in a target license. The license issuing management unit includes a search step and a license transmission step of transmitting the license rule to the receiver when the created license and the license rule exist.

  The invention according to claim 2 is a license providing method in a license server that provides a license for reproducing packaged content, and the table creation unit inputs the license ID in association with the content ID and the license name. A license information table creation step for creating a license information table from the used usage condition information and the decryption key, and the table creation unit receives license rules and target license names that are usage condition information when a plurality of target licenses are acquired. The license rule table creation step for creating the license rule table and the license issuance management unit receives the license request for the content from the receiver, and searches for the license transmitted to the receiver from the history recording unit that accumulates the license transmission record. History check A license rule search step in which the license issue management unit searches the license rule table for a license rule that includes the requested license and the searched license in a target license; and the license issue management unit includes the search Creating a license that satisfies the license rule usage condition information and includes information for deleting the license transmitted to the receiver, and the license issuance management unit transmits the created license to the receiver And a license transmission step.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a license providing method in a system having a license server for providing a license for reproducing packaged content and a receiver for receiving the license. The table creation unit creates a license information table from the use condition information and the decryption key input in association with the content ID and the license name, and the table creation unit has acquired a plurality of target licenses. A license rule table creating step for creating a license rule table by receiving a license rule and a target license name as usage condition information, and a license issuance management unit receiving a content license request from the receiver, A license creation step of searching a license information table to obtain usage condition information and a decryption key corresponding to the license and creating a license; and the license issuance management unit applies the created license from the license rule table to a target license A license rule search step for searching whether there is a license rule included in the license, and a license transmission in which the license issuance management unit transmits the created license and the license rule to the receiver when the license rule exists. In the receiver, the license processing unit receives the license and the license rule, and the combination of the license and the target license of the license rule among the combinations of the license and the already received license There it is determined whether there is, when the combination of the target license of the license rule exists, characterized by having a content control step of reproducing the content based on the utilization condition information of the license rules.

  According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a license providing method in a system having a license server for providing a license for reproducing packaged content and a receiver for receiving the license. The table creation unit creates a license information table from the use condition information and the decryption key input in association with the content ID and the license name, and the table creation unit has acquired a plurality of target licenses. The license rule table creation step for creating the license rule table by receiving the license rule and the target license name as the usage condition information, and the license issuance management unit receives the content license request from the receiver, and A history search step of searching for a license transmitted to the receiver from a history recording unit that accumulates transmission records, and the license issuance management unit includes a license rule that includes the requested license and the searched license as a target license. A license rule search step for searching from a license rule table, and a license for creating a license that includes information for deleting the license that the license issuance management unit satisfies the use condition information of the searched license rule and transmitted to the receiver And a license sending step in which the license issuance management unit transmits the created license to the receiver. In the receiver, the license processing unit receives the license and receives the license. Included in the la Remove the license already received corresponding to the sense deletion information, and having a content control step of reproducing the content and based on the utilization condition information of the license.

  The usage condition information can be selected from the content reproduction count, the content reproduction period, the content copy count, whether the content can be stored, and the content price. Features.

  In the first aspect of the present invention, if there is a license rule having the license requested from the receiver in the target license, the license rule is transmitted to the receiver together with the requested license.

  According to the second aspect of the present invention, a license is created based on the license rule having the license requested from the receiver and the already transmitted license as the target license, and information for deleting the already transmitted license is included in the license.

  In the third aspect of the invention, if there is a license rule having the license requested from the receiver in the target license, the license rule is transmitted to the receiver together with the requested license. When the combination of licenses subject to the license rule exists in the receiver, the receiver controls the content reproduction based on the use condition information of the license rule.

  According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, a license is created based on a license rule having the license requested from the receiver and the already transmitted license as the target license, and information for deleting the already transmitted license is included in the license. Then, the license corresponding to the license deletion information included in the license is deleted, and the content reproduction is controlled by the receiver based on the usage condition information of the newly received license.

  According to the first and third aspects of the invention, when the receiver has a plurality of licenses and sets new use condition information based on the combination among the combinations of the plurality of licenses, What is necessary is just to set the license rule which makes a combination the object license, and to provide this to a receiver, and it is not necessary to provide the license as a package.

  According to the second and fourth aspects of the invention, when a license already exists in the receiver and a new license is requested, new usage condition information is set based on the license and the requested license that the receiver has. Set a license rule for the license as a target license, create a new license based on the use condition information of the license rule, and provide this to the receiver, and provide a license as a package There is no need.

  FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a hardware configuration of a license server and a receiver used in the first embodiment and the second embodiment. In the present embodiment, the license server 10 registers a use condition registration unit 11 that receives registration of use condition information in association with a content ID and a license name, and registration of a decryption key that decrypts the content in association with the content ID and the license name. A decryption key registration unit 12 to accept, a license rule registration unit 13 to accept registration of a license rule in association with a target license name, a content ID, a license name, usage condition information, and a decryption key to receive a license information table; A table creation unit 17 that receives a target license name and a license rule and creates a license rule table; a license information table; an auxiliary storage device that records the license rule table; or a license recording unit 14 that is a database; a license issuance request of The license issuance management unit 15 performs the issue of with and license, as well as providing a history recording unit 16 to record the issue log of license and license rules. The receiver 20 that receives the distribution of the packaged content, acquires the license of the content, and reproduces the content, the license processing unit 21 that performs license acquisition and acquisition, and the recording unit that records the license 22 is provided.

(First embodiment)
FIG. 2 shows a license information table recorded in the license recording unit 14 in the first embodiment. For each license, information about a content ID, a decryption key, a viewing count, a viewing period, a copy count, whether or not to accumulate, and a price is recorded. The license information table is created by the table creation unit 17 by registering the usage conditions and the decryption key.

  FIG. 3 shows a license rule table recorded in the license recording unit 14 in the first embodiment. For each license rule, information on the target license name, the number of viewing times, the viewing period, the number of copying times, whether or not to accumulate, and the price is recorded. The license rule table is created by the table creation unit 17 by registering the license rule.

  FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the license issuing operation of the license server 10 in the first embodiment. The license issuing operation will be described with reference to FIG.

  The license issuance management unit 15 receives a license issuance request from the receiver 20 (S30).

  The license issuance management unit 15 takes out the license usage conditions and the decryption key requested from the license recording unit 14 (S31).

  The license issuance management unit 15 generates a license (S32).

  The license issuance management unit 15 searches the license rule table of the license recording unit 14 for a license rule including the requested license (S33).

  If the license rule exists in S33, the license issuance management unit 15 acquires the license rule (S34).

  The license issuance management unit 15 transmits the license rule together with the license to the receiver 20 (S35), and the issuance history is recorded in the history recording unit 16 (S36).

  If the license rule does not exist in S33, the license issuance management unit 15 transmits only the license to the receiver 20 (S37) and records the issuance history (S38).

  FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a license request operation of the receiver 20 in the first embodiment. The license request operation of the receiver 20 will be described with reference to FIG.

  The license processing unit 21 transmits a license issuance request to the license server 10 (S40).

  The license processing unit 21 receives the license and the license rule. If there is no license rule, the license processing unit 21 receives only the license (S41).

  The license processing unit 21 records the license and the license rule in the recording unit 22. If there is no license rule, the license processing unit 21 records only the license in the recording unit 22 (S42).

  FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing an operation when viewing content in the receiver 20 in the first embodiment. The operation at the time of content viewing by the receiver 20 will be described with reference to FIG.

  When the receiver 20 accepts the user's content viewing request, the license processing unit 21 inquires the license server 10 whether there is a new license rule for the corresponding license (S50). Inquiries are also made for licenses for which there were no license rules at the time of license acquisition.

  If there is a new license rule, the license processing unit 21 acquires the license rule (S51). Even if a license has no license rule at the time of license acquisition, if the license rule is newly registered, the license rule is acquired.

  The license processing unit 21 searches the recording unit 22 for a license rule for the license of the content requested to be viewed (S52).

  If there is a corresponding license rule, the recording unit 22 is searched for a target license that satisfies the license rule application condition (S53).

  When there is a target license that satisfies the provision condition of the license rule, content viewing control is performed according to a new use condition based on the logical sum of the use condition of the license rule and the use condition of the target license (S54). As a result, for example, when a certain receiver acquires license A and license B with a viewing period of 3 days for content a and content b and further holds license A and license B, a license with a viewing period of 1 week is obtained. When Rule 1 is acquired, the viewing period of the content a and the content b can be set to one week.

  When there is no S52 license rule, and when the application condition of the license rule is not satisfied in S53, content viewing control is performed in accordance with the license use condition (S55).

  The usage conditions to be changed may be the number of viewing times, the number of copying times, whether or not to accumulate, and the price.

  The price can be changed by knowing whether the license rule has been applied based on the issuance history and license rule table in the license server 10, and can be changed by performing billing processing using the issuance history and license rule table.

  As a new usage condition, only the usage rule of the license rule may be applied instead of the logical sum of the usage condition of the license rule and the usage condition of the target license.

(Second Embodiment)
FIG. 7 shows a license information table recorded in the license recording unit 14 in the second embodiment. For each license name, information on content ID, decryption key, number of viewing times, viewing period, number of copying, availability of accumulation, and price is recorded. The license information table is created by the table creation unit 17 by registering the usage conditions and the decryption key.

  FIG. 8 shows a license rule table recorded in the license recording unit 14 in the second embodiment. Information on the target license name, the number of viewing times, the viewing period, the number of times of copying, the possibility of accumulation, the price, and the changed license name is recorded for each license rule. The license rule table is created by the table creation unit 17 by registering the license rule.

  FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing a license issuing operation of the license server 10 in the second embodiment. The license issuing operation will be described with reference to FIG.

  The license issuance management unit 15 accepts a license issuance request from the receiver 20 (S60).

  The license issuance management unit 15 extracts the license issuance history for the receiver 20 from the history recording unit 16 (S61).

  The license issuance management unit 15 determines whether the license rule application condition is satisfied from the requested license and the issued license based on the license issuance history (S62). For example, the license rule is that the license D having the viewing period of the content d of 1 day and the license E having the viewing period of 2 days are held in the license F having the viewing period of the content d of 3 days. It is to replace. If the license D has already been issued and a new license E is requested, the condition for applying the license rule is satisfied.

  When the license rule application condition is satisfied in S62, the license issuance management unit 15 creates a license according to the license rule (S63). In the case of the previous example, a license F having a viewing period of 3 days is generated.

  If the license needs to be replaced, an issued license deletion header is added to the license to request the receiver 20 to delete the issued license (S64). In the case of the previous example, a header requesting to delete the already issued license D is given to the license F.

  Thereafter, the license issuance management unit 15 records the license rule application history in the history recording unit 16 (S65), and issues a license (S66).

  If the license rule application condition is not satisfied in S62, the license issuance management unit 15 generates the requested license and issues it to the receiver 20 (S67).

  The license issuance management unit 15 records the license issuance history in the history recording unit 16 (S68).

  The price can be changed by knowing whether the license rule has been applied from the issuance history in the license server 10, so that it is possible to perform a charging process using the issuance history. In the previous example, if the license D is 200 yen and the license E is 300 yen, the price of the license F applied to the license rule is 400 yen, the license issuance with the license rule is 400 yen in 3 days. The price is applied and license D and license E do not charge. Thereby, about 100 yen can be discounted from the combined price 500 yen of the license D and the license E.

  FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing a license request operation of the receiver 20 in the second embodiment. The license request operation will be described with reference to FIG.

  The license processing unit 21 transmits a license issuance request to the license server 10 (S70).

  The license processing unit 21 receives the license (S71).

  The license processing unit 21 searches the received license for an issued license deletion header (S72).

  If there is an issued license deletion header, the license processing unit 21 deletes the license requested to be deleted (S73), and records the received license in the recording unit 22 (S74).

  If there is no issued license deletion header, the license received by the license processing unit 21 is recorded in the recording unit 22 (S74).

  FIG. 11 is a flowchart showing an operation at the time of content viewing by the receiver 20 in the second embodiment. The operation at the time of content viewing using FIG. 11 will be described.

  When the receiver 20 receives the content viewing request from the user, the content viewing control is performed according to the license usage conditions (S80).

  As described in the above embodiment, in an environment in which the receiver 20 controls viewing of content using a license, the receiver 20 does not acquire a license as a package, and a plurality of license rules provided by a license provider provide a plurality of license rules. Usage conditions such as the number of viewing times, viewing period, number of copies, availability of accumulation, price, etc. can be changed by the receiver 20 holding the license.

  In the above-described embodiment, the license server is realized by, for example, a CPU included in a computer device that constitutes the license server, and a license issuance management process or the like can be installed as an application program.

  In addition, data such as processing results, calculation results, information necessary for the processing, etc. performed in the license issuance management processing may be written to and read from an internal memory or an external storage device.

  In addition, a recording medium in which a program code of software for realizing the function of the license server is recorded is supplied to the system or apparatus, and the CPU (MPU) of the system or apparatus reads and executes the program code stored in the storage medium It is also possible to do. In this case, the program code itself read from the storage medium realizes the functions of the above-described embodiment, and examples of the storage medium storing the program code include CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, and CD-R. , CD-RW, MO, and HDD.

The block diagram of a license server and a receiver. The license information table of 1st Embodiment. The license rule table of 1st Embodiment. The license issuance flowchart of the license server of the first embodiment. 6 is a license request flowchart of the receiver according to the first embodiment. The content viewing flowchart in the receiver of 1st Embodiment. The license information table of 2nd Embodiment. The license rule table of 2nd Embodiment. The license issuance flowchart of the license server of the second embodiment. The license request flowchart of the receiver of 2nd Embodiment. The content viewing flowchart in the receiver of 2nd Embodiment. The block diagram of the conventional license provision system.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 License server 11 Usage condition registration part 12 Decryption key registration part 13 License rule registration part 14 License recording part 15 License issue management part 16 History recording part 17 Table creation part 20 Receiver 21 License processing part 22 Recording part

Claims (5)

A license providing method in a license server for providing a license for playing packaged content,
A license information table creating step in which the table creating unit creates a license information table from the use condition information and the decryption key input in association with the content ID and the license name;
A license rule table creating step for creating a license rule table by receiving a license rule and a target license name that are usage condition information when the table creating unit acquires a plurality of target licenses;
A license creation step in which a license issuance management unit receives a license request for content from a receiver, searches the license information table, acquires usage condition information and a decryption key corresponding to the license, and creates a license;
A license rule search step in which the license issuance management unit searches for a license rule including the created license in a target license from the license rule table;
A license providing method, comprising: a license transmission step in which the license issuance management unit transmits the created license and the license rule to the receiver when the license rule exists. A license providing method in a license server for providing a license for playing packaged content,
A license information table creating step in which the table creating unit creates a license information table from the use condition information and the decryption key input in association with the content ID and the license name;
A license rule table creating step for creating a license rule table by receiving a license rule and a target license name that are usage condition information when the table creating unit acquires a plurality of target licenses;
A history retrieval step for retrieving a license transmitted to the receiver from a history recording unit that receives a license request for content from the receiver and stores a license transmission record;
A license rule search step in which the license issuance management unit searches the license rule table for a license rule that includes the requested license and the searched license in a target license;
A license creation step in which the license issuance management unit creates a license that includes information for deleting the license that satisfies the use condition information of the searched license rule and is transmitted to the receiver;
The license issuance management unit includes a license transmission step of transmitting the created license to the receiver. A license providing method in a system having a license server for providing a license for playing packaged content and a receiver for receiving the license,
In the license server,
A license information table creating step in which the table creating unit creates a license information table from the use condition information and the decryption key input in association with the content ID and the license name;
A license rule table creating step for creating a license rule table by receiving a license rule and a target license name that are usage condition information when the table creating unit acquires a plurality of target licenses;
A license creation step in which a license issuance management unit receives a license request for content from the receiver, searches the license information table, acquires usage condition information and a decryption key corresponding to the license, and creates a license;
A license rule search step in which the license issuance management unit searches for a license rule including the created license in a target license from the license rule table;
The license issuance management unit includes a license transmission step of transmitting the created license and the license rule to the receiver when the license rule exists;
In the receiver,
The license processing unit receives the license and the license rule, determines whether the combination of the license and the license that has already been received includes a target license combination, and determines whether the target license of the license rule And a content control step of reproducing the content based on the usage rule information of the license rule when there is a combination. A license providing method in a system having a license server for providing a license for playing packaged content and a receiver for receiving the license,
In the license server,
A license information table creating step in which the table creating unit creates a license information table from the use condition information and the decryption key input in association with the content ID and the license name;
A license rule table creating step for creating a license rule table by receiving a license rule and a target license name that are usage condition information when the table creating unit acquires a plurality of target licenses;
A history retrieval step for retrieving a license transmitted to the receiver from a history recording unit that receives a license request for content from the receiver and stores a license transmission record;
A license rule search step in which the license issuance management unit searches the license rule table for a license rule that includes the requested license and the searched license in a target license;
A license creation step in which the license issuance management unit creates a license that includes information for deleting the license that satisfies the use condition information of the searched license rule and is transmitted to the receiver;
The license issuance management unit includes a license transmission step of transmitting the created license to the receiver;
In the receiver,
A content control step in which a license processing unit receives the license, deletes the already received license corresponding to the license deletion information included in the license, and reproduces the content based on the use condition information of the license; A method for providing a license, comprising: The use condition information is
5. The license according to claim 1 , wherein the license can be selected from among the number of times of content reproduction, the content reproduction period, the number of times of content copying, whether content can be stored, and the price of content. How to provide.

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