Patent ID: 8364951
Filing Date: 2013-01-29
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A method for providing access rights to content in a secure digital content distribution system, the system including a provisioning service for allocating rights to a human user to a Digital Rights Management (DRM) client application, including an entitlement service for assigning authorization data for digital content to the DRM client application and an authentication service for verifying the identity of the DRM client application, the method comprising: operating a ticket granting service at a first administrative domain, the first administrative domain controlling access to content delivery servers; operating a first authentication service at a second administrative domain, the second administrative domain controlling access, for the DRM client application associated with a first set of human users, to second administrative domain content, wherein the first administrative domain is different from the second administrative domain; operating a second authentication service at a third administrative domain, the third administrative domain controlling access, for a second set of human users, to third administrative domain content, wherein the second set of users are different from the first set of users, wherein each of the administrative domains shares an inter-realm key with the ticket granting service and each of the authentication services issues a ticket granting ticket which enables the DRM client application to request service tickets from the ticket granting service and; granting the service ticket to the DRM client application from the ticket granting service, the service ticket containing authentication data which enables the DRM client application to access second administrative domain content via, one of the content delivery servers, and third administrative domain content via one of the content delivery servers.