Techniques for Defining, Using and Manipulating Rights Management Data Structures

Abstract

A descriptive data structure provides an abstract representation of a rights management data structure such as a secure container. The abstract representation may describe, for example, the layout of the rights management data structure. It can also provide metadata describing or defining other characteristics of rights management data structure use and/or processing. For example, the descriptive data structure can provide integrity constraints that provide a way to state rules about associated information. The abstract representation can be used to create rights management data structures that are interoperable and compatible with one another. This arrangement preserves flexibility and ease of use without compromising security.

1 . A data processing method comprising:
 creating a machine readable, abstract descriptive data structure; and   using the representation to interoperate with at least one rights management data structure.   
   
   
       2 . A method as in  claim 1  wherein the using step includes the step of formatting at least one part of at least one rights management data structure at least in part in accordance with the descriptive data structure. 
   
   
       3 . A method as in  claim 1  wherein the using step includes the step of formatting display of at least one part of at least one rights management data structure at least in part in accordance with the descriptive data structure. 
   
   
       4 . A method as in  claim 1  wherein the using step includes the step of formatting reading of at least one part of at least one rights management data structure at least in part in accordance with the descriptive data structure. 
   
   
       5 . A method as in  claim 1  wherein the using step includes the step of displaying at least a part of at least one rights management data structure based at least in part on the descriptive data structure. 
   
   
       6 . A method as in  claim 1  wherein the creating step includes the step of providing metadata within the descriptive data structure, and the displaying step comprises displaying at least some information from the rights management data structure at least in part in accordance with the metadata. 
   
   
       7 . A method as in  claim 1  wherein the using step includes the step of dynamically generating a user interface based at least in part on the descriptive data structure. 
   
   
       8 . A method as in  claim 1  wherein the using step includes the step of automatically identifying and/or locating at least one data field at least in part based on the descriptive data structure. 
   
   
       9 . A method as in  claim 1  wherein the using step includes the step of automatically extracting data within the rights management data structure based at least in part on the descriptive data structure. 
   
   
       10 . A method as in  claim 1  wherein the creating step comprises creating a descriptive data structure that is independent of any particular rights management data structure but abstractly describes a class of rights management data structures. 
   
   
       11 . A method as in  claim 1  wherein the creating step includes the step of creating metadata for defining at least one characteristic of the using step. 
   
   
       12 . A method as in  claim 1  wherein the creating step includes the step of creating the abstract representation at least in part by using a wizard, the operation of the wizard being defined at least in part by a further descriptive data structure. 
   
   
       13 . A method as in  claim 1  wherein the using step includes the step of altering the behavior of a polymorphous process at least in part based on the descriptive data structure. 
   
   
       14 . A method as in  claim 1  wherein the using step includes the step of interpreting at least part of the descriptive data structure at run time. 
   
   
       15 . A method as in  claim 1  wherein the using step includes the step of dynamically adapting at least part of data processing of the rights management data structure at run time. 
   
   
       16 . A method as in  claim 1  wherein the using step includes using at least part of the descriptive data structure as instructions for driving and automated digital content handler. 
   
   
       17 . A method as in  claim 1  wherein the creating step includes the step, of creating at least one integrity constraint, and the using step includes the step of enforcing the integrity constraint. 
   
   
       18 . In a rights management data processing architecture of the type including a secure electronic appliance that interacts with an application through an interface, a method of interoperating with secure electronic containers comprising the following steps:
 (a) delivering an abstract data structure representation to the application;   (b) generating container access requests with the application based at least in part on the abstract data structure representation; and   (c) accessing the container with the secure electronic appliance at least in part based on the container access requests the container generates.   
   
   
       19 . A method as in  claim 18  further including the steps of:
 (d) providing, with the secure electronic appliance, information from the container to the application; and   (e) processing the provided information at least in part in accordance with the abstract data structure representation.   
   
   
       20 . A method as in  claim 19  wherein the processing step (e) includes the step of processing the provided information in accordance with metadata provided within the abstract data structure representation. 
   
   
       21 - 28 . (canceled)