Retrieval interface for content, such as compliance-related content

Abstract

A facility for retrieving content. The facility invokes an API, as part of the invocation passing to the API: (1) information identifying one or more units of content to return; and (2) an indication that an entity on behalf of which the invocation is performed attests that the entity is compliant with a license that applies to the identified units of content. The facility receives a response to the API invocation that contains the identified units of content.

1 . A method in a server for responding to a request for compliance content from a customer application, the method comprising:
 receiving, in an API endpoint tailored to a distinguished one of a plurality of compliance content types, an API invocation from the customer application, the API invocation comprising:
 a first argument identifying the customer application, 
 a second argument identifying one or more units of compliance content of the distinguished type to return, and 
 a third argument specifying whether the customer application attests that the customer application is compliant with a license that applies to the units of compliance content identified by the second argument; 
   only where the third argument specifies that the customer application attests that the customer application is compliant with the license that applies to the units of compliance content identified by the second argument, by indicating at least (a) a type of the license, (b) a network-addressable identifier for accessing the license, and (c) a licensor identifier of the license, performing actions comprising:
 constructing a response message containing the units of compliance content identified by the second argument; 
 causing an account selected based on the first argument to be charged a total cost determined for the units of compliance content identified by the second argument; and 
 transmitting the response message in response to the API invocation. 
   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the identified units of compliance content comprise an authority document list object that comprises:
 for each of a plurality of authority documents:
 identifying information for the authority document usable by the caller to retrieve an object containing the authority document using the API; and 
 a link to a license that applies to the authority document. 
 
 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the identified units of compliance content comprise an authority document object that comprises, for a particular authority document:
 for each of a plurality of citations contained by the authority document:
 identifying information for the citation usable by the caller to retrieve an object containing the citation using the API; and 
 a link to a license that applies to the citation. 
 
 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the identified units of compliance content comprise a citation object that comprises, for a particular citation:
 a copy of the citation; and 
 for a mandate constituting an interpretation of the citation:
 identifying information for the mandate usable by the caller to retrieve an object containing the mandate using the API; and 
 a link to a license that applies to the mandate. 
 
 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the identified units of compliance content comprise a mandate object that comprises, for a particular mandate:
 a copy of the mandate; and 
 for a control to which the mandate has been mapped constituting a deduplication of the mandate against one or more equivalent other mandates: 
 identifying information for the control usable by the caller to retrieve an object containing the control using the API; and 
 a link to a license that applies to the control. 
 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the identified units of compliance content comprise a control object that comprises, for a particular control:
 a copy of the control. 
 
     
     
         7 . One or more instances of computer-readable media collectively having contents configured to cause a computing system to perform a method for responding to a request for content from a customer application, the method comprising:
 receiving, in an API endpoint tailored to a distinguished one of a plurality of compliance content types, an API invocation from the customer application, the API invocation comprising:
 a first argument identifying the customer application, 
 a second argument identifying one or more units of content of the distinguished type to return, and 
 a third argument specifying whether the customer application attests that the customer application is compliant with a license that applies to the units of content identified by the second argument; 
   only where the third argument specifies that the customer application attests that the customer application is compliant with the license that applies to the units of content identified by the second argument, by indicating at least (a) a type of the license, (b) a network-addressable identifier for accessing the license, and (c) a licensor identifier of the license, performing actions comprising:
 constructing a response message containing the units of content identified by the second argument; 
 causing an account selected based on the first argument to be charged total cost determined for the units of control identified by the second argument; and 
 transmitting the response message in response to the API invocation. 
   
     
     
         8 . The one or more instances of computer-readable media of  claim 7 , the method further comprising determining the total cost by:
 for each of the units of content identified by the second argument, accessing a price specified for the identified unit of content; and   summing the accessed prices to obtain the total cost.   
     
     
         9 . The one or more instances of computer-readable media of  claim 7 , the method further comprising determining the total cost by:
 for each of the units of content identified by the second argument:
 accessing a price specified for units of content of the distinguished type; and 
 summing the accessed prices to obtain the total cost. 
   
     
     
         10 . The one or more instances of computer-readable media of  claim 7 , the method further comprising determining the total cost by:
 for each of the units of content identified by the second argument,
 determining a supplier of the identified unit of content; 
 accessing a price specified for units of content from the determined supplier; and 
 summing the accessed prices to obtain the total cost. 
   
     
     
         11 . The one or more instances of computer-readable media of  claim 7 , the method further comprising determining the total cost by:
 for each of the units of content identified by the second argument,
 determining a supplier of the identified unit of content; 
 accessing a price specified for units of content from the determined supplier of the distinguished type; and 
 summing the accessed prices to obtain the total cost. 
   
     
     
         12 . The one or more instances of computer-readable media of  claim 7  wherein the API invocation is received from the customer application via a gateway,
 and wherein the causing the selected account to be charged comprises attaching the total cost to the response message for extraction by the gateway to charge the selected account. 
 
     
     
         13 . The one or more instances of computer-readable media of  claim 12  wherein the response message has a header,
 and wherein the attaching comprises attaching the total cost to the header of the response message for extraction by to gateway to charge the selected account. 
 
     
     
         14 . The one or more instances of computer-readable media of  claim 7  wherein the causing the selected account to be charged comprises:
 reducing a balance prepaid by the customer application by the total cost. 
 
     
     
         15 . The one or more instances of computer-readable media of  claim 7  wherein the causing the selected account to be charged comprises:
 adding the total cost to an amount to be charged to the customer application in the future. 
 
     
     
         16 . (canceled) 
     
     
         17 . The one or more instances of computer-readable media of  claim 7  wherein the received API invocation further comprises a license key issued to the customer application by a licensor corresponding to the licensor identifier of the license,
 the method further comprising:
 verifying the license key, 
 
 
       and wherein the constructing, determining, summing, using, causing to be charged, and transmitting is performed only where the verification reflects that the license key is valid. 
     
     
         18 . The one or more instances of computer-readable media of  claim 17  wherein the verification comprises:
 calling a computer system operated on behalf of the licensor, passing the license key. 
 
     
     
         19 . The one or more instances of computer-readable media of  claim 17  wherein the verification comprises:
 consulting a list of valid license keys to determine whether the license key is present in the list. 
 
     
     
         20 . The one or more instances of computer-readable media of  claim 17  wherein the verification comprises:
 consulting a list of valid license keys to determine whether the license key is present in the list; and 
 if the license key is not present in the list, calling a computer system operated on behalf of the licensor, passing the license key. 
 
     
     
         21 . A method in a computing system to retrieve content, comprising:
 invoking an API, as part of the invocation passing to the API:
 information identifying one or more units of content to return, and 
 an indication that an entity on behalf of which the invocation is performed attests that the entity is compliant with a license that applies to the identified units of content; and 
   receiving a response to the API invocation, the response comprising the identified units of content.   
     
     
         22 . The method of  claim 21 , further comprising:
 as part of the invocation, passing to the API:
 information identifying the entity, charging information for the entity having earlier been established with an operator of the API, 
   
       the response further comprising an indication of an amount that was charged in response to the invocation using the charging information earlier established for the entity. 
     
     
         23 . The method of  claim 21  wherein the indication is a license key supplied to the entity by a licensor of the identified one or more units of content.