KR20080023959A - Digital contents distribution system and operation methods thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

A system for distributing digital contents and an operation method thereof are provided to realize fast and wide second distribution of streaming contents by decreasing data transfer load with using a small size relay file, and maximize a use range of the digital contents by largely smoothening restriction of digital contents size, communication function, and system performance. A license server(300) issues a license to a user terminal(400) according to stored distribution information if a license request is received from the user terminal. A streaming server(100) streams digital contents corresponding to a relay file, which includes address information of the contents, to the user terminal when a streaming request using the relay file is received from the user terminal. A contents server(200) distributes the relay file matched with the requested contents to the user terminal at first by responding to a contents request of the user terminal and transmits the distribution information received from the user terminal to the license server according to second distribution of the relay file.

Description

Digital Contents Distribution System and Operation Methods Thereof

1 is a block diagram of a digital content distribution system according to the present invention;

2 is a flow chart illustrating a primary content distribution process for digital content according to the present invention;

3 is a flowchart illustrating a first embodiment of a license issuing process during a digital content secondary distribution process according to the present invention;

4 is a flowchart illustrating a second embodiment of a license issuing process during a digital content secondary distribution process according to the present invention;

5 is a flowchart illustrating a streaming service process using a relay file during the secondary distribution process of digital content according to the present invention.

<Description of Symbols for Main Parts of Drawings>

100: streaming server 200: content server

300: license server 400: first user terminal

500: second user terminal

The present invention relates to digital content distribution, and more particularly, to a digital content distribution system and a method of operating the same, which enables secondary distribution of streaming content.

Digital content distribution can be divided into primary distribution and secondary distribution.

First, primary distribution means that a server of a digital content producer provides digital content corresponding to a user's request to the user. In this case, the digital content may be classified into download content and streaming content according to a transmission method.

Downloaded content refers to digital content that can be executed after the entire content has been downloaded. Meanwhile, the streaming content refers to digital content that is executed by receiving a part of the entire content in real time.

Next, secondary distribution means that a user provides digital content stored in his terminal to another user.

Until now, secondary distribution has been achieved by downloading encrypted digital contents to a user's terminal.

However, the streaming content can only be distributed first to the user in the streaming server, and the second distribution to other users is impossible.

This is because a user who is provided with an initial service cannot distribute to another user because only a part of the entire content is transmitted from the streaming server to the user's terminal.

In other words, the streaming content has a structure in which the encrypted digital content is continuously executed in the user's terminal. Therefore, with the concept of Digital Rights Management (DRM) introduced, digital content that can be secondaryly distributed is limited to download content, and in the case of streaming content, secondary distribution is not possible.

In this case, DRM refers to digital rights management, which protects the rights and interests of content providers, prevents illegal copying, and supports batch creation and distribution management of contents, such as charging royalties and settlement services. This includes digital rights management technology that ensures that only legitimate users use content and pay the appropriate fees, software and security technologies for copyright approval and enforcement, and payment technology.

For digital content producers, it is efficient to distribute encrypted digital content smoothly by performing various types of secondary distribution while satisfying DRM. As a result, almost all digital content is in the form of downloadable content that can be secondly distributed.

However, in the mobile environment, it is very difficult to service a large amount of download content due to limitations in capacity, processing power, and communication bandwidth.

As described above, the conventional digital content service has a problem that its capacity is extremely limited in the case of downloadable content for mobile that can be secondarily distributed. In addition, in the case of streaming content that can solve the capacity problem compared to the download content, there is a problem that secondary distribution is impossible. As a result, capacity limitation or secondary distribution is not possible, which causes problems of inconvenience of utilizing digital contents by both producers and users.

The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems of the prior art, and provides a digital content distribution system and a method of operating the same, which enables secondary distribution of streaming content that can minimize the capacity and system limitation requirements. There is a purpose.

When the digital content distribution system according to the present invention receives a license request from a user terminal, if there is a streaming request using a relay file from a license server user terminal which issues a license to the user terminal according to pre-stored distribution information, the digital content distribution system corresponds to the relay file. A streaming server that streams digital content to the user terminal and a relay file matching the requested content are first distributed to the user terminal in response to a content request from the user terminal, and transmitted from the user terminal according to the relay file secondary distribution. It characterized in that it comprises a content server for transmitting the distribution information to the license server.

A method of operating a digital content distribution system according to the present invention is a method of operating a digital content distribution system including a license server, a streaming server, and a content server, wherein the content server requests the content server in response to a content request of a first user terminal. Firstly distributing the relay file matching the content to the first user terminal; and among the relay file distributed by the streaming server first or the relay file secondly distributed to the second user terminal. And streaming the corresponding digital content to the corresponding user terminal in response to the streaming request using the at least one.

Here, the relay file includes address information of the corresponding content.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of a digital content distribution system and a method of operating the same according to the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a block diagram of a digital content distribution system according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a flow chart showing a primary process of digital content distribution according to the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a process for issuing a license during a secondary process of digital content distribution according to the present invention. 4 is a flowchart showing a second embodiment of a license issuing process during the digital content secondary distribution process according to the present invention, and FIG. 5 is a relay file during the digital content secondary distribution process according to the present invention. Is a flow chart illustrating a streaming service process using the above.

As shown in FIG. 1, the digital content distribution system according to the present invention issues a license to a corresponding user terminal according to pre-stored distribution information when a license request is received from the first user terminal 400 or the second user terminal 500. If there is a streaming request using a relay file from the license server 300, the first user terminal 400, or the second user terminal 500, the digital content corresponding to the relay file is stored in the first user terminal 400 or The streaming server 100 streaming to the second user terminal 500 and the relay file matched to the requested content in response to the content request of the first user terminal 400 to the first user terminal 400. And distribute the distribution information transmitted from the first user terminal 400 according to the relay file secondary distribution from the first user terminal 400 to the second user terminal 500. And a content server 200 for transmitting to the sense server 300.

Various streaming contents stored in the streaming server 100 have a relay file matched with each other, and the relay files are stored in the content server 200.

The first user terminal 400 and the second user terminal 500 may be mobile devices such as mobile phones. However, a user terminal receiving the relay file firstly is defined as a first user terminal 400, and a terminal receiving second relay file through the first user terminal 400 is defined as a second user terminal 500. do. Of course, when the first user terminal 400 receives the second relay file from the second user terminal 500, the first user terminal 400 is defined as the second user terminal 500.

At this time, the first user terminal 400 is configured to transmit the distribution information to the content server 200 when the relay file is secondly distributed to the second user terminal 500.

The relay file does not include actual content, but a file including address information of the content, and it is preferable to use a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) as the address information. Therefore, in the prior art, it was not possible to distribute the streaming content secondly, but in the present invention, the second distribution is possible because only a very small file size is transmitted compared to the actual content.

Hereinafter, the operation method of the digital content distribution system according to the present invention will be described.

First, a first distribution process of streaming content will be described with reference to FIG. 2.

The first user terminal 400 requests the predetermined content to the content server 200 according to the user's request (S21).

Subsequently, the content server 200 transmits the relay file matching the requested content to the first user terminal 400 (S22). In this case, the relay file may be a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) which is an address of a server having content as address information where content is located, not actual content. In addition, since the relay file has a very small capacity, the relay file does not occupy much memory of the terminal and thus can be stored for a long time and can be deleted if necessary.

The first user terminal 400 requests a license issuance to the license server 300 using the relay file (S23).

At this time, in order to obtain a license, a user must pay a predetermined fee. The exception is of course free content that the user does not have to pay for.

Subsequently, when the payment of the user's payment is confirmed, the license server 300 issues a license for streaming content using the relay file (S24).

The first user terminal 400 requests the streaming server 100 to stream the corresponding content using the relay file (S25). Subsequently, the streaming server 100 requests authentication to the content server 200 or the license server 300 using the license, and when the authentication is completed, streams the corresponding content to the first user terminal 400 (S26).

Therefore, the user can use streaming content through the first user terminal 400.

Next, a second distribution process of streaming content will be described with reference to FIGS. 3 to 5.

The user of the first user terminal 400 may secondaryly distribute the content to the desired second user terminal 500 regardless of time and place. In this case, the secondary distribution of the content may be performed only by transmitting the relay file stored in the first user terminal 400 to the second user terminal 500. Since streaming content itself does not store the entire contents on the terminal, but uses only temporary storage, secondary distribution was not possible in the past, but infinite secondary distribution is possible because it transmits a small amount of relay files that can access the contents. It is possible.

Here, the license issuance according to the secondary distribution process can be made in two ways, the first method will be described with reference to FIG.

The first user terminal 400 transmits the relay file to the second user terminal 500 at the user's request (S31).

At the same time, the first user terminal 400 transmits the corresponding distribution information to the content server 200 when the relay file is transmitted to the second user terminal 500 (S32). In this case, the distribution information may include information for identifying the second user terminal 500 that secondly distributed the relay file.

Subsequently, the content server 200 transmits the distribution information to the license server 300 (S33).

On the other hand, the second user terminal 500 requests the issuance of its license to the first user terminal 400 (S34).

Subsequently, the first user terminal 400 requests the content server 200 to issue a license of the second user terminal 500 (S35).

The content server 200 requests the license server 300 to issue a license of the second user terminal 500 (S36).

Accordingly, the license server 300 issues a license to the second user terminal 500 with reference to the distribution information (S37).

Next, a second method of issuing a license according to the second distribution process will be described with reference to FIG. 4.

The first user terminal 400 transmits the relay file to the second user terminal 500 at the user's request (S41).

At the same time, the first user terminal 400 transmits the corresponding distribution information to the content server 200 when the relay file is transmitted to the second user terminal 500 (S42). In this case, the distribution information may include information for identifying the second user terminal 500 that secondly distributed the relay file.

Subsequently, the content server 200 transmits the distribution information to the license server 300 (S43).

On the other hand, the second user terminal 500 directly requests its license issuance to the license server 300 (S44).

Accordingly, the license server 300 issues a license to the second user terminal 500 with reference to the distribution information (S45).

Lastly, the streaming service process using the relay file in the secondary distribution process of digital content will be described with reference to FIG. 5.

In response to the user request, the second user terminal 500 requests streaming by using the relay file second distributed to the streaming server 100 (S51).

Subsequently, the streaming server 100 requests authentication of the relay file to the license server 300 (S52).

In addition, the license server 300 authenticates the right relay file with the streaming server 100 by referring to the relay file and the distribution information (S53).

Accordingly, the streaming server 100 streams digital content corresponding to the relay file (S54).

As those skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains may implement the present invention in other specific forms without changing the technical spirit or essential features, the embodiments described above should be understood as illustrative and not restrictive in all aspects. Should be. The scope of the present invention is shown by the following claims rather than the detailed description, and all changes or modifications derived from the meaning and scope of the claims and their equivalents should be construed as being included in the scope of the present invention. do.

Digital content distribution system and its operation method according to the present invention has the following effects.

First, the use of low-capacity relay files reduces the data transfer load, enabling secondary distribution of fast and extensive streaming content.

Second, since the second distribution of streaming content is possible, digital content capacity limit, communication performance limitation, and performance system performance limitation are greatly alleviated, thereby maximizing the scope of digital content utilization.

Third, the streaming content can be secondarily distributed using only low-capacity files, not actual content, thereby providing a ubiquitous environment for digital content users.

Claims (12)

If there is a license request from a user terminal, the license server issues a license to the corresponding user terminal according to previously stored distribution information If the streaming request from the user terminal using the relay file, the streaming server for streaming the digital content corresponding to the relay file to the user terminal and In response to a content request from the user terminal, the relay server matching the requested content is first distributed to the user terminal, and the content server transmits distribution information transmitted from the user terminal to the license server according to the relay file secondary distribution. Digital content distribution system comprising a. The method of claim 1, The relay file is a digital content distribution system comprising the address information of the content. The method of claim 1, And a first user terminal receiving a relay file primarily from the content server in response to a content request, and a second user terminal receiving a second relay file from the first user terminal. And digitally distributing the relay file to the second user terminal to transmit corresponding distribution information to the content server. The method of claim 3, wherein The user terminal receiving the relay file secondary distribution of the user terminal is a digital content distribution system, characterized in that configured to request issuance of a license to the user terminal to which the relay file secondary distribution. The method of claim 3, wherein And a user terminal which is requested to issue a license from another user terminal is configured to request a license issuance to the content server. As a method of operating a digital content distribution system including a license server, a streaming server, and a content server, Firstly distributing, by the content server, a relay file matching the requested content to the first user terminal in response to a content request of the first user terminal; The streaming server streams the corresponding digital content to the corresponding user terminal in response to a streaming request using at least one of the relay file distributed first to the relay file distributed to the second user terminal. Operational method of digital content distribution system including steps. The method of claim 6, The relay file operating method of the digital content distribution system, characterized in that it includes address information of the content. The method of claim 6, Requesting a license from at least one of the first user terminal or the second user terminal in response to a user request, and The license server further comprises the step of issuing a license in response to the license request. The method of claim 8, Requesting the license Requesting a license from the second user terminal to the first user terminal, Requesting a license of the second user terminal from the first user terminal to the content server; Requesting a license of the second user terminal from the content server to the license server. The method of claim 8, Requesting the license And requesting a license from the second user terminal to the license server. The method of claim 8, Issuing the license And issuing a license to the corresponding user terminal in response to the license request according to the distribution information transmitted from the first user terminal as the license server is secondly distributed to the second user terminal. How to operate a content distribution system. The method of claim 6, In response to a streaming request using at least one of the relay files, streaming the corresponding digital content to the corresponding user terminal may include: The streaming server requesting authentication of the relay file to the license server, and And if the license server authenticates the relay file, the streaming server streaming the digital content corresponding to the relay file to the corresponding user terminal.

Images