Method and Apparatus for Digital Rights Management

Abstract

A method and apparatus for digital rights management (DRM) with steps and means for receiving a registration request from one of a plurality of DRM agent devices requesting to register one of a plurality of user accounts and the one DRM agent device to one of a plurality of rights issuers, completing a registration process in the one rights issuer, including establishment of a relationship among the one user account, the one DRM agent device and the one rights issuer; and returning a registration completion response to the one DRM agent device. The invention provides support to the many-to-many relationships among DRM entities, such as DRM agent device, user account and rights issuer, so that the DRM system can be applied to more business modes.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method for digital rights management (DRM) by a server having at least one processing device, comprising the steps of:
 said at least one processing device receiving a deregistration request from one of a plurality of DRM agent device, said deregistration request being used for requesting to deregister one of a plurality of user accounts and said one DRM agent device from one of a plurality of rights issuers;   in response to said deregistration request, said at least one processing device completing a deregistration process in said one rights issuer, including removal of a relationship among said one user account, said one DRM agent device and said one rights issuer; and   said at least one processing device returning a deregistration completion response to said one DRM agent device.   
     
     
         2 . The method according to  claim 1 , wherein said step of completing a deregistration process comprises the steps of:
 validating said one DRM agent device; and   authenticating said one user account.   
     
     
         3 . The method according to  claim 1 , wherein said step of completing a deregistration process comprises the step of:
 terminating said deregistration process if the deregistration times of said DRM agent device under said one user account is larger than or equal to a pre-determined value.   
     
     
         4 . The method according to  claim 1 , further comprising the step of:
 updating a rights object space defined by user accounts, DRM agent devices and contents with respect to said rights issuer.   
     
     
         5 . A method for digital rights management (DRM) for a computer having at least one processing device comprising the steps of:
 sending a deregistration request to one of a plurality of rights issuers, said deregistration request being used for requesting to deregister one of a plurality of user accounts and one of a plurality of DRM agent devices from said one rights issuer; and   removing in the local relationship among said one user account, said one DRM agent device and said one rights issuer if a deregistration completion response is received from said one rights issuer.   
     
     
         6 . A tangible computer program product storage medium for storing computer program codes in a computer readable form thereon so as to enable the computer system to execute the computer program codes to implement a method for digital rights management (DRM), said method comprising the steps of:
 receiving a deregistration request from one of a plurality of DRM agent device, said deregistration request being used for requesting to deregister one of a plurality of user accounts and said one DRM agent device from one of a plurality of rights issuers;   in response to said deregistration request, completing a deregistration process in said one rights issuer, including removal of a relationship among said one user account, said one DRM agent device and said one rights issuer; and   returning a deregistration completion response to said one DRM agent device.