System and method for offering of drm content

DRM (DRM) content providing system and method {System and Method for offering of DRM content}

1 is a block diagram illustrating a DRM system.

2 is a block diagram illustrating a DRM content providing system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

3 is an exemplary diagram illustrating an example of mutual compatibility of DRM contents in the DRM contents providing system of FIG. 2 .

4 is an exemplary diagram illustrating the configuration of DRM content to which scalability is applied.

FIG. 5 is an exemplary diagram illustrating an example of a license of DRM content in FIG. 4 .

FIG. 6 is an exemplary diagram illustrating an example of another license of DRM content in FIG. 4 .

7 is a flowchart illustrating a method of providing DRM content according to an embodiment of the present invention.

8 is an exemplary flowchart illustrating an example of a process of purchasing DRM content.

9 is an exemplary diagram illustrating an example of charging for the purchase of DRM content.

<Explanation of symbols for main parts of the drawing>

110 : domain device

120 : Content Server

130 : License Server

140 : communication network

150 : Interoperable system

160 : billing server

<backgroundart><p>The present invention relates to a DRM (Digital Rights Management) content providing system and method, and more particularly, by applying scalability to DRM content to diversify the quality, and according to the quality of the content The present invention relates to a system and method for providing DRM content for providing users with different prices. </p><p>Recently, with the development of information and communication technology, analog mediums are being digitized, and digitized contents are easily distributed through information and communication networks. Such digital contents are easy for illegal and unrestricted copying and editing, and distribution of illegally copied digital contents is also easy. Accordingly, digital content protection technology capable of restricting illegal copying, editing, and distribution of digital content is being developed.</p><p>Digital content protection technology includes copyright tracking technology such as digital object identifier (DOI), watermarking, and index (INDECS; Interoperability of Data in E-Commerce System) and digital rights management (DRM, Digital Rights Management). ) and other copyright management technologies. </p><p>DRM is a technology that prevents illegal copying, editing, and distribution of digital content in advance and managing so that only legitimate users can use digital content. In other words, DRM is a comprehensive digital rights management that includes content packaging, content delivery, content usage payment, content monitoring, and content personalization. Configure the system (Digital Rights Management System).</p><p>In this case, the packaging of the content is to encrypt the content and make it into an appropriate form. Distribution of content is to provide content to users through offline, peer-to-peer networks, enterprise networks, and the Internet of CDs or DVDs. Billing for content use is to link the user management system with the payment system so that the content creator and producer can receive a fair fee for the user. Content monitoring is to give the user the right to use the content by checking the content user's billing information and usage right. Personalization of content is to provide a conversion method so that content can be interoperable in a form suitable for a user.</p><p>A service provider that provides digital content in such a DRM system adopts a specific DRM in the content packaging process to encrypt and protect their own content. DRM methods are very diverse and the DRM methods adopted by each service provider are also different, so the interoperability of digital contents is very low.</p><p>Accordingly, in recent years, research on a system that can make different DRM structures compatible with each other has been actively conducted, and a representative example of this is the DRM interoperability system.</p><p>The DRM interoperability system is a system that enables interoperability between heterogeneous DRMs by appropriately arbitrating the differences between different closed DRMs. Such a DRM interoperable system is very useful in terms of service and system construction. For example, in terms of services, users can freely use content to which heterogeneous DRM is applied even if a specific DRM is installed in their device. Therefore, it is possible to reduce the objection of content consumers due to the closed nature of DRM. In addition, in terms of system construction, it is easy to build an integrated system that integrates various types of DRM services.</p><p>However, the quality of DRM contents compatible in the DRM interoperability system is limited, so that a content provider that provides DRM contents of various qualities is limited in using the DRM interoperability system. </p><p>In addition, differentiated billing is imposed according to the quality of the DRM content, and it is necessary to provide the DRM content compatible with each other so that the user can select the DRM content of an appropriate quality for himself/herself. </p></backgroundart><abstractproblem><p>An object of the present invention is to provide a DRM content providing system and method for providing users with different quality content by applying scalability to the content, and charging according to the provision of various quality content. is to provide. </p></abstractproblem>

<p>In order to achieve the above object, a system for providing a DM content according to the present invention includes a content server that provides the converted DM content by applying scalability to raw content, to a domain device, and the DM content and a license server that generates a license corresponding to the . </p><p>In addition, the DM content providing system may further include a mutually compatible system capable of compatibility of the DM of the DM content with different types of DMs. </p><p>The content server may convert the raw content into a base layer and an enhancement layer, and may package the base layer and the enhancement layer into heterogeneous DMs. </p><p>When the domain device intends to receive the DM content corresponding to the enhancement layer in addition to the process of receiving the DM content corresponding to the base layer, the information on the DM content corresponding to the enhancement layer A license may be provided from the license server. </p><p>Meanwhile, the DM content providing system may further include a billing server that charges a charge for the use of the DM content. </p><p>The charging server performs at least one of quantitative charging and qualitative charging, wherein the quantitative charging is charged according to at least one of an access time to the DM content and a data amount, and the qualitative charging is based on the amount of data in the DM content. Charging is performed according to at least one of a resolution and a frame rate. </p><p>According to the present invention for achieving this object, a method for providing DM contents for providing DM contents to a domain device applies scalability to raw contents of a quality requested to be provided from the domain device, thereby providing a base layer. generating the DM content of a base layer and at least one enhancement layer, and transmitting the DM content to the domain device, wherein the domain device has scalability applied A license corresponding to the DM content is provided from the license server. </p><p>Meanwhile, the method for providing DM contents may further include converting the DM contents to be compatible with each other. </p><p>On the other hand, the method for providing the DM content may further include the step of charging a charge for the use of the DM content. </p><p>The charging includes a quantitative charging method for charging according to at least one of an access time and data amount for the DM content, and a qualitative charging method for charging according to at least one of a resolution and a frame rate of the DM content You can charge in at least one of the methods. </p><p>Hereinafter, a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings in order to describe in detail enough that a person of ordinary skill in the art can easily practice the present invention.</p><p>1 is a block diagram illustrating a DRM system. </p><p>Referring to FIG. 1 , the DRM system may be divided into a domain 10 and a DRM core region 20 according to its functions. </p><p>The domain 10 is a basic unit of the DRM trust system (Trusted Framework) and means a DRM application area to which the DRM system is actually applied. In this case, the DRM application area may mean a physical concept area or a logically designated area.</p><p>In order to form the domain 10, a local network in which the devices 11 to 14 belonging to the domain 10 can interoperate must be formed, and the local network also interworks with an external wide area network such as the Internet. It should be possible</p><p>The devices 11 to 14 in the domain 10 are devices that are authenticated and registered in the domain 10 and can receive various multimedia services through the DRM core area 20 . Devices 11 - 14 in domain 10 may be various fixed or mobile devices. For example, the fixed device may be a desktop PC, TV, home theater, or the like, and the mobile device may be a mobile phone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a notebook computer, an MP3 player, or the like. A domain representative device 11 that determines the range and environment of the domain 10 can be selected from among the devices 11 to 14 in the domain 10 . In FIG. 1 , the device 1 11 becomes the domain representative device.</p><p>On the other hand, the DRM core region 20 means a region in which the DRM core system 21 is provided. The DRM core system 21 plays a central role in the configuration of the trust system of the entire DRM system, and verifies the validity and rights of the content driven in the devices 11 to 14 belonging to the domain 10 to safely distribute the content. provide a way The connection between the DRM core region 20 and the devices 11 to 14 in the domain 10 may be made through remote (Online), but some functions of the DRM core system 21 are provided in a specific device in the domain 10. it might be This is to enable DRM trust establishment even offline that is not connected to a wide area network.</p><p>This DRM core system 21 may be a vendor-specific closed DRM core system, or a DRM interoperable core system. When the DRM core system 21 is a DRM interoperable core system, a DRM interoperable environment is applied to the domain. That is, in this case, even if a plurality of different closed DRM technologies are applied to specific content in the domain 10 , the devices 11 to 14 existing in the domain 10 can share the content according to the permitted usage rights. be able to</p><p>2 is a block diagram illustrating a DRM content providing system according to an embodiment of the present invention. </p><p>Referring to FIG. 2 , the DRM (Digital Rights Management) content providing system is a device 110 of a domain that allows a user to use content, and a content server 120 that provides content packaged in an appropriate form to the user. , a license server 130 that generates and manages a license and a charging server 160 that charges for the use of content are connected through the communication network 140 and configured. In this case, a mutual compatibility system 150 for mutually compatible licenses with content provided by the content server 120 and the license server 130 may be provided.</p><p>Here, the domain device 110 refers to a device existing in the aforementioned domain 10 . That is, it is a device that belongs to the scope of the domain 10 and can be provided with various multimedia services by being authenticated and registered in the domain 10 .</p><p>The content server 120 is a server in which a content service provider provides various types of content to users. The content server 120 holds the DRM content packaged in a specific DRM method, provides the content according to a user's request, and transmits information on the content packaging method and the DRM method to the license server 130 to generate a license for the content. provided to</p><p>At this time, the content server 120 applies scalability to the raw content, converts it into a base layer and an enhancement layer, and packages the content to the user. to provide. A detailed description thereof will be described in FIG. 4 .</p><p>In addition, the content server 120 includes metadata (type) of content, ID (ID) of content, format of data, information on creators and creators of content, information on content itself, etc. metadata) is included in the base layer and enhancement layer to create DRM content by encrypting it in the DRM method. </p><p>The license server 130 generates and manages a license, which means a user's right to use a specific content. The license server 130 receives the metadata of the corresponding content from the content server 120 to retain content management information, and receives user information from the domain device 110 and transmits it to the content server 120 . The license server 130 generates a license using metadata and user information of the corresponding content and provides it to the user. For example, according to the user's request, the license server 130 generates and provides license 1 corresponding to the basic layer of the content server 120 to the user, and generates and provides license 2 corresponding to the enhancement layer to the user. can</p><p>The mutual compatibility system 150 converts the DRM content provided by the content server 120 to be compatible with each other, and converts a license for a specific DRM content provided from the license server 130 into a license for other DRM content. is the system </p><p>For example, when the domain device 110 supports type A DRM content, the interoperability system 150 decodes the content packaged with the type B DRM, and encodes the decoded content into the type A DRM. It is provided to the domain device 110 . In addition, when the user of the domain device 110 obtains a license for the B-type DRM content and uses the A-type DRM content, the mutual compatibility system 150 transfers the license for the B-type DRM content to the A-type DRM content. Compatibility with licenses for content.</p><p>The mutually compatible system 150 may be configured with various modules necessary for conversion of DRM content and compatibility of licenses. These modules may be gathered in one server, or may exist distributed in the content server 120 , the license server 130 , and the domain 10 .</p><p>The billing server 160 manages the authentication for the user's billing payment and the billing method for the use of content. The billing server 160 provides a secure payment system for payment using a kind of security means, and the billing server 160 itself may have a payment means authentication function and perform payment processing, and the billing server 160 and It is also possible to authenticate the billing payment in connection with a financial service server that separately provides a payment method. As such, when the billing payment is authenticated by the billing server 160 , the user can use services such as license generation for content use and content download from the content server 120 and the license server 130 .</p><p>As an example of billing payment, RSA (Rivest Shamir Adleman) 1024-bit encryption algorithm and SEED 128-bit encryption algorithm developed by the Korea Information Security Agency (KISA) are a public key infrastructure consisting of a private key and a public key using an electronic certificate. Infrastructure, PKI) encryption method Internet Secure Payment (ISP) is available. </p><p>In addition, the billing server 160 may manage and apply a billing method for the use of content. The billing method can be divided into quantitative billing and quality billing.</p><p>A full-time pay-as-you-go system that charges a fee according to the access time as a quantitative billing system, a cap system in which a fixed rate of the lower limit is charged up to a certain amount of time or a certain amount of data, and a pay-as-you-go fee is added when the range is exceeded. In case of excessive access, there is a fixed rate/pay-as-you-go system and a complete fixed system with a fixed rate. </p><p>Qualitative charging diversifies the quality of content provided to users by transcoding or applying scalability to raw content, such as resolution and frame rate, and accordingly A method for determining billing. </p><p>Hereinafter, a process for using DRM content to which scalability is applied in a DRM content providing system is described in a mutually compatible manner. </p><p>3 is an exemplary diagram illustrating an example of mutual compatibility of DRM contents in the DRM contents providing system of FIG. 2 . </p><p>Referring to FIG. 3 , in the content providing system of FIG. 2 , a plurality of content servers 120 providing DRM content may exist, and each content server 120 may provide DRM content by applying a specific DRM method. . </p><p>For example, 'content a' is converted to DRM content in the content server A 310, the content server B 320, and the content server C 330 in the DRM type A DRM method, the B type DRM method, and the C type DRM method. can be created and provided. In this case, each of the content servers 310 , 320 , and 330 may provide DRM content of a base layer and an enhancement layer to which scalability is applied. That is, the content server A 310 may provide the DRM content of the basic layer A and the enhancement layer A, and the content server B 320 may provide the DRM content of the basic layer B and the enhancement layer B, and the content server The C 330 may provide DRM content of the base layer C and the enhancement layer C.</p><p>If the user's domain device 110 using 'content a' is a device supporting the A-type DRM method, the user may purchase and use the DRM content of the base layer A from the content server A 310 . In this case, the DRM content of the base layer A may be provided without conversion of the content in the mutually compatible system 150 .</p><p>When the enhancement layer is used in the domain device 110 using the DRM content of the base layer A, the enhancement layer B of the content server B 320 and the enhancement layer C of the content server C 330 as well as the DRM content of the enhancement layer A can also be used. That is, when the user of the domain device 110 using the DRM content of the base layer A purchases the DRM content of the enhancement layer B from the content server B 320 , the mutually compatible system 150 provides the DRM content of the enhancement layer B is converted into A-type DRM content supported by the domain device 110 and transmitted to the domain device 110 . Accordingly, regardless of the DRM method supported by the domain device 110 , the user may purchase and use the DRM content of the enhancement layer corresponding to the base layer.</p><p>Hereinafter, DRM content to which scalability provided by the content server 120 of the DRM system is applied will be described. </p><p>4 is a block diagram illustrating the configuration of DRM content to which scalability is applied. </p><p>Referring to FIG. 4 , the content server 120 applies scalability to raw content. When scalability is applied to the raw content and coded, the content is converted into a base layer and an enhancement layer.</p><p>Raw content is a content source that the operator of the content server 120 intends to provide to users, and includes a constant bit rate (CBR) using a fixed bit rate, a variable Video or audio data compressed at a variable bit rate (VBR) using an in-bit rate, or at an average bit rate (ABR) that encodes while automatically changing the bit rate to approximate a specified average bit rate number. can be </p><p>The base layer is an independently decodable bit-stream, and the enhancement layer is a bitstream additionally applied to improve the bitstream in the base layer. For example, when the base layer is content having resolution QCIF (Quater CIF), enhancement layer 1 may be added to become content having resolution CIF (Common Intermediate Format). Further, the enhancement layer 2 may be added to the content having the resolution CIF to become the content having the resolution VGA, and the enhancement layer 3 may be added to the content having the resolution VGA to become the content having the resolution XGA.</p><p>The scalability includes spatial scalability, temporal scalability, and SNR scalability. </p><p>Spatial scalability is used to increase the size or resolution of small or low-resolution pictures , and temporal scalability is used to increase the resolution of frames per second to increase temporal resolution. SNR scalability is a method for improving image quality, and is to divide bits for each picture element according to the resolution of the representation.</p><p>As described above, by applying scalability to the original content, it is possible to diversify the resolution and frame rate of one content. </p><p>FIG. 5 is an exemplary diagram illustrating an example of a license of DRM content in FIG. 4 .</p><p>Referring to FIG. 5 , the content server 120 generates metadata and a key for encryption of each base layer and enhancement layer of the content to which scalability is applied, and uses the same for each base layer and enhancement layer. It is included in the layer and packaged in the DRM method. </p><p>In this case, the license server 130 may generate a license for each of the basic layer and the enhancement layer using the metadata and the key obtained from the content server 120 , and provide it to the user. That is, a license may be granted for each layer of content composed of a base layer and an enhancement layer.</p><p>For example, in order for a user who has license 0 for DRM content of the base layer to use higher quality DRM content, the DRM content of the enhancement layer is added and transmitted, and the license of the enhancement layer is added and acquired. That is, a user who uses the DRM content of the basic layer has the DRM content of the basic layer and license 0. should be obtained At this time, the license server 130 recognizes the license 0 of the basic layer and the license 1 of the enhancement layer 1 so that the user can use the DRM content of higher quality.</p><p>FIG. 6 is an exemplary diagram illustrating an example of another license of DRM content in FIG. 4 . </p><p>Referring to FIG. 6 , the license server 130 may generate a license including a basic layer and an enhancement layer and provide it to the user. </p><p>For example, a user of the DRM content of the base layer has a license 0, and a user of the DRM content of the base layer and the enhancement layer 1 has a license 1. Therefore, in order for a user of the DRM content of the base layer to use the DRM content of the base layer and the enhancement layer 1, a new license 1 must be acquired. To do this, you need to acquire a new license 0. In this case, the license server 130 may not authorize the use of the content of the basic layer if the license 0 is not recognized even if the license 1 is recognized among the licenses obtained by the user.</p><p>Hereinafter, a process in which a user purchases and pays for content of various qualities provided from the content server 120 will be described. </p><p>7 is a flowchart illustrating a method of providing DRM content according to an embodiment of the present invention. </p><p>Referring to FIG. 7 , the content server 120 generates DRM content of a base layer and an enhancement layer by applying scalability to raw content (S10). In this case, a plurality of enhancement layers may be provided to compose DRM content of various qualities. Meanwhile, the content server 120 transmits content information to the license server 130 to provide information necessary for license generation.</p><p>When there is a request for DRM content from the user, that is, the domain device 110 (S20), the content server 120 obtains the user information from the domain device 110. That is, the DRM supported by the user's domain device 110. Information on the method and content previously held by the user is acquired from the domain device 110 . </p><p>The content server 120 determines whether the DRM content to be transmitted to the domain device 110 from the user information obtained from the domain device 110 requires a DRM conversion process in the mutually compatible system 150 ( S40 ). </p><p>If a DRM conversion process is required, the DRM content is converted (S40).</p><p>If the DRM conversion process is not required, the DRM content is transmitted to the domain device 110 without conversion of the DRM content (S50).</p><p>Upon receiving the DRM content, the domain device 110 requests a license required to use the DRM content from the license server 130 . The license server 130 determines whether the corresponding DRM content is paid or free (S60).</p><p>When the corresponding DRM content is paid, the billing server 160 requests the domain device 110 to pay the billing so that the user pays the billing (S70).</p><p>When the user pays the billing, the license server 130 generates a license for the corresponding DRM content and transmits it to the user (S80).</p><p>The user can use the DRM content by using the received license. </p><p>8 is an exemplary flowchart illustrating an example of a process of purchasing DRM content. </p><p>Referring to FIG. 8 , the user may access the content server 120 from the domain device 110 through the communication network 140 and select a content list including content of various qualities from various types of content ( S110 ). </p><p>The user determines whether the content of various qualities included in the selected content list will be properly implemented in his/her device or whether to perform a content test (S120). </p><p>The user may select mini-contents for testing that are pre-produced in the manual for content testing or are converted to transcoding (S121). In this case, the user may request the content from the content purchase manual without testing the content.</p><p>The content server 120 transmits the mini content to the domain device 110 so that the user can check whether the corresponding content is properly implemented in his or her domain device 110 (S122). </p><p>The user determines the content to be purchased and determines whether to request the content from the content purchase manual (S130). </p><p>When there is a user's request for content, the license server 130 checks the level of the license according to the paid or free of the corresponding content or the upper and lower levels of the license obtained in advance by the user (S140). </p><p>The user determines whether to select between paid content and free content from the content purchase manual (S150). In this case, when the license obtained by the user in advance is higher than the license of the corresponding content, or when the user selects the content provided for free, the billing server 260 does not perform the billing process.</p><p>The user selects content of a desired quality implemented in his/her device from among content provided for a fee (S160).</p><p>When the user selects the content, the billing server 260 presents the authentication process required for billing to the user, and the user pays the billing for the use of the content by means of payment (S170).</p><p>When the billing is paid, the billing server 260 transmits the user's billing payment information to the license server 130, and the license server 130 creates a user's license and user account so that the user can use the content (S180). .</p><p>When the license server 130 transmits the user's license and user account to the domain device 110 , the domain device 110 streams or downloads content from the content server 120 ( S190 ).</p><p>Hereinafter, differentiated billing imposed according to the quality of the content provided by the user from the content server 120 will be described. </p><p>9 is an exemplary diagram illustrating an example of charging for the purchase of DRM content. </p><p>Referring to FIG. 9 , content a may be classified into Quater CIF (Qcif), Common Intermediate Format (CIF), Video Graphics Array (VGA), and Extended Graphics Array (XGA) according to quality. </p><p>In general, CIF is a video format used in video conferencing or video telephony systems and has a resolution of 480x720, Qcif has a resolution of 288x360, which is 1/4 the size of CIF, and VGA has a resolution of 640x480 and a 12~13 inch monitor. is used as the standard resolution of , and XGA has a resolution of 1024x768 and is used as the standard resolution of 16 to 17-inch monitors. </p><p>In addition, content a may be classified into a download method and a streaming method according to an implementation method. </p><p>The download method is a method in which a content file is copied from the content server 120 , and the user can reproduce and use the content file in his or her domain device 110 when necessary. </p><p>The streaming method is a method of playing transmitted content without downloading the content. Although content can be played on the domain device 110 even before all content is transmitted, it is affected by the data transmission speed and whenever content is used, the content server You need to connect to 120 to receive data. </p><p>On the other hand, according to the policy of the content provider, it is possible to impose a charge for the use of the content by differentiating between members and non-members of the service server. </p><p>According to the classification of the above-described content a, the charge imposed on the user may vary. For example, if a non-member user uses Qcif resolution content as a download method, 300 won is charged, but if a member user uses Qcif resolution content as a download method, no charge is charged. Accordingly, the content service provider may induce the user to join as a member of the content server. In addition, if a member user uses Qcif resolution content in a streaming method, it is provided free of charge, but if XGA resolution content is used, a charge of 800 won is charged, so the billing can be differentiated according to the quality of the content. In addition, if a member user uses XGA resolution content in the streaming method, a charge of 800 won is charged, but if the user uses XGA resolution content as a download method, a charge of 1600 won is charged. can</p><p>In this way, the content service provider can impose differentiated charges according to the quality of the content, the implementation method, and whether or not to join the membership, and the user can select and use the appropriate content from a variety of content. </p><p>As mentioned above, although preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail, those of ordinary skill in the art to which the present invention pertains can use the present invention without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined in the appended claims. It will be appreciated that various modifications or changes can be made. Accordingly, modifications of future embodiments of the present invention will not depart from the teachings of the present invention.</p>

<p>By applying scalability to the content to differentiate the quality of DRM content and charging differentiated charges according to the quality of the content, content providers can easily improve the quality of DRM content according to the improvement of the environment of the domain device. and the user can select DRM content suitable for the environment of his or her domain device from DRM content of various qualities at an appropriate price. In addition, by providing mini-contents of content of various qualities, the content provider can help the user to determine whether to purchase by checking whether the content of the corresponding quality is implemented in his or her device.</p>