Systems and methods for secure transaction management and electronic rights protection

Abstract

The present invention provides systems and methods for secure transaction management and electronic rights protection. Electronic appliances such as computers equipped in accordance with the present invention help to ensure that information is accessed and used only in authorized ways, and maintain the integrity, availability, and/or confidentiality of the information. Such electronic appliances provide a distributed virtual distribution environment (VDE) that may enforce a secure chain of handling and control, for example, to control and/or meter or otherwise monitor use of electronically stored or disseminated information. Such a virtual distribution environment may be used to protect rights of various participants in electronic commerce and other electronic or electronic-facilitated transactions. Distributed and other operating systems, environments and architectures, such as, for example, those using tamper-resistant hardware-based processors, may establish security at each node. These techniques may be used to support an all-electronic information distribution, for example, utilizing the “electronic highway.”

1 . A method comprising:
 receiving first control information at a first electronic appliance, the first electronic appliance including a protected processing environment, the first control information being configured for use in governing access to or other use of an electronic content object at the first electronic appliance;   validating integrity of the first control information;   securely storing the first control information; and   sending information relating to the validating and/or securely storing steps to a second electronic appliance, the second electronic appliance being located remotely from the first appliance;   wherein the protected processing environment is configured to resist tampering, by a user of the first electronic appliance, with at least the validating and securely storing steps.   
   
   
       2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 encrypting the information relating to the validating and/or securely storing steps prior to the sending step.   
   
   
       3 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 digitally signing the information relating to the validating and/or securely storing steps prior to the sending step.   
   
   
       4 . A method comprising:
 creating first control information, the first control information being configured for use by a protected processing environment to govern access to or other use of an electronic content object at a first electronic appliance;   sending the first control information to the first electronic appliance, the first electronic appliance including a first protected processing environment;   receiving information from the first electronic appliance, the information indicating receipt and storage of the first control information by the first protected processing environment; and   using the information from the first electronic appliance to support an auditing-related transaction involving two or more value chain participants.   
   
   
       5 . The method of  claim 4 , further comprising:
 validating the information from the first electronic appliance prior to the using step.   
   
   
       6 . The method of  claim 4 , wherein the information from the first electronic appliance is selected from the group consisting of: information identifying the first electronic appliance, information identifying a user of the first electronic appliance, date information, and time information. 
   
   
       7 . A method comprising:
 receiving first control information at a first electronic appliance, the first electronic appliance including a protected processing environment, the first control information being configured for use by the protected processing environment to govern access to or other use of one or more electronic content objects at the first electronic appliance;   permitting access to or other use of at least a portion of the one or more electronic content objects in accordance with the first control information;   storing usage information related to performance of the permitting step;   sending the usage information to a second electronic appliance, the second electronic appliance being located remotely from the first electronic appliance;   receiving second control information at the first electronic appliance, the second control information having been conditionally sent at least in part in response to performance of the sending step; and   using the second control information to permit or restrict further access to or other use of the one or more electronic content objects at the first electronic appliance.   
   
   
       8 . The method of  claim 7 , in which the first control information at least in part comprises a time-based constraint, and in which the permitting step comprises:
 comparing a current time value to a value included in the first control information.   
   
   
       9 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein the sending step occurs after the comparing step. 
   
   
       10 . The method of  claim 7 , in which the second control information at least in part comprises a time-based constraint, and in which the using step comprises:
 comparing a current time value to a value included in the second control information.   
   
   
       11 . A method comprising:
 creating first control information, the first control information being configured for use by a protected processing environment to govern access to or other use of an electronic content object at a first electronic appliance, the first control information including a requirement that information relating to access to or other use of the electronic content object be recorded;   sending the first control information to a first electronic appliance;   determining whether usage information relating to access to or other use of the electronic content object has been recorded; and   conditionally sending, based at least in part on results of the determining step, second control information to the first electronic appliance, the second control information including a time-based constraint.   
   
   
       12 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein the first control information includes a time-based constraint. 
   
   
       13 . A method comprising:
 creating first control information, the first control information being configured for use by a protected processing environment to govern access to or other use of an electronic content object at a first electronic appliance;   sending the first control information to the first electronic appliance;   receiving usage information, the usage information relating to access to or other use of the electronic content object by the first electronic appliance;   receiving a request for second control information from the first electronic appliance;   determining, based at least in part on whether usage information was received, whether the second control information should be sent to the first electronic appliance; and   conditionally sending, based at least in part on results of the determining step, the second control information to the first electronic appliance, the second control information permitting or restricting use of the electronic content object at the first electronic appliance.   
   
   
       14 . The method of  claim 13 , in which the first control information includes an electronic budget enabling a use of the electronic content object. 
   
   
       15 . A comprising:
 receiving first control information at a first electronic appliance, the first electronic appliance including a protected processing environment;   using the first control information to obtain access to or make other use of an electronic content object at the first electronic appliance, the access to or use of the electronic content object being governed by the protected processing environment in accordance with the first control information;   determining that at least a portion of the first control information has expired or has been consumed;   sending usage information to a second electronic appliance;   sending a request for second control information; and   receiving second control information.   
   
   
       16 . The method of  claim 15 , in which receipt of the second control information is contingent at least in part on performance of the step of sending usage information to the second electronic appliance. 
   
   
       17 . The method of  claim 15 , in which the sending steps are performed at least in part in response to the determining step. 
   
   
       18 . The method of  claim 15 , in which the first control information comprises a budget. 
   
   
       19 . The method of  claim 15 , in which the usage information and the request are combined.