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US 7,681,241 B2Granted
Apparatus and method for managing digital rights with arbitration
AssigneeRed Hat, Inc.
InventorAlan Cox
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method is disclosed for controlling access to a digital content. The method allows receipt of a notice regarding suspension of a sender's rights to use the content. A trusted third party arbiter transmits a key to restore the sender's access to the content. Information regarding at least the sender and the key is then documented. The sender can also be required to supply proof of ownership or authority to access the content. This can be in the form of original licensing information supplied by the content provider. The key can also be generated such that it expires after a predetermined length of time.
Claims54
A method of controlling access to digital content, comprising the steps:
- receiving a notice regarding suspension of a sender's rights to use the content, the content provided by a content provider;
- reviewing the notice by a third party to retrieve information regarding the content and the sender's right for using the content;
- transmitting a key to the sender in order to terminate the suspension of rights to use the content;
- documenting information by the third party regarding at least the sender and the key, including information indicative of the sender's reason for believing that a violation has not occurred;
- and
- reporting by the third party to the content provider at least a portion of the information that was documented, including the information indicative of the sender's reason.
3 more elements
A method of managing rights to a digital content, comprising the steps:
- requesting that a user accept terms of a license agreement specifying rights to use the content;
- receiving the content together with a key for providing the user access to the content, the content being provided by a content provider;
- monitoring use of the content to detect a violation of the license agreement;
- suspending the user's access to the content upon detecting a violation;
- transmitting a notice, from the user to a third party, regarding suspension of rights to use the content;
- reviewing the notice to retrieve information regarding at least the content and the license agreement;
- transmitting a replacement key to the user in order to permit the user to restore access to the content;
- documenting, by the third party, information regarding at least the user and the replacement key, including information indicative of the user's reason for believing that the license agreement has not been violated;
- and
- reporting by the third party of the content provider at least a portion of the information that was documented, including the information indicative of the user's reason.
7 more elements
A method of providing access to a digital content, comprising the steps:
- accepting terms of a license agreement specifying rights to use the content, content being provided by a content provider;
- receiving the content together with a key for providing access to the content;
- monitoring use of the content to detect a violation of the license agreement;
- suspending access to the content upon detecting a violation;
- transmitting a notice to a third party regarding suspension of rights to use the content;
- receiving a replacement key to restore access to the content;
- and
- reporting by the third party to the content provider information regarding the notice and the replacement key, including information indicative of a user's reason for believing that the license agreement has not been violated.
5 more elements
A computer program product, residing on a computer-readable medium, for use in controlling access rights to a digital content, said computer program product comprising instructions for causing a computer system to:
- receive a notice regarding suspension of a sender's rights to use the content, the content provided by a content provider;
- review the notice to the third party to retrieve information regarding the content and the sender's rights for using the content;
- transmit the key to the sender in order to terminate the suspension of rights to use the content;
- document information by the third party regarding at least the sender and the key, including a reason the sender believes that a violation has not occurred;
- and
- report information from the third party to the content provider regarding the sender and the key, including the reason, that was documented.
3 more elements
A computer program product, residing on a computer-readable medium, for use in managing rights to a digital content, said computer program product comprising instructions for causing a computer system to:
- request that a user accept the terms of a license agreement specifying rights to use the content, the content provided by a content provider;
- receive the content together with a key for providing the user access to the content;
- monitor use of the content to detect a violation of the license agreement;
- suspend the user's access to the content upon detecting a violation;
- and
- transmit a notice, from the user to the third party, regarding suspension of rights to use the content;
- document information regarding at least the user and the replacement key, by the third party, including a reason the user believes that the license agreement has hot been violated;
- and
- report information from the third party to the content provider regarding the user and the replacement key, including the reason, that was documented.
6 more elements
A system for controlling access fights to a digital content, comprising:
- means for receiving a notice regarding suspension of a sender's fights to use the content, the content provided by a content provider;
- means for reviewing the notice by a third party to retrieve information regarding the content and the sender's rights for using the content;
- means for generating a key capable of restoring the sender's access to the content;
- means for transmitting the key to the sender in order to terminate the suspension of rights to use the content;
- means for documenting information regarding at least the sender and the key, including information indicative of a reason the sender believes that a violation has not occurred;
- and
- means for reporting documented information from the third party to the content provider regarding the sender and the key, including the reason.
4 more elements
A system for controlling access rights to a digital content, comprising:
- means for requesting that a user accept terms of a license agreement specifying rights to use the content, the content provided by a content provider;
- means for receiving the content together with a key for providing the user access to the content;
- means for monitoring use of the content to detect a violation of the license agreement;
- means for suspending the user's access to the content upon detecting a violation;
- means for transmitting a notice, from the user to a third party, regarding suspension of rights to use the content;
- means for reviewing the notice to retrieve information regarding at least the content and the license agreement;
- means for generating a replacement key capable of restoring the user's access to the content;
- means for transmitting the replacement key to the user in order to terminate suspension of rights to use the content;
- means for documenting, by the third party, information regarding at least the user and the replacement key, including information indicative of a reason the user believes that a violation of the license agreement has not occurred;
- and
- means for reporting documented information from the third party to the content provider regarding the user and the replacement key, including the reason.
8 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.