US 9,959,395 B2Granted

Hybrid digital rights management system and related document access authorization method

AssigneeKonica Minolta Laboratory U.S.A., Inc.

InventorsRabindra Pathak, Kyohei Shiraishi

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Abstract

A digital rights management system includes two digital rights management servers (RMS servers) connected to a client computer. The two RMS servers implement different but related digital rights management (DRM) policies, with the first RMS server implementing conventional DRM policies and the second RMS server implementing extended DRM policies. An application program on the client computer interacts with a document on the client computer, and communicates with the first RMS server to obtain access authorization for the document. A plug-in program in the client computer cooperates with the application program, and communicates with the second RMS server to obtain additional access authorization for the document. Access to the document is granted when both RMS servers grant access to the document. This achieves extended digital rights management control which can provide a more flexible access control than that provided by existing DRM systems.

Claims14

Dependent claims

A digital rights management method implemented in a system including a first digital rights management server (first RMS server), a second digital rights management server (second RMS server), and a client computer connected to the first RMS server and the second RMS server, the client computer including an application program for interacting with a document which is requested to be accessed by a user and a plug-in program which cooperates with the application program, the method comprising:

(a) the application program communicating with the first RMS server to obtain a first authorization response which indicates whether the first RMS server grants or denies access to the document by the user under a first digital rights management policy (first DRM policy) stored on the first RMS server;
(b) the plug-in program communicating with the second RMS server to obtain a second authorization response which indicates whether the second RMS server grants or denies access to the document by the user under a second digital rights management policy (second DRM policy) stored on the second RMS server, wherein the second RMS server is a separate and different server from the first RMS server, and wherein the second DRM policy contains additional policy terms not contained in the first DRM policy;
and
(c) the plug-in program and the application program cooperating with each other to grant or deny access to the document by the user based on the first authorization response which has been obtained from the first RMS server and the second authorization response which has been obtained from the second RMS server, wherein the plug-in program and the application program grant access to the document by the user only if the first authorization response indicates that the first RMS server grants access to the document by the user and the second authorization response indicate that the second RMS server grants access to the document by the user.

1 more element

(a) the application program communicating with the first RMS server to obtain a first authorization response which indicates whether the first RMS server grants or denies access to the document by the user under a first digital rights management policy (first DRM policy) stored on the first RMS server, wherein when the first authorization response indicates that the first RMS server grants access to the document, the first authorization response further includes a decryption key for decrypting the document, and
(b) the plug-in program communicating with the second RMS server to obtain a second authorization response which indicates whether the second RMS server grants or denies access to the document by the user under a second digital rights management policy (second DRM policy) stored on the second RMS server, wherein the second authorization response includes no decryption key regardless of whether the second RMS server grants or denies access to the document, wherein the second RMS server is a separate and different server from the first RMS server, and wherein the second DRM policy contains additional policy terms not contained in the first DRM policy;
and
(c) the plug-in program and the application program cooperating with each other to grant or deny access to the document by the user based on the first authorization response which has been obtained from the first RMS server and the second authorization response which has been obtained from the second RMS server, wherein the plug-in program and the application program grant access to the document by the user only if the first authorization response indicates that the first RMS server grants access to the document by the user and the second authorization response indicate that the second RMS server grants access to the document by the user.

1 more element

(a) the application program communicating with the first RMS server to obtain a first authorization response which indicates whether the first RMS server grants or denies access to the document by the user under a first digital rights management policy (first DRM policy) stored on the first RMS server;
(b) the plug-in program communicating with the second RMS server to obtain a second authorization response which indicates whether the second RMS server grants or denies access to the document by the user under a second digital rights management policy (second DRM policy) stored on the second RMS server, wherein the second DRM policy contains additional policy terms not contained in the first DRM policy;
and
(c) the plug-in program and the application program cooperating with each other to grant or deny access to the document by the user based on the first authorization response and the second authorization response,
wherein step (c) includes:
after step (a) and before step (b), the application program opening the document if the first authorization response indicates that the first RMS server grants access to the document by the user, and otherwise denies access to the document;
wherein step (b) is performed after the step of opening the document;
and
after step (b), if the second authorization response indicates that the second RMS server denies access to the document by the user, the plug-in program closes the document that was opened by the application program.

6 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.