Trusted infrastructure support systems, methods and techniques for secure electronic commerce, electronic transactions, commerce process control and automation, distributed computing and rights management

A method performed by an electronic appliance, the method comprising:

• displaying a rights template, the rights template defining a number of different types of usage relevant to a digital property and a menu of options corresponding to each type of usage;
• filling in the menu of options based at least in part on input from a rightsholder;
• translating the rights template into a control set;
• associating the control set with the digital property, the control set being configured to be used by tamper-resistant hardware and/or software at a user's electronic appliance to govern use of the digital property by the user;
• and
• sending the control set to a first remote site.

A computer-readable medium containing executable program instructions, the executable program instructions including instructions for:

• displaying a graphical user interface comprising a template for facilitating specification, by a user, of permissions to be associated with a piece of digital content, the template including a list of potential actions to be performed on or using the piece of digital content, the template further providing a place for the user to specify if a given action is to be permitted;
• obtaining user input from the user, the user input specifying one or more permitted actions;
• and
• generating a control set based on the user input, the control set being associated with the piece of digital content, the control set being configured to be used by tamper-resistant hardware and/or software at an electronic appliance to govern use of the piece of digital content by the electronic appliance in accordance with the one or more permitted actions specified by the user input.

A method for specifying usage permissions for a piece of digital content:

• displaying a graphical user interface to a rightsholder, the graphical user interface including a menu of potentially permitted actions to be performed on or using the piece of digital content, the potentially permitted actions including modifying the piece of digital content;
• obtaining input from the rightsholder, the input indicating that one or more of the potentially permitted actions are to be permitted;
• and
• associating an indication of the permitted actions with the piece of digital content.

A method for packaging rights-managed digital content:

• obtaining input comprising an indication of one or more actions permitted to be performed on or using a piece of digital content;
• associating control information with the piece of digital content, the control information including information recording the one or more permitted actions;
• and
• encrypting the piece of digital content and the control information.

A method comprising:

• displaying a graphical user interface to a user, the graphical user interface comprising (a) a list of one or more different types of digital content usage, and (b) one or more permission options corresponding to one or more of the different types of digital content usage;
• receiving user input, the user input selecting one or more of the one or more permission options;
• and
• associating permission information with a piece of digital content, the permission information being derived from the user input, and being configured for use with tamper-resistant software to govern use of the piece of digital content.

A method comprising:

• displaying a graphical user interface comprising (a) a list of one or more different types of usage of a piece of digital content, and (b) a list of permission options;
• receiving input from a first entity, the input selecting one or more of the permission options;
• and
• generating a control set from the input, the control set specifying the permission options selected by the first entity, the control set being associated with the piece of digital content, the control set being configured for use with tamper-resistant software running on a second entity's electronic appliance to govern use of the piece of digital content by the second entity in accordance with the permission options selected by the first entity.