NO314375B1 - Arrangement and procedure for content control of data objects, special data objects in MMS messages - Google Patents

Description

Field of the invention

The present invention relates to a system for the enforcement and control of copyright and/or the policy of MMS messages or elements in MMS messages (hereinafter only referred to as MMS messages) which are transmitted in MMS environments.

The background of the invention

Messaging services such as SMS, in GSM experienced rapid growth just a few years ago following a worldwide roll-out of digital mobile communication networks, and they are still increasing in popularity. The recent exponential growth of, for example, value-added SMS services was triggered by the introduction of the distribution and billing capabilities made possible by the mobile operators, to third-party value-added service and content providers. Some examples of value-added service SMS are jokes (text format), stock quotes (text format), simple ringtones (binary format) and black and white logos (binary format).

However, the fact that first-generation messaging services are text-based is likely to threaten their existence in the near future, given that multimedia services now seem to be becoming commonplace.

Because of this, the WAP forum and 3GPP have standardized a new messaging service for mobile environments called Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) [1]. For the end user, MMS is very similar to SMS - it provides automatic and immediate delivery of user-generated content from phone to phone.

The value-added MMS services of the future, however, have an even greater growth potential due to the advanced content capabilities of the MMS technology. Sophisticated multimedia content can be provided with the help of value-adding MMS services - Some examples of imaginable value-adding MMS services and content are "mobile gratialation card portal" (such as sending images/animations with or without sound from a portal to a mobile terminal), "messages with famous cartoon characters" (such as animations, with or without color/sound), "quiz messages with picture and/or sound" (such as picture/sound games), "messages with talking characters" ( such as the presentation of a personalized text together with a predefined animation). Value-added MMS will be offered to end users by the operators and by independent third-party service content providers (eg media houses, portals, radio and television companies) that use the wireless MMS infrastructure of the operators.

Multimedia content in itself has a greater value for content owners than pure text content (such as SMS). When such content is published, it is important for the content providers or content owners that the content rights (copyright and policies) are enforced and that their input streams are secured. If not, the content providers will naturally not be interested in producing content for use in MMS. It is therefore necessary that the publishing process supports copyright control and ensures that defined content policies are followed.

To increase MMS traffic, the mobile operator must provide a solution to support these requirements and enable content owners to publish their content for added value

MMS.

Current attempts at content control are oriented towards the internet model. The models normally require updates both to the content production process and to the client software that presents the resulting content.

Two strategies have been established for copyright control of internet content. These are: Digital watermark [2] which is a process where a pattern is added to the content. This pattern should ideally be invisible to the end user, while copyright control can filter and recognize this pattern.

Clearincrhouse - model 1 en [3] is a model where the contents are packed into a "container". When the content is read by a client that can interpret the container packaged in a particular way, the container will authorize access to the content with a remote clearinghouse.

A strategy has been established for policy control of internet content. These are: Platform for Internet Content Selection (PICS) [4] and Digital Signature (SDiG) [5] is a standard solution for defining and controlling metadata in web content. This solution defines a language and a set of processes to control access to the content. This makes it possible for parents to control what kind of content their children can access.

The problems with the state of the art are specified below for each of the alternatives described above.

For the Digital Watermarking model, the following problems exist: 1. The solution cannot be used for all content types, 2. The solution requires updates to the content production process, and 3. Copyright control could be broken if the watermark is removed.

In the Clearingouse model, the following problems exist:

1. The solution requires updates to the content production process,

2. The solution requires a special client software,

3. The control process is linked to the access of content rather than its delivery,

a. This provides reduced security,

b. Control and payment are always linked to the recipient, which limits the business model.

4. Establishing new business roles (clearinghouse) is normally necessary, 5. Integration with existing systems in the mobile operator domain is difficult, and 6. The solution is normally based on digital certificates and PKI. This can help to delay/complicate the rollout of the system (requires established policies).

For the PICS/DSiG solution, the following problems exist: 1. Requirement for special client software (PICSS-adapted browsers), 2. It is necessary to carry out content rating (long process), 3. The solution can be bypassed/turned off as it is controlled by the end user , and 4. No complete solution for rights control of value-added content (in a mobile environment) is offered.

Summary of the o<pp>nding

It is an object of the present invention to provide a system and a method which eliminates the disadvantages described above. The features defined in the attached requirements characterize this system and this method.

More specifically, the present invention provides a method and a system for enforcing and controlling copyrights and/or policies for an MMS message or an element of an MMS message (hereafter referred to only as an MMS message) that is transmitted in a communication network by to generate an electronic fingerprint that is unique to the electronic item. The fingerprint is compared with pre-generated electronic fingerprints stored in a database in which each of said pre-generated fingerprints is linked to a specific policy and/or copyright which relates to the MMS message associated with the fingerprint. If the electronic fingerprint matches one of the pre-generated electronic fingerprints, the policy and/or copyright restrictions associated with it are enforced.

The present invention meets the requirements for content rights control in MMS networks. A preferred implementation is a network-centric model which is based on a firewall/gatekeeper model, where all messages are sent through a control node where a filtering process is carried out. This filtering process fingerprints all content and performs content policy checking on the content of these messages. The solution works with all existing content and does not require updates to client software (the terminals).

The content policy control process consists of two phases. When the content is published, a fingerprint is generated and stored in a lookup table with a reference to the policy metadata for that content. When the content is later transferred between clients, the same fingerprint is generated and used to look up the policy reference, making it possible to enforce the policy.

The preferred embodiment proposes a digital rights unit (DRU) consisting of three main components: - A policy management client (PMC - policy management client), which is used to define content policies, - A content control engine (CCE - content control engine), which maps the policies to transmitted content, and - A policy enforcement engine {PEE - policy enforcement engine), which enforces the content policies.

Brief description of the drawings

To make the invention easier to understand, the discussion that follows will refer to the attached drawings. Figure 1 illustrates the MMS architecture and the components involved in message transfer between mobile handsets (peer-peer) and from a web server to a mobile handset (publishing). Figure 2 illustrates the components involved in the MMS publishing process and how these components interact according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. Figure 3 illustrates the components involved in the MMS message transfer process for peer-peer communication between two mobile handsets according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed description of preferred designs

In the following, the present invention will be described in an MMS environment with reference to the figures mentioned above. However, this will not represent any limitations of the invention. The present invention can be used in other similar applications, environments and contexts with other variations and substitutions without moving from the scope of the invention as defined by the attached independent claims.

The MMS message delivery process for value-added content is shown in Figure 1. As illustrated, the message transfer can either be initiated from the web (ie published) or it can be initiated from a terminal (user agent). For value-added content that is subject to policy control, the first delivery will always be web-initiated (ie published). The published content can then be distributed (forwarded) in a peer-to-peer manner. The invention is based on this method of distributing value-added content.

The present invention satisfies the requirements for content rights control in the MMS network. A preferred embodiment of the present invention is a network-centric model which is based on a firewall/gatekeeper model, where all messages are sent through a control node where a filtering process is carried out. This filtering process creates a fingerprint of all content transmitted and performs policy control of the content of these messages. The solution works for all existing content and does not require updates in the client software (in the terminals).

Examples of content and content elements that may contain value-added content/service data are sound files, images, animations, video and text, and any combination of these.

The content policy control process consists of two phases. When the content is published, a fingerprint is generated and stored in a termination table with a reference to the policy metadata for that content. When the content is later transferred between clients, the same fingerprint is generated that is used to look up the policy reference, thereby enabling enforcement of the policy.

The preferred embodiment proposes a digital rights unit (DRU) consisting of 3 main components: a policy management client (PMC - policy management client), a content control engine (CCE - content control engine) and a policy enforcement engine (PEE - policy enforcement engine).

The policy management client

The PMC defines and enables the content policies of the controlled content. It consists of a client interface where policies can be created, updated and deleted, and a control function that initiates content control when content is published.

The content control machine

The CCE filters the messages that are transmitted. It can be implemented as a standalone relay or can be integrated with other message relay functions. When a message is received, the CCE will analyze the components of the message and perform policy checks on respective message components.

The MMS messages are so-called multipart MIME [6] coded with message blocks for each message element. The message elements are separated by MIME headers that define their content (such as type and size). The CCE will typically parse these header fields and use them to call content-specific control functions.

For each message component, the CCE will analyze the content type and use a content-specific control function (ie the switch control function based on content type), the called control function will then generate a fingerprint for the given content and check it against a local fingerprint database. If a match is found, the CCE will return a URL [7] identifying the policy that will be enforced for this content.

For a message consisting of several content elements, several control functions will be called, which may result in several policies being identified and enforced.

The policy enforcement machine

The PEE enforces the policies identified by the CCE. When requested for a policy, it will effectuate the policy and tell the client (the CCE or the PMC) whether the content is legal. When implementing the policy, the PPE checks access rights to the content and generates content billing information.

To describe the process of content distribution and rights control, a typical user scenario will now be described. The typical scenario consists of three steps: namely the policy definition process, the publication process and the transfer control process.

The policy definition process

In the policy definition process, the content owner makes value-added content available, that is, it is stored in a server/database connected to the communication network. At the same time, the content policy (for example metadata) is stored in the same or in another server/database.

The publishing process

The publishing process is used on content delivered by a web server to a client terminal and its user agent. The traffic flow is depicted in figure 1 and marked with (A) publication.

The Policy Management Client (PMC) performs the control of the content that is published (that is, content that is sent from a web server to an end user). The PMC will check whether the published content has a defined policy and ensure that the policy is enforced and activated.

The PMC can use different techniques to identify the policy of a content element. The content elements and policies are all identified by URLs (uniform resource locator) [7].

a. A separate database may be used to map content URLs to policy URLs. Such a database will be updated when new content or new policies are published.

b. Wrapper files containing both the reference to the content and the policy can be used. The PMC will separate the content and policy from the wrapper file. c. A shadow policy directory (URL) can be used to map the policy to the content. In this case, all content URLs have a shadow policy URL where there is a fixed relationship between two URLs (eg /image/cool.gif -> /image/cool_gif.policy). When the PMC identifies a content element with policy, it will request the policy enforcement engine (PEE) to process the policy. By doing this, the PMC provides a reference to the policy and the identity of the message recipient. The PEE will then process this policy and return an OK status code if the content is legal in this context. Content that is not legal in the given context will be removed or replaced with a displayable message (eg "requested content illegal") by the PMC before the message is delivered.

When the policy enforcement engine (PEE) is called to enforce a policy, it will perform the following steps {or any combination thereof) to enforce the policy: a. Check whether the receiver is allowed to receive the content element from the sender. The check is performed by obtaining user information (for example, address, age, prepaid account) either from an independent database containing such information or from the mobile operator's database, and checking the user information against the content policy (for example, legal age group, price policy, legal number ranges).

b. Generate billing information to bill the sender for the use of the content item.

Once access to the content is approved, the PMC enables policy control by generating a fingerprint for that content and adding that fingerprint and its associated policy ID to the fingerprint database.

The transfer control process

The content transfer control process is used on content that is transferred between two terminals and their user agents. The traffic flow is depicted in Figure 1 and labeled (B) peer-peer.

The content control machine (CCE) carries out the control of the transferred content. It can either be implemented as a stand-alone relay or integrated into the MMS-C relay functions [1]. The task of the CCE is to filter transmitted messages, identify the message elements and for each message element generate a fingerprint and check whether this fingerprint has a defined policy.

Examples of content and content elements that may contain value-added content/service data in a message and which should be filtered are audio files, images, animations, video and text and any combination of these.

When the CCE identifies a content element with a policy, it will request the Policy Enforcement Engine (PEE) to process the policy. By doing this, the CCE provides a reference to the policy and the identity of the message sender and receiver respectively. The identities of the message sender and receiver are obtained by the CCE from the message elements. The PEE will then process this policy and return an OK status code if the content is legal in this context. Content that is not legal in the given context will be removed or replaced with a visible message by the CCE before the message is delivered.

When the policy enforcement engine (PEE) is called to enforce a policy, it will perform the following steps (or any combination thereof) to enforce the policy: a. Check whether the sender is allowed to send the content element to the receiver, b. Check whether the recipient is allowed to receive the content item from the sender, and c. Generate billing information to bill the sender for the use of the content item.

The check (a, b) is carried out by obtaining user information (address, age, prepaid account) either from an independent database containing such information or from the database of the mobile operator and by checking the user information with the content policy (with, for example, legal age group, price policy, forwarding legal/not legal, legal number series).

The following provides supplementary information on parts of the process and architecture discussed above.

Identification of message elements

During the process of analyzing message content, the PMC and CCE must identify the message elements. This is done based on MIME message encoding used for MMS messages. This message encoding separates each message element from each other as separate blocks in the message with separate message headers, such as content type.

Some examples of content types (with associated formats) are GIF [8], JPEG [9] MP3[10], MPEG4 [11], AMR [12].

The PMC and CCE rely on the MIME message encoding and will switch check routines based on the type of content being presented. This enables content-specific specialization of routines used for generating fingerprints and database lookups. This also makes it possible for the control routines to be distributed, for example by using one server to handle picture policies and another server for sound policies.

Generation of fingerprints

Routines for generating fingerprints can be specialized per content type. This makes it possible for new advanced fingerprinting routines to be added "on the fly" as soon as new algorithms become available. Adding a new fingerprint routine consists of adding a new code entity (for example java class) and configuring the binding between content type and class name.

Examples of algorithms are: MD4[13] and MD5[14].

F inge ravt rykdat abas e

The fingerprint database is a table that associates fingerprints with policy IDs. The table is closely related to the routing/forwarding of messages and it is necessary that it provides quick lookups.

The fingerprint database needs to have a limited size and a defined policy for how to handle table overflow ("cache aging policies") and leakage ("cache" leakage causing loss of records). A policy that accepts some overflow and leakage and builds this into the publishing model (all commercial solutions have some failed transactions, i.e. leakage, and this invention uses this fact to achieve a more effective solution) is used.

To reduce the amount of overflow and leakage, several solutions can be used. The easiest option is to increase the table size. Other options are to use content-specific tables or have separate table areas per user. A preferred embodiment of the invention enables security to be balanced in relation to the execution and cost at the time of setup and configuration.

Policy database

The fingerprint database is an XML-formatted database

[15] metadata elements. Each metadata element defines the policy for a given content element. The policy defines rules for accessing the content and content billing. The policy database can easily be integrated with existing content databases and expand their functionality. This also supports integration with support systems at operators and in portals.

An advantage of the present invention is that it provides a secure solution for the mobile operator to handle the enforcement and control of copyrights and policies for published content.

In addition, the invention provides a solution that expands the mobile operator's business model, and Btøtter not only invoicing value-added content for content owners, but also enforcement and control of the content owners' copyrights and content policies with flexible business models (for example, sender and receiver can be invoiced) .

The present invention can also be integrated with the mobile operators' domain and infrastructure and cannot be bypassed in the message transmission process (that is, good security and the forwarding of messages can be handled correctly with the help of enforcement and control and with the desired business models).

The invention can be used by the mobile operator as a stand-alone component in the mobile infrastructure or it can be implemented as an integrated component with other components (for example MMS-C) for optimization reasons. It does not depend on software updates on the mobile terminals and their user agents, i.e. it is terminal manufacturer independent, which is a prerequisite for

commercial application.

A further advantage of the present invention is that it can be used in connection with all types of content. It does not require updates to the content production process.

Furthermore, the invention does not lead to additional data in the content (such as metadata, watermark data) in the messages that are transmitted in the network, and therefore does not require additional message transmission capacity.

The invention provides a fingerprinting solution that is inherently very fast/efficient (small-scale fingerprinting solutions with fast algorithms are available, e.g. MD4), computationally unique to the content, can be optimized with different algorithms for different content types, and can be easily upgraded ( simple plugin procedures) with new algorithms for specific content types and new and better/faster algorithms becoming available.

References

[1] MMS 3GPP TS 23.140 V4.2.0 (2001-03), 3rd Generation Partnership Project; Technical Specification Group Terminals; Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS); Functional description; Stage 2 (Release 4)

[2] Digital Watermark "Digital Watermark's Copyright Protection for Online Artists", PC Magazine, February 18. 1997

[3] ClearinghouseB "Digital Rights for all media types", Internetcontent.net, 2/20/2001

[4] PICS Rating Services and Rating Systems (and Their Machine Readable Descriptions), REC-PICS-services-961031, version 1.1, World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), Recommendation 31-October-1996

[5] D8±g PICS Signed Labels (DSig) 1.0 Specification, REC-DSig-label-19980527, World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), Recommendation 27-May-1998

[6] MIME Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) Part One: Format of Internet Message Bodies, Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), Request For Comment (RFC) 2045, November 1996

[7] URL/ URI, Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI): Generic Syntax, Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), Request For Comment (RFC) 2396, August 1998

[8] GIF, Graphics Interchange Format (Version 89a), Compuserve Inc., Columbus, Ohio, 1990

[9] JPEG, ITU-T Ree. T.8l/lS0/lEC 10918-1: 1992, "Information Technology - Digital Compression and Coding of Continuous-Tone Still Images - Requirements and Guidelines".

[10] MP3 MPEG1-Audio ISO/IEC 11172-3, MPEG2-Audio ISO/IEC 11172-3

[11] MPEG4, ISO/IEC 14496-1(1999): Information Technology

- GenericCoding of Audio-Visual Objects AND 3GPP TR 26.911: "Codec(s) for Circuit Switched Multimedia Telephony Service; Terminal Implementor's Guide"

[12] AMS 3GPP TS 26.090: <*>AMR Speech Codec Speech Transcoding Functions"

[13] MD4 The MD4 Message-Digest Algorithm, Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), Request For Comment (RFC) 1320, April 1992

[14] MD5 The MD5 Message-Digest Algorithm, Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), Request For Comment (RFC) 1321, April 1992

[15] ZML Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0 (Second Edition), World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), Recommendation 6 October 2000

Claims (16)

1. System for enforcement and control of copyright and policy of an MMS message or an element of an MMS message transmitted in an MMS architecture, characterized by) a first means, integrated in or connected to said MMS architecture, adapted to generate an electronic fingerprint that uniquely identifies said MMS message or said element of an MMS message, b) a fingerprint database, integrated in or connected to said MMS architecture, consisting of pre-generated electronic fingerprints of MMS messages and/or elements in MMS messages, each of which is linked to a specific policy and/or copyright related to the relevant fingerprint associated MMS messages or element of an MMS message, c) another means, integrated in or connected to said MMS architecture, adapted to compare said fingerprint with said pre-generated fingerprint, d) a third means, integrated in or connected to said MMS architecture, adapted to enforce po license and/or copyright restrictions associated with one of said pre-defined electronic fingerprints on said MMS message or said element of an MMS message if said electronic fingerprint matches said one of the pre-generated electronic fingerprints. 2. System according to claim 1, characterized by a fourth means, integrated in or connected to said MMS architecture, adapted to define, activate, create, and update and/or delete said policy and/or copyright through an interface. 3. System according to one of the preceding claims, characterized by a fifth means, integrated in or connected to said MMS architecture, adapted to identify and separate said element into an MMS message. 4. System according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that each of the pre-defined electronic fingerprints is generated by said first means and stored in said database as its associated MMS message or element of an MMS message is sent to a user that requests that MMS message or that element of an MMS message. 5. System according to one of the preceding requirements, characterized in that said policy consists of rules for processing said MMS message or said element in an MMS message and/or billing a user who sends, receives or requests said MMS message or said element in an MMS message. 6. System according to claim 5, characterized in that said rules include filtering away, replacing and/or changing said MMS message or said element of an MMS message when a specific recipient or sender of said MMS message or said element of an MMS message is identified. 7. System according to claim 5 or 6, characterized in that said policy is stored in a separate policy database, and that information regarding said invoicing is entered into a separate invoicing database. 8. System according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the pre-generated electronic fingerprints are stored in a "look up" table and that each individual is linked to a specific policy and/or copyright regarding relevant fingerprint-linked MMS messages or element of an MMS message using a URL. 9. System according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that said database is a database of XML-formatted metadata elements. 10. System according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that said MMS architecture is integrated into or connected to a GSM, GPRS or UMTS network. 11. System according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that said MMS message or said element of an MMS message consists of added-value content issued by a content provider. 12. System according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that said MMS message or said element of an MMS message is transmitted through said MMS architecture from a first user terminal to a second user terminal. 13. System according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that said MMS message or said element in an MMS message is an audio file, an image, an animation, a film, a text string or any combination of these . 14. System according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that said first means contains routines for generating fingerprints specialized for each MMS message type or each MMS element type. 15. System according to claim 14, characterized in that said first means is adapted to be able to connect any new routine for generating fingerprints in addition to those already included. 16. Procedure for enforcement and control of copyright and/or policy for an MMS message or an element of an MMS message transmitted through an MMS architecture, characterized by the following steps: a) generating an electronic fingerprint that uniquely identifies said MMS message or said element in an MMS message, b) comparing electronic fingerprints with pre-generated electronic fingerprints stored in a database in which each of said pre-generated fingerprints is associated with a particular policy and/or copyright related to the relevant fingerprint associated MMS message or element of an MMS message, c) if said electronic fingerprint matches one of the pre-generated electronic fingerprints in step b), to enforce the policy and/or copyright restrictions associated with said one of the pre-generated electronic fingerprints on said MMS message or said element of an MMS message.