Trusted infrastructure support systems, methods and techniques for secure electronic commerce, electronic transactions, commerce process control and automation, distributed computing, and rights management

Abstract

The present inventions provide an integrated, modular array of administrative and support services for electronic commerce and electronic rights and transaction management. These administrative and support services supply a secure foundation for conducting financial management, rights management, certificate authority, rules clearing, usage clearing, secure directory services, and other transaction related capabilities functioning over a vast electronic network such as the Internet and/or over organization internal Intranets. These administrative and support services can be adapted to the specific needs of electronic commerce value chains. Electronic commerce participants can use these administrative and support services to support their interests, and can shape and reuse these services in response to competitive business realities. A Distributed Commerce Utility having a secure, programmable, distributed architecture provides administrative and support services. The Distributed Commerce Utility makes optimally efficient use of commerce administration resources, and can scale in a practical fashion to accommodate the demands of electronic commerce growth. The Distributed Commerce Utility may comprise a number of Commerce Utility Systems. These Commerce Utility Systems provide a web of infrastructure support available to, and reusable by, the entire electronic community and/or many or all of its participants. Different support functions can be collected together in hierarchical and/or in networked relationships to suit various business models and/or other objectives. Modular support functions can combined in different arrays to form different Commerce Utility Systems for different design implementations and purposes. These Commerce Utility Systems can be distributed across a large number of electronic appliances with varying degrees of distribution.

1 - 20 . (canceled)  
     
     
         21 . A method performed by an electronic appliance, the method comprising: 
 displaying a rights template, the rights template defining a number of different types of usage relevant to a digital property and a menu of options corresponding to each type of usage;    filling in the menu of options based at least in part on input from a rightsholder;    translating the rights template into a control set;    associating the control set with the digital property, the control set being configured to be used by tamper-resistant hardware and/or software at a user's electronic appliance to govern use of the digital property by the user; and    sending the control set to a first remote site.    
     
     
         22 . The method of  claim 21 , further comprising: 
 sending the digital property to the first remote site.    
     
     
         23 . The method of  claim 22 , in which the control set is sent to the first remote site separately from the digital property.  
     
     
         24 . The method of  claim 22 , in which the control set and the digital property are sent to the first remote site together in a secure container.  
     
     
         25 . The method of  claim 21 , in which the first remote site comprises a user site operable to use the control set to govern use of the digital property.  
     
     
         26 . The method of  claim 25 , in which the user site includes a secure processing unit for use, at least in part, in governing use of the digital property.  
     
     
         27 . The method of  claim 21 , further comprising: 
 sending the control set from the first remote site to a user site, wherein the user site is operable to use the control set to govern use of the digital property.    
     
     
         28 . The method of  claim 21 , in which at least part of the menu of options is automatically filled in without provision of input from the rightsholder.  
     
     
         29 . The method of  claim 21 , in which the one or more potential actions include two or more of: (a) viewing the digital property; (b) distributing the digital property; (c) printing the digital property; and (d) modifying the digital property.  
     
     
         30 . The method of  claim 21 , further comprising: 
 encrypting the digital property and the control set.    
     
     
         31 . A computer-readable medium containing executable program instructions, the executable program instructions including instructions for: 
 displaying a graphical user interface comprising a template for facilitating specification, by a user, of permissions to be associated with a piece of digital content, the template including a list of potential actions to be performed on or using the piece of digital content, the template further providing a place for the user to specify if a given action is to be permitted;    obtaining user input from the user, the user input specifying one or more permitted actions; and    generating a control set based on the user input, the control set being associated with the piece of digital content, the control set being configured to be used by tamper-resistant hardware and/or software at an electronic appliance to govern use of the piece of digital content by the electronic appliance in accordance with the one or more permitted actions specified by the user input.    
     
     
         32 . The computer-readable medium of  claim 31 , in which the executable program instructions further include instructions for encrypting the piece of digital content.  
     
     
         33 . The computer-readable medium of  claim 32 , in which the executable program instructions further include instructions for encrypting the control set.  
     
     
         34 . The computer-readable medium of  claim 31 , in which the one or more potential actions include two or more of: (a) viewing the piece of digital content; (b) distributing the piece of digital content; (c) printing the piece of digital content; and (d) modifying the piece of digital content.  
     
     
         35 . The computer-readable medium of  claim 33 , in which the one or more potential actions include three or more of: (a) viewing the piece of digital content; (b) distributing the piece of digital content; (c) printing the piece of digital content; and (d) modifying the piece of digital content.  
     
     
         36 . The computer-readable medium of  claim 31 , in which the one or more potential actions include three or more of: (a) viewing the piece of digital content; (b) distributing the piece of digital content; (c) printing the piece of digital content; and (d) modifying the piece of digital content.  
     
     
         37 . The computer-readable medium of  claim 31 , in which the one or more potential actions include viewing the piece of digital content.  
     
     
         38 . The computer-readable medium of  claim 31 , in which the one or more potential actions include distributing the piece of digital content.  
     
     
         39 . The computer-readable medium of  claim 31 , in which the one or more potential actions include printing the piece of digital content.  
     
     
         40 . The computer-readable medium of  claim 31 , in which the one or more potential actions include modifying the piece of digital content.  
     
     
         41 . The computer-readable medium of  claim 31 , in which the one or more potential actions include: (a) printing the piece of digital content; and (b) modifying the piece of digital content.  
     
     
         42 . The computer-readable medium of  claim 41 , in which the piece of digital content comprises textual content.  
     
     
         43 .- 74 . (canceled)