Abstract:
Delivering content to a requesting device over a content delivery network, the content being deliverable in only one or more restricted geographic regions and the requesting device being communicatively connected to a cellular communications service provider via a cellular communications network, the method comprising steps of: receiving a network identifier of the requesting device uniquely identifying the requesting device in the cellular communications network; transmitting a verification message over the cellular communications network for receipt by the requesting device; receiving, from the requesting device, an access control submission; receiving, from the cellular communications service provider, location information corresponding to a geographic location of the requesting device; and in response to a determination that the access control submission derives from the transmitted verification message and the location information indicates the requesting device is in one of the one or more restricted geographic regions, delivering the content to the requesting device.

Description:
BACKGROUND 
       [0001]    1. Field 
         [0002]    The present invention relates to the delivery of data content over a network. In particular, it relates to the delivery of data content to a requesting device only when the requesting device is located in an authorized geographic region. 
         [0003]    2. Description of the Related Art 
         [0004]    With the growth and prevalence of network-enabled devices, individuals are increasingly able to access a broad range of digital content such as media, software, information and other data. Access control to such content can require application of numerous criteria, including whether a user is approved or authorized to access specific content and whether content is available at a particular geographic location. 
         [0005]    Restricting content to specific geographic regions is an increasing requirement as digital networks span regional and national boundaries. Regional statutory or regulatory differences and differences in regional licensing arrangements can require that content providers and content distributors impose such geographic restrictions on the availability of content. For example, a content provider streaming live sports coverage may only have a licence for a certain country and they will need to prevent content requesters in other locations from accessing the coverage. 
         [0006]    A simplistic solution is to require each content requester desiring to access content to register with a central authority to confirm their eligibility. This proves impractical when the content is being provided to large numbers of requesters in real time, and does not address the problem of requesters&#39; moving geographic location, such as mobile devices suitable for requesting such content. 
         [0007]    An approach often employed by content providers involves discerning the geographic location of a content requester based on a network address, such as an IP address. One such approach, known as GeoIP, takes user-entered location data from websites that ask web visitors to provide their geographic location (GeoIP is a registered trademark of MaxMind, Inc.). Large numbers of such datasets are then processed by a series of algorithms that identify, extract, and extrapolate location points for IP addresses. While this approach can prove effective, it suffers from the drawback that the required datasets must be generated and maintained. Further, the approach does not detect the actual location of a content requester where the requester communicates via an intermediary, such as a device communicating through a proxy server operating in a different geographic region. Yet further, some IP networks are shared across geographies and so cannot be easily or accurately associated with a single geographic location. 
         [0008]    Related U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,895,236 and 7,218,914 disclose methods for verifying the purported location of a wide area network user. The methods of these patents involve geographically restricted broadcasting of an access code such that only geographically authorized users within the restricted broadcast region can receive such codes and so can access location sensitive content. Since such a technique involves the public broadcast of access codes, there is no targeting to limit access to such access codes to users on a basis such as subscription or other authorization without further access control technology. Further, the approach does not address the malicious sharing of access codes outside the broadcast region through other technical means, such as receipt and retransmission. 
         [0009]    U.S. Pat. No. 6,377,810 discloses the generation of location information at a mobile device using a global positioning receiver (GPS) at the same location. This approach depends on trust in the mobile device which cannot always be assured, especially where flexibility and compatibility between many such devices is desired. The approach is especially fallible in respect of spoof GPS location data generated by malicious devices or software. 
         [0010]    Thus, there is a need to verify the location of an untrusted device from which requests for location sensitive content originate. 
       SUMMARY 
       [0011]    The present invention accordingly provides, in a first aspect, a method for delivering content to an untrusted requesting device over a content delivery network, the content being deliverable in only one or more restricted geographic regions and the requesting device being communicatively connected to a cellular communications service provider via a cellular communications network, the method comprising the steps of: receiving a network identifier of the requesting device uniquely identifying the requesting device in the cellular communications network; transmitting a verification message over the cellular communications network using the network identifier for receipt by the requesting device; receiving, from the requesting device, an access control submission; receiving, from the cellular communications service provider, location information corresponding to a geographic location of the requesting device; and in response to a determination that the access control submission derives from the transmitted verification message and the location information indicates the requesting device is in one of the one or more restricted geographic regions, delivering the content to the requesting device. 
         [0012]    Thus, location information is obtained from the cellular communications service provider as an independent third party for the untrusted requesting device. Also, the untrusted requesting device is verified to be the device from which content requests originate and to which content is proposed to be delivered. The content provider can therefore determine whether the location of the untrusted requesting device is authorized to receive requested content and provide such content as appropriate. 
         [0013]    The present invention accordingly provides, in a second aspect, an apparatus for delivering content to an untrusted requesting device over a content delivery network, the content being deliverable in only one or more restricted geographic regions and the requesting device being communicatively connected to a cellular communications service provider via a cellular communications network, the apparatus comprising: receiving means for receiving a network identifier of the requesting device uniquely identifying the requesting device in the cellular communications network; transmitting means for transmitting a verification message over the cellular communications network using the network identifier for receipt by the requesting device; receiving means for receiving, from the requesting device, an access control submission; receiving means for receiving, from the cellular communications service provider, location information corresponding to a geographic location of the requesting device; and content delivery means for, in response to a determination that the access control submission derives from the transmitted verification message and the location information indicates the requesting device is in one of the one or more restricted geographic regions, delivering the content to the requesting device. 
         [0014]    The present invention accordingly provides, in a third aspect, an apparatus comprising: a central processing unit; a memory subsystem; an input/output subsystem; and a bus subsystem interconnecting the central processing unit, the memory subsystem, the input/output subsystem; and the apparatus as described above. 
         [0015]    The present invention accordingly provides, in a fourth aspect, a computer program element comprising computer program code to, when loaded into a computer system and executed thereon, cause the computer to perform the steps of a method as described above. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0016]    A preferred embodiment of the present invention is described below in more detail, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: 
           [0017]      FIG. 1  is a block diagram of a computer system suitable for the operation of embodiments of the present invention; 
           [0018]      FIG. 2  is a block diagram illustrating an arrangement of a content provider, a content requester, and cellular communications provider communicating via a content delivery network and a cellular communications network in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention; 
           [0019]      FIG. 3  is a flowchart of a method for delivering content to the untrusted requesting device over the content delivery network in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention; 
           [0020]      FIG. 4  is an event flow diagram illustrating the sequence of events in delivering content to the untrusted requesting device over the content delivery network in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention; and 
           [0021]      FIG. 5  is an event flow diagram illustrating the sequence of events in delivering content to the untrusted requesting device over the content delivery network in accordance with an alternative embodiment of the present invention. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0022]      FIG. 1  is a block diagram of a computer system suitable for the operation of embodiments of the present invention. A central processor unit (CPU)  102  is communicatively connected to a storage  104  and an input/output (I/O) interface  106  via a data bus  108 . The storage  104  can be any read/write storage device such as a random access memory (RAM) or a non-volatile storage device. An example of a non-volatile storage device includes a disk or tape storage device. The I/O interface  106  is an interface to devices for the input or output of data, or for both input and output of data. Examples of I/O devices connectable to I/O interface  106  include a keyboard, a mouse, a display (such as a monitor) and a network connection. 
         [0023]      FIG. 2  is a block diagram illustrating an arrangement of a content provider  204 , an untrusted requesting device  202 , and a cellular communications provider  206  communicating via a content delivery network  210  and a cellular communications network  208  in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention. 
         [0024]    Content provider  204  is a hardware or software entity for providing data content to content requesters over the content delivery network  210 . Data content can include media (such as audio, video, images or text), software (such as software application packages, application user interfaces or cloud computing applications), information (such as news, weather, reference data, online articles or magazines) or any other data. For example, content provider  204  is a streaming media server for delivering audio and video content. The content delivery network  210  is a wired or wireless communications network suitable for content requesters to request, and content providers to transmit, data content. Content delivery network  210  can be specifically adapted to accommodate a certain type or types of content, such as a high-bandwidth network for the delivery of video and audio data. Content delivery network  210  can include a communications network provided via a cellular communications service such as 3G or EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Transmission). 
         [0025]    Untrusted requesting device  202  is a content requester in communication with the content provider  204  via the content delivery network  210 . The untrusted requesting device  202  is potentially any device that is suitable for communicating with content providers and being adapted to communicate with the cellular communications service provider  206  over a cellular communications network. For example, untrusted requesting device  202  can be a mobile telephone handset having 3G capabilities for requesting and receiving content over a cellular 3G network. It will therefore be apparent to those skilled in the art that the content delivery network  210  can constitute part of the cellular communications network  208 , such as an internet protocol (IP) connection over a 3G network provided by the cellular communications service provider  206 . 
         [0026]    The cellular communications service provider  206  provides the cellular communications network  208  as a network communications service for mobile transceivers including devices such as mobile network access devices, telephony devices and content requesters such as untrusted requesting device  202 . For example, cellular communications network  208  is used by mobile cellular telephones, broadband access devices such as broadband dongles etc. The cellular communications network  208  can be a radio network made up of a number of radio cells each served by at least one fixed-location transceiver known as a cell site or base station. The cells in cellular communications network  208  cover different regional areas to provide network coverage over a wider area than the area of any one cell so that a variable number of portable transceivers can be used in any one cell and moved through more than one cell during transmission. The cellular communications service provider  206  is operable to interpret information from the cellular communications network  208  to determine a physical location of a transceiver connected to the cellular communications network  208 , such as by way of determining which communications cell the device is operating within. For example, the cellular communications service provider  206  can determine a communications cell in which the untrusted requesting device  202  is located. In this way the cellular communications service provider  206  is able to provide location information for the untrusted requesting device  202 . 
         [0027]    In use, the untrusted requesting device  202  requests content from the content provider  204  over the content delivery network  210 . The untrusted requesting device  202  sends the content provider  204  a network identifier that uniquely identifies the untrusted requesting device  202  in the cellular communications network. For example, the network identifier can be a cellular telephone number or a network or network adapter address. Using the unique identifier, the content provider  204  communicates with the cellular communications service provider  206  via the cellular communications network  208  to obtain location information for the untrusted requesting device  202 . Further, to verify that the untrusted requesting device  202  is the same device as that for which location information is generated, a verification message is transmitted to the untrusted requesting device  202  via the cellular communications network  208 . The verification message is used by a user of the untrusted requesting device  202  to provide an access control submission to the content provider  204  over the content delivery network  210 . The access control submission is derived from the verification message such that the content provider  204  can verify that the untrusted requesting device  202  for which content is requested is the same device as that to which the verification message was transmitted and that for which the cellular communications service provider  206  provides location information. The access control submission can be derived from the verification message in any suitable way such as by being the same as the verification message, an identifying part of the verification message, or a processed, encrypted or signed version of the verification message, for example. 
         [0028]    In this way, the content provider  204  is able to obtain location information from the cellular communications service provider  206  as an independent third party for the untrusted requesting device  202  and is able to verify that the untrusted requesting device  202  is the device from which content requests originate and to which content can be delivered. Thus, the content provider  204  can determine whether the location of the untrusted requesting device  202  is authorized to receive requested content and provide such content as appropriate. 
         [0029]      FIG. 3  is a flowchart of a method for delivering content to the untrusted requesting device  202  over the content delivery network  210  in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention. At step  302  the content provider  204  receives a network identifier, such as a telephone number, from the untrusted requesting device  202 . At step  304  the content provider  204  transmits a verification message over the cellular communications network  208  to the untrusted requesting device  202 . At step  306  the content provider  204  receives an access control submission from the untrusted requesting device  202  over the content delivery network  210 . At step  308  the content provider  204  receives location information for the untrusted requesting device  202  from the cellular communications service provider  206 . At step  310  the method determines if the location of the untrusted requesting device  202  is authorized to receive the requested content and if the access control submission is derived from the verification message. Where the determination at step  310  is affirmative, the content provider  204  proceeds to communicate the requested content to the untrusted requesting device  202  at step  312 . Where the determination at step  310  is negative, the content provider  204  does not communicate the requested content. 
         [0030]      FIG. 4  is an event flow diagram illustrating a sequence of events in delivering content to the untrusted requesting device  202  over the content delivery network  210  in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention. The untrusted requesting device  202  initially communicates a cell network identifier  402  such as a cellular telephone number to the content provider  204  over the content delivery network  210 . The content provider  204  receives at event  404  the identifier and sends a verification message  406  to the untrusted requesting device  202  via the cellular communications network  208  at event  408 . For example, the verification message is sent to the untrusted requesting device  202  as a Short Message Service (SMS) message. The untrusted requesting device  202  receives the verification message at event  410 , and a user at the untrusted requesting device  202  makes an access control submission  412  to the content provider  204  via the content delivery network  210 . The access control submission at event  412  is based on the received verification message such that it is derived from the verification message. At the same time as event  412 , or before or after event  412 , the cellular communications service provider  206  sends location information  414  to the content provider  204 . The location information identifies a geographic location of the untrusted requesting device  202  such as a particular cell covering a defined geographic region in the cellular communications network  208 . The content provider  204  receives the access control submission  412  and the location information  414  at event  416 , and proceeds to determine if the access control submission is derived from the verification message at event  418 , and that the requesting device is located in an authorized geographic location at event  420 . Where these determinations are affirmative, the content provider  204  communicates the requested content to the requesting device over the content delivery network  206  at event  422 , for receipt by the requesting device at event  424 . Where the determinations at event  418  or  420  are negative, the communication of content to the untrusted requesting device  202  at event  422  is prevented from taking place. 
         [0031]      FIG. 5  is an event flow diagram illustrating a sequence of events in delivering content to the untrusted requesting device  202  over the content delivery network  210  in accordance with an alternative embodiment of the present invention. The alternative arrangement of  FIG. 5  provides the benefit of the preferred embodiment of the present invention described above without a need for the cellular communications service provider  206  to respond directly to the content provider  204  with location information. Instead, the location information is included within the access control submission received by the content provider  204  from the requesting device. The untrusted requesting device  202  initially communicates a cell network identifier  502 , such as a cellular telephone number, to the content provider  204  over the content delivery network  210 . The content provider  204  receives the identifier at event  504 , and sends a verification message  506  and the cellular network identifier over the cellular communications network  208  to be received by the cellular communications service provider  206 . The cellular communications service provider  206  determines a location of the untrusted requesting device  202  using the cell network identifier, and creates a message for the untrusted requesting device  202  including the verification message and the location information. The message for the untrusted requesting device  202  is encrypted by the cellular network service provider  206  such that it can be decrypted by the content provider  204  but not by the untrusted requester  202 . For example, the cellular network service provider  206  can encrypt the message using a public key associated with a private key for the content provider  204 . The encrypted message is sent to the requesting device  524  over the cellular communications network  208 , and is used by the requesting device as a basis for an access control submission  516 . The access control submission  516  in this embodiment includes the encrypted message from the cellular communications service provider  206 , and is sent to the content provider  204  where it is received and decrypted, such as by using a private key for the content provider  204 . The content provider  204  proceeds to determine if the access control submission is derived from the verification message at event  520 , and that the requesting device is located in an authorized geographic location at event  522 . Where these determinations are affirmative, the content provider  204  communicates the requested content to the requesting device over the content delivery network  206  at event  524 , for receipt by the requesting device at event  526 . Where the determinations at event  520  or  522  are negative, the communication of content to the requesting device  202  at event  524  is prevented from taking place. 
         [0032]    In this way the location information is communicated to the content provider  204  by the cellular communications service provider  206  via the untrusted requesting device  202 . The requesting device is unable to tamper or spoof the location information since it is encrypted by the cellular communications service provider  206 . In a further alternative embodiment, only the location information is encrypted by the cellular communications service provider  206  at event  512 , and the verification message is allowed to remain unencrypted. 
         [0033]    In yet a further embodiment, the cellular communications service provider  206  digitally signs the encrypted message at event  512 . 
         [0034]    Insofar as embodiments of the invention described are implementable, at least in part, using a software-controlled programmable processing device, such as a microprocessor, digital signal processor or other processing device, data processing apparatus or system, it will be appreciated that a computer program for configuring a programmable device, apparatus or system to implement the foregoing described methods is envisaged as an aspect of the present invention. The computer program may be embodied as source code or undergo compilation for implementation on a processing device, apparatus or system or may be embodied as object code, for example. 
         [0035]    Suitably, the computer program is stored on a carrier medium in machine or device readable form, for example in solid-state memory, magnetic memory such as disk or tape, optically or magneto-optically readable memory such as compact disk or digital versatile disk etc., and the processing device utilizes the program or a part thereof to configure it for operation. The computer program may be supplied from a remote source embodied in a communications medium such as an electronic signal, radio frequency carrier wave or optical carrier wave. Such carrier media are also envisaged as aspects of the present invention. 
         [0036]    It will be understood by those skilled in the art that, although the present invention has been described in relation to the above described example embodiments, the invention is not limited thereto and that there are many possible variations and modifications which fall within the scope of the invention. 
         [0037]    The scope of the present invention includes any novel features or combination of features disclosed herein. The applicant hereby gives notice that new claims may be formulated to such features or combination of features during prosecution of this application or of any such further applications derived therefrom. In particular, with reference to the appended claims, features from dependent claims may be combined with those of the independent claims and features from respective independent claims may be combined in any appropriate manner and not merely in the specific combinations enumerated in the claims.