Abstract:
A system and related techniques detect and manage the set of rights associated with a componentized electronic document, including to separately protect and manage individual text, graphic, audio, video or other parts of a multimedia presentation. Unlike prior digital asset management platforms which could enforce encryption or other protection simply around the entire object, the invention permits individualized control over separate media components, to permit distribution for example of some parts, such as text passages, while preventing unauthorized access or copying of audio, photographic, video or other files or content. The electronic document may maintain a list of media components and the set of rights associated with each such component, and a content server or other source may apply key encryption or other safeguards to guide the delivery of the overall media object or its parts, for instance to view in a browser, print on a printer or otherwise access, manipulate or output the content.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION  
       [0001]     The subject matter of this application is related to the subject matter of copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/______ filed Apr. 30, 2004, attorney docket number MS1-2051US, entitled “Document Markup Methods and Systems”, which application is assigned or under obligation of assignment to the same entity as this application, and which application is incorporated by reference herein. 
     
    
     STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT  
       [0002]     Not applicable.  
       FIELD OF THE INVENTION  
       [0003]     The invention relates to the field of information processing, and more particularly to the management of digital rights in electronic documents having multiple components.  
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0004]     The ease with which digital music, books and other written content, digital photographs and graphics, digitized video and other media and content may be shared, stored and retransmitted has highlighted the challenge of copyright and other ready rights management in the Internet era. While authors, composers, artists and others can take advantage of certain digital rights management (DRM) or digital asset management (DAM) technologies and platforms today, those approaches have drawbacks and limitations.  
         [0005]     For example, photographers, publishers and others may retain or attempt to retain the rights in digital photographs posted on the Internet through embedded digital rights metadata inserted into image files such as TIFF, JPEG or other formats. In such cases, the original artist or other rights holder may embed an image header with date, file size and possibly encryption or password-protection data, to prevent the unauthorized use or reproduction of the graphical or other work. Thus, members of the viewing public may not be able to use a browser to save a copyrighted news photograph to their hard drives without a passcode or encryption key, for example.  
         [0006]     However, even platforms which are aware of provisioning rights and include mechanisms to enforce copy protection may be insufficiently sophisticated to manage digital works which are more than simple texts or unitary images. For example, a news or other media Web site may present up-to-date stories in a more flexible format including text, associated photographs inserted in the story at a designed point, clickable audio clips, or streamed or other video or other media components. There is no way to effectively protect and manage the various modular parts of such a media object in an independent fashion.  
         [0007]     That is, even if current rights management schemes may or could be extended to multimedia news or other Web presentations, the viewer of that content mat or would be limited to an encryption key or other mechanism which would merely lock or unlock the overall combination of media components in monolithic fashion, as illustrated in  FIG. 1 . Separate components of that content, such as individual photographs, sections or chapters of texts, video clips or other components, could not be accessed, checked out, copied or otherwise processed individually.  
         [0008]     Because the constituent parts of the content can not be individually manipulated, the management and exploitation of rights in the overall media package may be constrained. For instance, a Web publisher or other may desire to make newspaper text redistributable but withhold the redistribution of associated video files, but this is impossible under current digital asset management platforms which place the entire object into an encrypted container. Other problems exist.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0009]     The invention overcoming these and other problems in the art relates in one regard to a system and method for digital rights management in an electronic document, in which the various media components in a media object, such as text, digital photographs or other images, audio samples, video clips or other content may be separately tracked and managed to preserve and manage the diverse rights in those components. In embodiments, the componentized electronic document may for example be served to a client machine from a content server. The electronic document may in embodiments contain an embedded list of the components making up the document, along with the associated, and possibly varying, sets of rights and privileges afforded to the individual components, for example to permit check in/check out to authorized or all users, to permit or prohibit the reproduction of digital photographs, or apply other rights, restrictions or privileges to those parts. For example the content server may remove parts of an electronic document before delivery to an unauthorized user or location. A parser in the recipient computer or other client device may likewise identify the associated rights and enforce or implement access and other privileges. In embodiments, the integrated rights management of the compound document may enhance and control the printing and other output activities of the content, for instance to prevent the unauthorized reproduction of protected works. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0010]      FIG. 1  illustrates a digital rights protection scheme, according to known technologies.  
         [0011]      FIG. 2  illustrates an electronic document containing a diverse set of content components, according to an embodiment of the invention.  
         [0012]      FIG. 3  illustrates a network environment in which a platform for digital rights management in an electronic document may operate, according to an embodiment of the invention.  
         [0013]      FIG. 4  illustrates an access profile for an electronic document, according to an embodiment of the invention.  
         [0014]      FIG. 5  illustrates a flowchart of overall rights and access management of an electronic document, according to an embodiment of the invention.  
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS  
       [0015]      FIG. 2  illustrates an example of an electronic document  102  upon which access and rights management functions may be performed, according to embodiments of the invention. As shown in that figure, the electronic document  102  may in one regard be or include a componentized or otherwise multipart document or file, containing among other things a set of components  104 . The set of components  104  may include, for example, text data such as ASCII, Microsoft Word™, Unicode or other character or textual information. Text data when stored in the set of components  104  may be presented in one or more languages, and may in embodiments be hosted within electronic document  102 , or in embodiments stored in a linkable separate file or other resource. The set of components  104  may likewise include or incorporate other categories of files or data, including for example graphical images such as digital photographs or other image data, for instance stored in JPG, TIFF or other graphical file formats. The set of components  104  may further include other media or data, such as for example audio samples or clips such as Windows™ audio (WAV) files, MPEG3 or other formats. Similarly, the set of components  104  may include video samples or clips, for example data stored in Windows™ video (AVI) files, QuickTime™ or other video encoding formats. Other data, media or information may be included within the set of components  104 .  
         [0016]     Individual components of graphical, audio, video and other types as well as textual or character data may likewise be embedded within electronic document  102  itself, or on cases be accessed via network resources such as Universal Resource Locator (URL) links or other references. In those case electronic document  102  may for example be composed for editing, storage and other actions on an on-demand or other basis. As shown, electronic document  102  may furthermore contain a document log  116  to assist in the tracking and management of the individual components in the set of components  104  as they are requested, extracted, edited and returned by users, as described below. In embodiments the electronic document  102  may be, include or interface to an electronic document or file of the type described in copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/______ filed Apr. 30, 2004, attorney docket number MS1-2051US, entitled “Document Markup Methods and Systems”, or others.  
         [0017]      FIG. 3  illustrates an architecture in which a system and method for management of a componentized electronic document may operate, according to an embodiment of the invention. As illustrated in that figure a user may operate a client  108  to communicate with content server  110 , to request, access and return one or more electronic document  102 . The client  108  may be or include a computer, a data-enabled cellular telephone, a network-enabled wireless device, or other device. The client  108  may communicate with the content server  110  through local or remote networking connections, such as a local area network (LAN), metropolitan area network (MAN), a wide area network (WAN), the Internet, or other wired, wireless, optical or other connections.  
         [0018]     The content server  110  may communicate with a content database  112 , which may store one or more electronic document  102 . The content database  112  may in embodiments be, include or interface to a relational or other database engine, such as a standard query language (SQL) engine, with associated hard disk, optical disk or other storage and search logic. A user at client  108  may initiate a request for access to the electronic document  102 , or one or more of the set of components  104 , by transmitting a request or query to content server  110 , for instance via applications such as a browser, a directory file service, a text or graphical editor, or other application or service. The request from client  108  may be received and processed by an access management engine  114  hosted in server  110 , or otherwise.  
         [0019]     The access management engine  114  may receive and authenticate the request for access to electronic document  102  or one or more of the set of components  104  thereof, in individualized fashion as appropriate to validate or decline access to specific components if requested. For example, the content server  110  may maintain an access profile  118  which records access rights for a given electronic document  102  and its various components in the set of components  104 . For instance as illustratively shown in  FIG. 4 , the electronic document  102  may have multiple components, each of which has an associated set of authorized users along with levels or types of access, editing, retransmission, or other rights.  
         [0020]     A user at client  108  may request, for example, retrieval of one chapter within an electronic document  102  such as a book, encyclopedia or other compilation or work. That user may then be authenticated against the access profile  118  for that electronic document  102  and the component within the set of components  104 . For example, an editor of an encyclopedia or multipart magazine may wish to access and check out a specific chapter for editing, proofing, updating, or other processing. The access management engine  114  may validate the user&#39;s level of access privileges, and transmit the desired chapter, image, audio, video or other component to the client  108  as retrieved data  106 , which could also in cases be the entire electronic document  102  when properly requested. For example, digital rights management or digital access management logic, tags or headers may be embedded in retrieved data  106  to allow or disallow copying, retransmission, printing or other outputting, to set a permitted check out time, or other management functions on the one or more component in the set of components  104 , or electronic document  102  itself.  
         [0021]     The access profile  118  maintained by content server  110  as well as document log  116  embedded within the electronic document  102  may include entries for the check-in/check-out or other status of the one or more components in the set of components  104 , or electronic document  102  itself to maintain document integrity, since electronic document  102  may be accessed or retrieved by more than one user, at the same time or different times. Thus for example the access management engine  114  may prevent a second user from accessing a component in the set of components  104 , even if the second user is authorized, to avoid inconsistent versions of components due to the alteration of multiple copies of the component.  
         [0022]     The access management engine  114  may also perform merge operations on the electronic document  102  after one or more users has edited and returned one or more components in the set of components  104 , to maintain a coherent and up to date image of electronic document  102 . For example, edits to separate parts of a component which do not conflict or overlap may all be stored to an updated version of a component, while the access management engine  114  may force separate versions of the set of components  104  or the electronic document  102  to be generated when conflicted versions appear. Users may in embodiments also be queried to select to store a separate version of the set of components  104  or electronic document, to discard outdated or conflicting changes, to override conflicting changes if a user has higher access privileges, or take other action in the management and storage of electronic document  102  and constituent updates.  
         [0023]     In embodiments the user at client  108  may request the electronic document  102  or one or more component in the set of components, including for purposes of printing or otherwise outputting the document or those components. In embodiments, after authentication the request may trigger the transmission of the electronic document  102  or one or more components in the set of components  104  directly to the client  108 . In further embodiments, the electronic document  102  or requested components may be initially requested by or via a print device itself, such as a laser or inkjet printer, or delivered directly to the print device for conditioning and printing or other output. In such embodiments and others, the electronic document  102  or the one or more components in the set of components  104  may be requested, identified or referenced by way of a network address or other identifier, such as a URL or other link. By making the electronic document  102  and its components both visible to and retrievable by network users on a granular basis, workgroup efficiency may be enhanced since multiple users may access and work on multiple components of a single electronic document  102 , while maintaining the rights management to all of the set of components  104  in coherent fashion.  
         [0024]      FIG. 5  illustrates overall retrieval and document management, according to an embodiment of the invention. In step  502 , processing may begin. In step  504 , a request to access the electronic document  102  or one or more components in the set of components  104  may be received in content server  110  or otherwise. In step  506 , the electronic document or one or more components in the set of components  104  may be retrieved from content database  112  or other content source.  
         [0025]     In step  508 , the one or more components in the set of components  104  or entire electronic document  102  which may be authorized for access by the requesting user may be extracted. This may be done for example by checking access profile  118  to apply access privileges for a given user and selecting those components among the requested components which the user is authorized to access, but denying access to unauthorized components or the document itself when appropriate. In step  510 , the check-in/check-out entry in the embedded document log  116  may be updated to reflect checked-out components in the set of components  104 . In embodiments the access profile  118  may be similarly update to reflect that status. In step  512 , the electronic document  102  or one or more components in the set of components  104  may be transmitted to client  108 , as retrieved data  106 .  
         [0026]     In step  514 , the electronic document  102  or one or more of the checked-out components may be processed, for example, textually or graphically edited, and returned to content server  110 . In step  516 , the content server  110  may merge the electronic document  102  or one or more returned components in the set of components  104  with the document or components from concurrent check-in/check-out sessions, as appropriate. For example, the merge may include updating and saving the components in set of components  104  which have not been altered, or which have been altered by only one user, to content database  112  while resolving multiply-edited components, for example by comparison logic or user query, for storage.  
         [0027]     In step  518 , the content server  110  may receive a print or other output request, for instance from client  108  or another requestor. The print request may include a URL identifying the electronic document  102  or one or more components in the set of components  104 , for network retrieval and individual printing of the components or the entire document if desired. In step  520 , the electronic document  102  or one or more components in the set of components  104  may be retrieved via a URL or other network or other address or reference. In step  522 , processing may repeat, return to a prior processing point, proceed to other processing or end.  
         [0028]     The foregoing description of the invention is illustrative, and modifications in configuration and implementation will occur to persons skilled in the art. For instance, while the invention has generally been described in terms of a platform in which electronic documents or other source files or information are served from a single content database, in embodiments electronic documents or components of those documents could be hosted and served from distributed databases, network connections or other resources.  
         [0029]     Similarly, while the invention has in embodiments been described as a platform in which a single client requests, retrieves and returns electronic documents to the content source, in implementations users may exchange the electronic document or components thereof to other clients, users or other destinations, for instance using security-enabled peer-type file sharing arrangements, or otherwise. Other hardware, software or other resources described as singular may in embodiments be distributed, and similarly in embodiments resources described as distributed may be combined. Further, while the invention has been described as operating on the set of access and other rights associated with a single electronic document, in embodiments one or more user or client may be permitted to select and manipulate common or other components from multiple electronic documents, at the same time. Again, while the invention has in one regard been described as generating a controlled print output which manages access rights to various parts of an electronic document, in embodiments the platform may mange other output functions or types, such as facsimile transmission. The scope of the invention is accordingly intended to be limited only by the following claims.