System for tracking end-user electronic content usage

A system for remotely tracking usage of digital content on digital content players, said system comprising:

• a plurality of electronic stores for granting licenses to play digital content data to users, each electronic store being coupled to a network;
• a plurality of content players for playing content data, each digital content player including;
• a receiver for receiving from the network previously encrypted digital content data licensed by one of the users, wherein the previously encrypted digital content data which has been encrypted with a first encrypting key, the receiver receiving a from a clearing house an encrypted first decrypting key which has been encrypted with an encrypting key from the digital content player;
• a tamper resistant environment for decrypting the first decrypting key with a decrypting key from the digital content player, wherein the tamper resistant environment forming reencrypted digital content data by reencrypting the digital content data with a locally generated digital content player encrypting key, wherein the previously encrypted digital content has been decrypted with the first decrypting key;
• and
• a remote logging site coupled to the network for tracking playing of the reencrypted digital content data,
• wherein the remote logging site receives, from the network, play information from each of the digital content players, the play information for each digital content player including a number of times that the reencrypted digital content data has been played by the digital content player.

A method for remotely tracking usage of digital content on digital content players, said method comprising the steps of:

• granting a license to play digital content data to a user on a digital content player;
• accepting under the terms of the license, previously encrypted digital content data, wherein the previously encrypted digital content has been encrypted with a first encrypting key;
• receiving from a clearing house an encrypted first decrypting key which has been encrypted with an encrypting key from the digital content player;
• decrypting, in a tamper resistant environment, the first decrypting key with a decrypting key from the digital content player;
• forming reencrypted digital content data by reencrypting the digital content data with a locally generated digital content player encrypting key, wherein the previously encrypted digital content has been decrypted with the first decrypting key;
• and
• transmitting information to a remote logging site each time the reencrypted digital content data is at least one of played by the digital content player and copied from the digital content player to an external medium so that usage of the reencrypted digital content data can be tracked.

A method for remotely tracking usage of digital content on digital content players, said method comprising the steps of:

• accepting a license to play digital content data on a digital content player;
• receiving the licensed previously encrypted digital content data to a digital content player for the user, wherein the previously encrypted digital content has been encrypted with a first encrypting key;
• receiving from a clearing house an encrypted first decrypting key which has been encrypted with an encrypting key from the digital content player;
• decrypting, in a tamper resistant environment, the first decrypting key with a decrypting key from the digital content player;
• forming reencrypted digital content data by reencrypting the digital content data with a locally generated digital content player encrypting key, wherein the previously encrypted digital content has been decrypted with the first decrypting key;
• and
• logging play information in the digital content player each time the reencrypted digital content data is played by the digital content player;
• and
• sending the logged play information to a remote logging site at a predetermined time or at predetermined intervals to enable the tracking of use of the reencrypted digital content data.

A method for remotely tracking usage of digital content on digital content players, said method comprising the steps of:

• granting licenses to play digital content data to a plurality of users;
• for each user, sending previously encrypted digital content data to a digital content player for the user, wherein the previously encrypted digital content has been encrypted with a first encrypting key;
• receiving from a clearing house an encrypted first decrypting key which has been encrypted with an encrypting key from the digital content player;
• decrypting, in a tamper resistant environment, the first decrypting key with a decrypting key from the digital content player;
• forming reencrypted digital content data by reencrypting the digital content data with a locally generated digital content player encrypting key, wherein the previously encrypted digital content has been decrypted with the first decrypting key;
• and
• sending to a remote logging site, play information from each of the digital content players, the play information including the number of times that the reencrypted digital content data has been played by each user for enabling the tracking of usage of the reencrypted digital content data.

A computer readable medium containing program instructions for remotely tracking usage of digital content on digital content players, comprising instructions for:

• granting a license to play digital content data to a user on a digital content player;
• accepting previously encrypted digital content data, wherein the previously encrypted digital content has been encrypted with a first encrypting key;
• receiving from a clearing house an encrypted first decrypting key which has been encrypted with an encrypting key from the digital content player;
• decrypting, in a tamper resistant environment, the first decrypting key with a decrypting key from the digital content player;
• forming reencrypted digital content data by reencrypting the digital content data with a locally generated digital content player encrypting key, wherein the previously encrypted digital content has been decrypted with the first decrypting key;
• and
• transmitting information to a remote logging site each time the reencrypted digital content data is at least one of played by the digital content player and copied from the digital content player to an external medium so that usage of the reencrypted digital content data can be tracked.