System and method for granting acces to an item or permission to use an item based on configurable conditions

Abstract

A method, system, device, and computer program product for processing plural rights expressions associated with an item for use in a system for controlling use of the item in accordance with the rights expressions, including receiving a request to use an item, the item having associated rights expressions governing use of the item; returning one or more rights expressions including conditions that must be satisfied in order to use the item; and processing the returned rights expressions in a manner to facilitate selection of the returned rights expressions in order to use the item in accordance with the selected rights expressions.

1 . A computer-implemented method for processing rights expressions associated with an item in a manner to facilitate selection of at least one rights expressions from amongst a plurality of rights expressions within a system for controlling use of the item in accordance with the rights expressions, the method comprising:
 receiving a request to use an item, the item having associated rights expressions governing use of the item, said rights expressions including one or more conditions that must be satisfied in order to use the item;   filtering the rights expressions using a filter component having one or more condition filters; and   processing the filtered rights expressions to select at least one rights expressions in order to use the item in accordance with the selected at least one rights expressions.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the rights expressions specify respective manners of use of the item. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the conditions include conditions that must be satisfied in order to exercise the respective manners of use of the item. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising specifying the one or more condition filters. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4 , wherein the condition filters are specified by a user. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the condition filters comprise a condition filter profile. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein the condition filter profile is configurable. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein the condition filter profile comprises one or more condition filter criteria. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein the condition filter criteria specifies a condition type 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein the condition type is flat fee. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising configuring the filter component. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein the filter component uses the one or more condition filters. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein the filtering component further comprises one or more filter plug-ins. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein the one or more filter plug-ins comprises a software module which is downloaded, installed, or configured in the system. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein the one or more filter plug-ins further comprises a hardware module which is inserted into a device of the system. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the processing step further comprises prioritizing the filtered rights expressions based on a condition preference profile. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 16 , wherein the condition preference profile comprises one or more conditions specified by condition types and condition rankings. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 16 , wherein the condition preference profile is specified by a user. 
     
     
         19 . A computer-readable media having computer-executable instructions recorded thereon for processing rights expressions associated with an item in a manner to facilitate selection of at least one rights expressions from amongst a plurality of rights expressions within a system for controlling use of the item in accordance with the rights expressions, the computer-executable instructions, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to carry out the method comprising:
 receiving a request to use an item, the item having associated rights expressions governing use of the item, said rights expressions including one or more conditions that must be satisfied in order to use the item;   filtering the rights expressions using one or more condition filters; and   processing the filtered rights expressions to select at least one rights expressions in order to use the item in accordance with the selected at least one rights expressions.   
     
     
         20 . A device for processing rights expressions associated with an item in a manner to facilitate selection of at least one rights expressions from amongst a plurality of rights expressions for controlling use of the item in accordance with the rights expressions, the device comprising:
 a rights authorization component configured to receive a request to use an item, the item having associated rights expressions governing use of the item, said rights expressions including one or more conditions that must be satisfied in order to use the item;   a filter component having one or more condition filters configured to filter the rights expressions; and   a condition processing component configured to process the filtered rights expressions for selecting at least one rights expressions in order to use the item in accordance with the selected at least one rights expressions.   
     
     
         21 . The device of  claim 20 , wherein the rights authorization component further comprises an interpreter module adapted to evaluate and/or authorize the rights expressions. 
     
     
         22 . The device of  claim 21 , wherein the rights authorization component, the filter component, and the condition processing component further comprise components of a computing device. 
     
     
         23 . The device of  claim 22 , wherein the rights authorization component, the filter component, and the condition processing component further comprise computer-readable instructions stored on a computer readable medium.