System and method for protecting unprotected digital contents

A method for protecting contents comprising:

• when contents of a first reproducing device is transmitted to a second reproducing device employing a certain contents protection mechanism, checking whether the contents are under the protection mechanism;
• if the contents are not protected by the protection mechanism, connecting by the second reproducing device to a server to obtain contents usage rights;
• and
• converting by the second reproducing device the unprotected contents into contents protected by the protection mechanism based on the obtained rights.

A method for protecting digital contents of a media reproducing device comprising:

• attempting transmission of contents by a first device without having a digital contents protection mechanism therein to a second device employing the contents protection mechanism;
• if the contents are not protected by the mechanism, receiving by the first device a message proposing that the contents be converted into protected contents from the second device;
• and
• accepting the proposal, and transmitting the contents to the second device when the second device obtains usage rights of the contents.

A method for protecting digital contents in an apparatus where a digital contents protection mechanism is employed, comprising:

• when contents are received from a certain device, checking whether the contents are protected by the contents protection mechanism;
• if the contents are not protected by the mechanism, rejecting reception of the contents and connecting to a server to obtain usage rights for the contents;
• and
• when usage rights for the contents is obtained, withdrawing the rejection of reception to receive the contents, and converting the received contents into contents which can be protected by the mechanism based on the obtained rights.

A method for protecting digital contents of a media reproducing device comprising:

• attempting transmission of contents by a first device, to which a digital rights management (DRM) is not applied, to a second device to which the DRM is applied;
• if the contents are not protected by the DRM, proposing by the second device that the first device convert the contents into DRM contents;
• if the first device accepts the proposal, connecting by the second device to a server with reference to URL information contained in the contents and receiving a certain trigger from the server;
• when reception of the trigger is checked, transmitting by the second device information required for obtaining contents usage rights to the server;
• receiving by the second device information on contents usage rights from the server;
• transmitting by the first device the contents to the second device;
• and
• converting by the second device the received contents into DRM contents based on the obtained rights.