Method for automating the management and interpretation of digital documents and their owners rights metadata for generating digital rights management protected contents

Abstract

A method for automating the management and interpretation of digital documents and their rights metadata to generate user access of a document protected by digital rights management (DRM), comprising the steps of a server obtaining a digital document and its associated rights metadata, the server interpreting the metadata to ascertain DRM useful information including identifications (IDs) of the document and its users and associated digital rights, and the server generating entries for a DRM database including policies associated with the document ID and users IDs based on the ascertained DRM useful information to enable DRM protection to the document.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method for automating the management and interpretation of digital documents and their rights metadata to generate user access of a document protected by digital rights management (DRM), comprising the steps of:
 a server obtaining a digital document and its associated rights metadata;   the server interpreting the metadata to ascertain DRM useful information including identifications (IDs) of the document and its users and associated digital rights; and   the server generating entries for a DRM database including policies associated with the document ID and users IDs based on the ascertained DRM useful information to enable DRM protection to the document.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the step of obtaining the digital document and its associated rights metadata further comprises a step of accessing a content provider's document depository to obtain the digital document. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the step of obtaining the digital document and its associated rights metadata further comprises a step of accessing a rights owners center's metadata database to obtain rights metadata. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3 , further comprising the step of obtaining additional rights information from rights owners center's metadata database for a newly compiled document. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 3 , further comprising the step of sending information of the newly compiled document to the rights owners center for updating its metadata database. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the step of interpreting the metadata further comprises a step of converting information obtained from the metadata into data items satisfying the format of the DRM database. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the step of interpreting the metadata further comprises a step of ascertaining rights granted to a document from copyrights information contained in the metadata associate with the document. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising a steps of upon receiving a request from a user for accessing a DRM-protected document, searching the DRM database for the document's ID or the user's ID to find out what policy is associated with the document ID and/or user ID. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8 , further comprising a step of based on the search result, determining whether to grant or deny the user request. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9 , further comprising the step of sending a decision on whether to grant or deny the user request to the user. 
     
     
         11 . A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer usable medium having a computer readable code embodied therein for controlling a data processing apparatus, the computer readable program code configured to cause the data processing apparatus to execute a process for automating the management and interpretation of digital documents and their rights metadata to generate user access of a document protected by digital rights management (DRM), the process comprising the steps of:
 obtaining a digital document and its associated rights metadata;   interpreting the metadata to ascertain DRM useful information including identifications (IDs) of the document and its users and associated digital rights; and   generating entries for a DRM database including policies associated with the document ID and users IDs based on the ascertained DRM useful information to enable DRM protection to the document.   
     
     
         12 . The computer program product of  claim 11 , wherein the step of obtaining the digital document and its associated rights metadata further comprises a step of accessing a content provider's document depository to obtain the digital document. 
     
     
         13 . The computer program product of  claim 11 , wherein the step of obtaining the digital document and its associated rights metadata further comprises a step of accessing a rights owners center's metadata database to obtain rights metadata. 
     
     
         14 . The computer program product of  claim 13 , further comprising the step of obtaining additional rights information from the rights owners center's metadata database for a newly compiled document. 
     
     
         15 . The computer program product of  claim 13 , further comprising the step of sending information of the newly compiled document to the rights owners center for updating its metadata database. 
     
     
         16 . The computer program product of  claim 11 , wherein the step of interpreting the metadata further comprises a step of converting information obtained from the metadata into data items satisfying the format of the DRM database. 
     
     
         17 . The computer program product of  claim 11 , wherein the step of interpreting the metadata further comprises a step of ascertaining rights granted to a document from copyrights information contained in the metadata associate with the document. 
     
     
         18 . The computer program product of  claim 11 , further comprising a steps of upon receiving a request from a user for accessing a DRM-protected document, searching the DRM database for the document's ID or the user's ID to find out what policy is associated with the document ID and/or user ID. 
     
     
         19 . The computer program product of  claim 18 , further comprising a step of based on the search result, determining whether to grant or deny the user request. 
     
     
         20 . The computer program product of  claim 19 , further comprising the step of sending a decision on whether to grant or deny the user request to the user.