Patent Publication Number: US-2004054923-A1

Title: Digital rights and content management system and method for enhanced wireless provisioning

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0001] 1. Field of the Invention  
       [0002] The present invention relates, in general, to digital rights in wireless communication networks, and, more particularly, to software, systems, and methods for enabling the management, by a carrier or service provider and by wireless device users or subscribers, of access rights to digital content and of the digital content itself including the storage of digital content for each user or subscriber wireless device at a location(s) remote to the wireless devices, such as in digital rights lockers or client file systems on a provisioning or carrier server or data storage system.  
       [0003] 2. Relevant Background  
       [0004] The wireless communication industry has seen explosive growth as illustrated by the total number of cellular phone subscribers recently exceeding 600 million. At the same time, the rapid emergence of the Internet has changed the landscape of modern computing. People have become more and more dependent on the information that is available on the Internet including e-mail and instant messaging, games and entertainment, stock information, street maps, travel and traffic information, weather forecasts, news and much more. Increasingly, people are demanding access to the Internet from their mobile, wireless devices. As a result, the rapid and efficient deployment of Internet services including providing digital content (including wireless applications, Web services, data, and the like) to wireless devices has become a high priority within the wireless communication industry including consumer and embedded device manufacturers who build the diverse wireless devices, service providers or telecommunication carriers who wish to deliver content to their customers over these diverse wireless devices, and content providers who want to create useful and desirable content for the small, resource-constrained wireless devices.  
       [0005] While providing numerous opportunities for device sales and application and content licensing, the large growth of wireless devices and demand for new applications and corresponding content has resulted in a number of practical challenges that must be addressed for the use of wireless devices to continue to expand. The variety of wireless devices continues to grow and may include nearly any computer or electronic communication device that can receive and, typically, transmit digital data in a wireless manner, such as TV set-top boxes, Internet TVs, Internet-enabled screenphones, automobile entertainment and navigation systems, cell phones, pagers, personal organizers, and the like. The small size of wireless devices has been instrumental to the growing popularity as many of the current wireless devices are palm size or smaller and easy to carry, but the small size has resulted in the devices having limited hardware and software or being resource-constrained devices.  
       [0006] For example, many wireless devices have relatively small amounts of data storage (e.g., a few tens or hundreds of kilobytes of memory available for delivered content), are designed for low power consumption with a 16-bit or 32-bit processor, and often have intermittent wireless connections to a wireless network at a limited bandwidth (often 9600 bps or less). The resource constraints on the wireless devices, and particularly, the lack of persistent storage, continue to challenge service and content providers in their attempts to deliver content in an effective and resource and cost-sensitive manner. The devices can only download a limited amount of content at a time for immediate use and typically, can only persistently store an even smaller amount of content. The term provisioning is often used to describe hosting applications and associated resources on a server, allowing client wireless devices to discover suitable applications to run or content to download from the server or elsewhere on the wireless network, and transferring selected applications and/or digital content to the wireless device. Provisioning also involves the troublesome function of ongoing monitoring of the digital content and determining charges or billing for accessing or using the digital content.  
       [0007] In current provisioning systems, digital rights of a user to content (e.g., such as licensing of digital content) delivered via the Internet and other digital means is often unmanaged or at best, poorly managed. In some systems, once the content has been delivered to a wireless device, digital rights are controlled or enforced by built-in encryption technology that limits the user&#39;s access and use of the content, which is a static or one-time approach to access or digital rights management that typically does not allow ongoing or real-time digital rights management by the user or by the content or service provider. More recently, content providers have begun demanding the ability to more effectively perform digital rights and content management activities such as mining data to determine customer digital content usage patterns and controlling digital rights (such as adding users or subscribers to a particular digital content or revoking previously granted rights). Managers of digital rights often want to have flexibility in the granting of rights to content such as by providing digital rights as part of a promotion or as part of more complex licensing or subscriber arrangements (e.g., per a rights rule or set of rules provided by a content provider such as “If the user has subscribed for the gold plan and their buddy list has exceeded a preset number, the user has a predefined set of rights to the content.”).  
       [0008] Users of wireless devices are also beginning to demand more functionality from their wireless devices, including increased ability to manage their digital rights and content. User demand has been driven by the proliferation of content consumption wireless devices, such as cell phones and other mobile devices. These devices have limited capacity for storing content but users are demanding (and service and content providers are selling or distributing) more content than can be stored or used at one time on their wireless device. In general, the user has little or no ability to manage the digital content once they have purchased or otherwise obtained rights to access the content. Users are demanding abilities to share content accessible from their wireless device with wireless devices operated by other users, but presently, there has been little progress in this area of the wireless communication industry. The wireless device user presently has difficulty in determining which digital rights they have obtained and has difficulty updating or changing such as rights, accessing or managing the content for which they have rights, and sharing such content.  
       [0009] Existing content provisioning systems and “vending machines” have not successfully addressed the demands of the service and content providers or the wireless device users. A number of content provisioning systems implement simplistic authorization systems for controlling access by users to content but typically do not facilitate management of rights by the user or the service provider and simply store content in LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) directories or in databases. Digital rights management is often tied to or specific to the content being accessed or controlled or tied to the rights enforcement mechanism employed by the provisioning system or vending machine. Billing for digital content has been difficult to manage with existing billing techniques typically involving a one time download fee or an ongoing subscription charge for access to content (i.e., present billing systems are often not related to actual use and are simplistic in nature thus not facilitating promotional programs such as rate reductions for referrals or sharing of content with other users).  
       [0010] Hence, there remains a need for an improved method and system for use in wireless device provisioning systems for managing digital rights to content and managing the digital content itself. Preferably, such a method and system would enable a service provider to actively manage users&#39; digital rights including obtaining information on content usage and user activity patterns and enable wireless device users to manage their digital rights and content. Such a method and system would preferably not be dependent on particular device configurations, on network or communication protocols, or specific digital content and would preferably be useful with typical resource-constrained wireless devices.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0011] The present invention addresses the above problems by providing a provisioning system for a wireless content distribution system that is configured with a number of components (i.e., a “digital rights locker” mechanism) that enhance digital rights and content management. The digital rights locker mechanism provides for the management of digital rights by both a carrier (or other content or service provider) and an end user (i.e., a user or operator of a client wireless device) and provides a central storage location for at least clients digital rights (i.e., client rights profiles) and often for a link to clients&#39; content as well as the content itself (such as in a content repository). While the digital rights locker mechanism can be provided as a standalone device (such as on a separate server), the mechanism is typically provided as an added component(s) to a larger system such as part of a provisioning system that is part of a wireless content distribution system. The mechanism is generally independent of any particular rights enforcement technology, of any specific content or content format, or of a particular wireless network, communication protocol, and content transfer or external adapters for interfacing with wireless devices as well as content providers and carriers or service providers.  
       [0012] The digital rights locker mechanism interacts with a number of distribution and/or provisioning system components to enhance rights and content management. The mechanism functions to organize digital rights based on input and actions taken by the end user. For example, the user requests discovery of available content via the provisioning system and completes a purchase, subscription, licensing, or other content addition transaction. The digital rights locker mechanism then acts to update the user client rights profile stored in memory or storage and updates a client registry that provides a link between the user and their personal digital content (e.g., content for which the user has certain access rights). The user may also query the content registry to identify the content that is presently accessible by them. If use is requested, a rights granting mechanism (e.g., useful enforcement technology) determines if the user currently has the appropriate rights to download or otherwise use the content from a content repository (e.g., storage for the content that is part of the provisioning system, a directory to the content that is stored on various content provider systems that are networked to the provisioning system, and other useful content storage and access arrangements).  
       [0013] The user may also manage their current client rights profile maintained by the locker mechanism, such as via a graphical user interface displayed by the mechanism on their wireless device, and such user management may include terminating a subscription, sharing content (if appropriate rights are in place) with other users, and referring content to other users. The locker mechanism also enables rights management by the carrier or service provider by mining data from the client rights profiles to report existing content and digital rights and, in some cases, monitored usage of content and reporting such mined data to the carrier. The carrier, such as via a graphical user interface displayed by the locker mechanism, can manage the digital rights and content by terminating subscriptions of clients by modifying their client rights profile (such as for failure to make payments or violating a license agreement), by providing promotional digital rights to new content (such as in response to a user making a number of referrals, to promote new content, and other reasons), and by adding new content to the content repository.  
       [0014] The digital rights locker mechanism includes a number of functional elements to provide the desired management functions of the invention. For example, external adapters are included to implement external interfaces of the digital rights locker mechanism (or of the provisioning system) with wireless devices (which may vary widely in configuration) and with carriers, content providers, and the like and may include Web service interfaces, remote method invocation (RMI) interfaces, remote procedure call (RPC) interfaces, and human-oriented interfaces such as hypertext markup language (HTML) pages. The mechanism includes (or has access to) long-term storage to store information useful for granting digital rights and the information may include the client rights profiles and access or rights rules provided by content providers and/or carriers. A rights granting mechanism is provided to respond to a user request for access to content by determining what information is necessary for granting the right to use the content and processing such information. Typically, the rights granting mechanism grants rights or access to content based on the client rights profile for the requesting client and based on a default or hard-coded rights enforcement rule or on a rule or rule set that is supplied by an external entity (such as the carrier or content provider) and that can be dynamically updated without changing the rights granting mechanism.  
       [0015] More particularly, a computer-based method is provided for enhancing management of digital rights in a provisioning system. The method includes providing a set of digital content elements that are accessible from a wireless network. Profiles for a plurality of wireless devices are stored in a central repository. The profiles include information that defines the access rights of the wireless devices to the digital content elements. The method continues with receiving a discovery request from one of the wireless devices based on their digital rights information in their profile. In response to the discovery request, a portion of the digital rights information is retrieved and displayed on the requesting wireless device. In some embodiments, the response to the discovery request includes retrieving a listing or identification of portions of the content for which the requesting wireless device has existing access rights. The method may then include receiving an update request from the wireless device to update the access rights and in response, updating the profile information for that wireless device. Additionally, a content action command or request may be received from the wireless device requesting that a specific action (such as sharing the content or referring the content) is taken for a portion or element of the content. The specific action is taken after it is determined that the digital rights for that portion of the content supports or allows the requested action. 
     
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
     [0016]FIG. 1 illustrates in block diagram form a wireless content distribution system according to the present invention showing exemplary components of a content provisioning system that functions to enhance management of digital content and digital rights by users or clients and by carriers;  
     [0017]FIG. 2 is a flow chart illustrating functions performed during a content distribution process of the present invention and more particularly, processes involved in managing digital rights and digital content in a provisioning system such that shown in FIG. 1; and  
     [0018]FIG. 3 illustrates a simplified wireless content distribution system similar to the system of FIG. 1 showing the use of multiple content provisioning systems and corresponding rights control and management components along with multiple wireless networks and carriers. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
     [0019] In the following discussion, computer and network devices, such as client provisioning system  140 , carrier  184 , and content provider  190  of FIG. 1, and client devices, such as client wireless devices  110 , are described in relation to their function rather than as being limited to particular electronic devices and computer architectures. To practice the invention, the computer and network devices may be any devices useful for providing the described functions, including well-known data processing and communication devices and systems such as personal digital assistants, personal, laptop, and notebook computers with processing, memory, and input/output components, and server devices configured to maintain and then transmit digital data over a communications network. Similarly, the wireless client devices may be any electronic or computing device for transmitting digital data over a wireless network and are typically, but not necessarily, resource-limited devices such as TV set-top boxes, Internet TVs, Internet-enabled screenphones, automobile entertainment and navigation systems, cell phones, pagers, personal organizers, and the like. Data, including client requests, service provider or carrier and content provider requests and responses, and transmissions to and from the content provisioning system, typically is communicated in digital format following standard communication and transfer protocols, such as TCP/IP, HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, IMAP and the like, or IP or non-IP wireless communication protocols such as TCP/IP, TL/PDC-P, WSP, Bluetooth, 802.11b, and the like, but this is not intended as a limitation of the invention. Additionally, the invention is directed toward the management to rights to content and the management of the content itself. Content is intended to be a relatively generic term covering nearly all forms of digital information that may be provided over a wireless network to wireless communication devices, such as applications, Web services, ring-tones, and data applicable to the applications and services or otherwise useful by the devices (such as JPEG backgrounds and the like).  
     [0020]FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary wireless content distribution system  100  incorporating a content provisioning system  140  that is configured according to the invention to enhance user and service provider management of digital content and digital rights to such content. The system  100  includes a number of client wireless devices  110  linked to the content provisioning system  140  via a wireless network  130  (e.g., a circuit-switched data (CSD), packet-switched data (PSD), or other type of wireless data network). The content provisioning system  140  is also in communication with a carrier or service provider  184  for the wireless network  130  and a number of content providers  190  via a communications network  180  (such as the Internet, a WAN, a LAN, and the like). As will become clear, during operations, the content provisioning system  140  communicates with the client wireless devices  110  to allow the devices  110  to discover new content, to obtain new rights or modify existing rights to content (new and previously existing) that is stored on the system  140  or accessible through the system  140 , and to access content for which it has rights to use the content on the device  110  or to share or refer the content with other devices  110 . The content provisioning system  140  further acts to gather content from content providers  190  (or to obtain links and remote access capabilities to content) and to communicate with carrier  184  (or other service providers) to allow the carrier  184  to monitor content usage by client wireless carrier devices  110  and to monitor and manage rights to content provided to the devices  110 . Further, the provisioning system  140  can function to monitor client digital rights and content usage for use in billing or charging user of the devices  110  for such rights and content usage.  
     [0021] Each client wireless device  110  is configured for communicating with digital messages over the wireless network  130  and using at least some quantity of content deliverable by the content provisioning system  140 . The configuration of the device  110  is not limiting to the invention and may vary significantly with each device including different resources and often utilizing different networking technologies and standards (e.g., similar to wireless devices presently being manufactured and distributed in the marketplace). Generally, each client wireless device  110  includes a processor  112  (such as a 16-bit, 32-bit, or other processor) running or providing an operating environment  114 , which may include a host operating system, native applications, OEM-specific applications, and more specific configuration or standardization software (such as a Java virtual machine based on the Connected, Limited Device Configuration (CLDC) and associated libraries) and a set of application programming interfaces (APIs) such as those defined in the mobile information device profile (MIDP) specification.  
     [0022] A limited amount of data storage  118  (including persistent storage) is provided with some portion (such as 160 to 512 kilobytes or more) being available for content provided from the content provisioning system  140 . A network interface  120  is provided to connect the device  110  to the wireless network  130  such as a wireless intermittent connection with limited bandwidth (such as 9600 bps), and in some cases, a wired connection or infrared connection may also be provided for connection to other devices or to the communications network  180 . A user interface  124  is provided to display data to a user of the device and to allow the user to input data, and as such the interface  124  may include a display screen for displaying received data and data being input on a graphical user interface (such as that created by the content provisioning system  140 ) and input devices (such as a keypad, a keyboard, a touch screen, and/or other input mechanisms). Each client wireless device  110  typically also will include (to run persistently or on an as-needed basis) a client content and rights manager  128  that may be an application or other code mechanism that allows the client wireless device to interface with the content provisioning system  140  (such as a MIDP, a microbrowser, or other application for interfacing with the rights granting mechanism  164  or rights manager  170  of the system  140 ). The client content and rights manager  128  may be configured for discovering or searching the content provisioning system  140  (such as by searching a locator or URL of the content provisioning system  140  via the wireless network  130 ) for available content and for personal content (e.g., content which digital rights have already been obtained) and for requesting to manage the content or client rights by accessing and modifying a client rights profile (see profiles  158  in system  140 ).  
     [0023] The content provisioning system  140  includes components that work in combination as a “digital rights locker” mechanism or system to allow users of the client wireless devices  110  to browse, arrange, delete, forward to other devices  110 , and otherwise manage content and corresponding digital rights. Similarly, the carrier  184  (and in some cases, the content providers  190 ) is able to manage client digital rights and content as well as manage or control billing for content usage and mining of client profile (e.g., usage) data. A wireless network interface  142  is provided for communicating content and messages over the wireless network  130  with the devices  110  and includes external adapters  146  (or provisioning adapters) for communicating according to standards and/or protocols expected by the various devices  110 . A network interface(s)  178  is provided to allow the content provisioning system  140  to communicate with carrier  184  and content providers  190  via the communications network  180  and, as such, may include separate interfaces for the carrier  184  and for all or each of the content providers  190  that are adapted for the communications network  180  and configurations of the carrier  184  and content providers  190 .  
     [0024] The content provisioning system  140  illustrated is adapted to provide a central location for storing content obtained by the users of the content wireless devices  110  (i.e., for which digital rights have been purchased or otherwise obtained), to allow the users to browse and manage such content, and to provide each user with an identity or profile and a link between the users and the content. As shown, data storage  150  is provided for long-term storage. The data storage  150  can be part of the system  140  as shown or be any useful memory or data storage device accessible by the content provisioning system  140 . A content repository  154  is provided to store the content available from the content provisioning system  140 , which is provided via the communications network  180  from the content providers  190  (e.g., third party developers of content  192 ). The content  156  in the repository needs to be discoverable by the devices  110 , and the content registry  152  is provided as a directory (such as a LDAP directory) of the available content in the system  140 .  
     [0025] For each client wireless device  110  (or at least those subscribing to or served by the system  140 ), a client rights profile  158  is stored in the data storage  150  including information on digital rights previously obtained by a user of the device  110  and, in some cases, additional profile information such as referral information for content, trading or sharing information of the content with other devices  110 , and usage of the content  156  for which digital rights have been obtained. A rights manager  170  is provided with a client mechanism  172  for enabling each client wireless device  110  to access the client rights profiles  158  and to modify the information of the profile  158  to manage their digital rights (such as by terminating a subscription, trading rights, or sharing content). In some embodiments or operational configurations of the system  100 , all or portions of the content  156  may remain as content  192  stored at the content provider (or at yet another point or server in the system  100 ) with only the client rights profiles being stored at the provisioning system  140 . In these embodiments, the provisioning system  140  still controls access to and delivery of the content  192  based on the client rights profiles  158  but storage (or at least long-term or persistent storage) is not provided in the system  140 .  
     [0026] The client mechanism  172  may create a user interface or graphical user interface that is displayed on the user interface  124  of the device  110  for displaying profile data (e.g., rights data) and for receiving user update information to change or manage the digital rights. In this manner, the user is able to quickly determine the rights they have and to update or change such rights as desired. A carrier mechanism  174  is also provided in the rights manager  170  to allow the carrier  184  to view client rights profiles  158  (such as via a GUI displayed on the user interface  188 ), to manage the rights such as by terminating licenses or providing additional rights, and to obtain usage information. To assist in mining user data, a usage and rights reporting mechanism  168  is provided to monitor content usage and/or to process (ongoing or periodic) the client rights profiles  158  to capture usage information, referral information, and sharing information which is then reported to the carrier automatically or upon request via the communications network  180 .  
     [0027] A link between the client digital rights and the corresponding content is provided by the system  140 . This can be provided in a number of ways. For example, a logical link to content  156  can be provided as part of the client rights profiles  158 . Such an arrangement is particularly useful if the amount of content  156  that each user has rights to is expected to remain small. This arrangement strongly couples content  156  to the user device  110  but loosely to the actual or current content  156  in the repository  154 , which results in frequent updating of the content links as the content  156  is updated, deleted, or otherwise becomes stale. In one preferred embodiment (such as system  140 ), a logical link between content  156  and devices  110  which have digital rights to access that content  156  is provided directly in the content registry  152 . This is a desirable arrangement for keeping the content-user device link information close to other metadata associated with the content  156 . Such a configuration is useful when a user provides a request to discover their digital rights (i.e., provides a query as to “what content do I have?”) and also then ask further or deeper questions about a specific element of content  156 . In these two configurations, the content-user device link information is provided on one system, i.e., the data storage  150 , but in other embodiments (such as that shown in FIG. 3), a separate component is utilized for storing such link information and profile information to allow ready modification of such link information and make it more efficient and clean to build additional services on the profiles directory  158  such as profiling, referral incentive programs, and the like, on the separate component.  
     [0028] The content provider  190 , such as a third party application developer, develops and delivers content  192 . The content provider  190  can also create access rules  196  for such delivered content  192 , which are stored in data storage  150  as access or rights rule sets  160 . A rights granting mechanism  164  is provided in the content provisioning system  140  to enforce default or hard-coded rights enforcement rules or, if received for the particular content  156 , applying the access or rights rules  160  to a request for content  156  from a device  110 . A number of enforcement technologies may be implemented as part of the rights granting mechanism  164  that basically processes a content request from a device  110  to retrieve an appropriate client rights profile  158  and then compare digital rights for the content  156  identified in the request. If available, access rules  160  are applied to make the enforcement decision of whether the device  110  has the rights to access the content  156  for the purpose indicated in the request. The rule set  160  can include relatively complicated logic such as requiring that the user profile information in the rights profile  158  for the requesting device  110  indicates the user is a subscriber of (or has a license to) the content  156  plus has made a number of referrals within a certain time period and has not accessed the content more than a maximum number within a given time period (i.e., almost any combination of requirements can be combined in the rule sets  160 ).  
     [0029] A billing system  176  is provided in the content provisioning system  140  with billing rules  178  established for the provisioning system  140 , set by the carrier  184 , or content specific and set by the content providers  190 . The billing system  176  can be configured to receive usage messages from the other components of the system  140  (such as rights granting mechanism  164  for charges based on accessing content, such as the content repository for per download or use fees, and/or such as from the usage and rights reporting mechanism  168  for periodic billing based on usage data in the profiles  158 ). The billing system  176  can be flexible to allow more than just initial billing for obtaining digital rights but also for per use charges. Additionally, the billing rules  178  can be configured to provide users with referral and trading content incentives such as by reducing fees based on such referrals and trades and/or based on a desired level of content usage by the user of a device  110 .  
     [0030] As shown, a context provider  198  is included in the system  100  to facilitate dynamically or variable construction of the client rights profiles  158  during operation of the system  100 . For example, in several embodiments of the system  100 , it is useful for the client rights profiles  158  to be created in real time based on operations or locations of the wireless devices  110 . In some embodiments, more than one client rights profiles  158  is provided for devices  110  with each profile  158  being used by the provisioning system  140  based on the operation and/or location of the devices  110 . In this manner, the digital rights components of the system  140  allow the profiles  158  to be dynamically constructed from stored data, stored rules, and/or, significant to context provider  198 , externally obtained data. Hence, for some devices or for some content, the profiles  158  may be relatively static information while for others the profiles are created as part of the provisioning or content access operations.  
     [0031] The context provider  198  is linked to the content provisioning system  140  via communications network  180  and acts to provide additional information pertaining to one or more of the wireless devices  110  to the system  140  for use in creating the client rights profile  158  for that device  110 . In one embodiment, the additional information includes location information for the client wireless device  110  and the context provider  198  is configured to determine the location of the device  110  (such as by processing a global positioning satellite (GPS) signal from the device  110 ). The device location information is the available to the content provisioning system  140  in dynamically creating or modifying the client rights profile  158  for the device based on this additional device information (i.e., location information).  
     [0032] For example, a user of a device  110  may bring their device  110  to a specific physical location, such as a shopping mall, a particular city, a corporate facility, and the like, and request content based on their location. In one embodiment of the system  100 , the content provisioning system  140  responds to the discovery request from the client device  110  by contacting the context provider  198 . The context provider  198  acts to determine the location of the requesting device  110  and returns this information to the content provisioning system  140 . The content provisioning system  140  then utilizes this information (such as via the rights granting mechanism  164  or other components) to dynamically create (or modify an existing profile  158 ) a client rights profile  158  based on the device location information. The profile  158  may include other information for the device  110  such as personal information, usage information, previously obtained rights to content (e.g., has the wireless device already obtained rights for this location or usage defined by the additional information provided by the context provider  198 ), and other information that may be useful in determining digital rights to content that is specific to the location of the device  110 . In some embodiments, the new profile created based on location is marked as a temporary profile for the device  110  and is stored in temporary storage separate from the data storage  150  (or later deleted from the profiles  158  as location changes or as part of a periodic optimization of storage  150 ).  
     [0033] In operation of the system  100 , the client device  110  now has a location-based profile  158  and the provisioning system  140  may display this profile information on the device  110  or more typically, will respond to the discovery request by providing the device  110  with direct access to appropriate content based on their profile  158  or display a listing of available content  156  that is specific to the location. In a shopping mall example, the device  110  would transmit a discovery request to the provisioning system  140  which would respond by creating a user profile based on a location provided by the context provider  198  and then providing the profile  158  to the user device  110  and/or content available  156  related to the shopping mall. Once the device  110  is removed from the shopping mall and another discovery request is made (or request to view profile  158 ), the provisioning system  140  acts to determine the location of the device  110  via the context provider  198  and creates a different profile  158  that (typically) will not include digital rights to information regarding the shopping mall. The new or different profile  158  may be a relatively persistent base or default profile  158  stored in data storage  150  for the device  110  or again may be a location-specific or other additional information-specific profile that is created for the device  110 . In this manner, the system  100  is operable to allow a user to obtain differing digital rights (based on location or other additional information) based on their varying uses of the device  110 .  
     [0034] A location service is just one example of the information that may be provided by the context provider and the invention is intended to cover numerous other new or legacy information that may be provided by a third or external party to the provisioning system  140  for use in dynamically creating the client rights profiles  158 . For example, the context provider  198  may be adapted to determine for client wireless devices  110  used in vehicles (such as automobiles) whether the device  110  is moving and if moving, at what speed. This movement and/or speed information can then be used by the content provisioning system  140  to develop the client rights profile  158  for the device  110  and content rights may depend on such information (e.g., provide visual and text information when not moving or at a cruising speed while providing access to audio and/or light text or visual content when moving at speeds indicating city driving to reduce distractions). The context provider  198  may also store and provide legacy information such as a prior usage or usage patterns or purchased rights plans (such as purchased levels) that can be used by the provisioning system  140  in generating the client rights profiles and/or for controlling access to content  156  with the rights granting mechanism  164 . As can be appreciated, the type of real-time or legacy information provided by the context provider  198  is not limiting to the invention with a wide variety of information being useful for embodiments of the system  100  in which profiles  156  are dynamically created. Additionally, while one context provider  198  is shown for simplicity, the system  100  may include a plurality of context providers  198  which may act alone or in combination with other context providers  198  and/or legacy systems (not shown).  
     [0035]FIG. 2 illustrates a digital rights and content management process  200  according to the invention that can be provided as part of operation of wireless distribution systems, such as system  100 . The process  200  starts at  204  typically with providing and configuring a content provisioning system  140  with digital locker mechanism components (such as one or more of rights granting mechanism  164 , usage and rights reporting mechanism  168 , rights manager  170 , and a data storage system  150  with a content registry  152 , a content repository  154 , and client rights profiles  158 ). The provisioning system  140  is linked to the wireless network  130  and the communications network  180  to link the system  140  to client wireless devices  110 , carrier  184 , and content providers  190 . The functions or steps of the process  200  may be performed in differing orders than those shown in FIG. 2 and many of the functions or steps or groups of functions or steps are typically performed concurrently as shown.  
     [0036] At  206 , the content provisioning system  140  receives content  192  via the communications network  180  and network interface  178  from a content provider  190 . Along with the content  192 , access rules  196  for such content  192  may optionally be provided by the content provider  190  for use by the rights granting mechanism  164  in enforcing access or digital rights when access is requested by users of the devices  110  to the content  192 . At  208 , the content  192  is stored in a content repository  154  as available content  156  and the access rules  196  received are stored as access and rights rule sets  160  in the data storage  150 . At  210 , the content registry  152  is updated to reflect the addition of new content. Steps  206 - 210  are then repeated upon the receipt of new content and modifications or updates to the content  156  (including deletions of content  156 ).  
     [0037] At  214 , the process  200  continues with establishing a new carrier  184  or configuring the provisioning system  140  for the carrier  184 . Such initiation  214  may include establishing a number of client rights profiles  158  based on an existing subscriber list of the carrier  184  including importing or storing in profiles  158  profile information including digital rights to content  156 . In some embodiments, the content registry  152  is updated to modify the content-to-user device link information (or this may be provided in the client rights profiles  158  information). The carrier  184  may input or provide billing rules  178  and these are stored at  218 . These billing rules  178  are utilized by the billing system  176  in tracking charges or fees for services provided by the provisioning system  140  (such as initial granting of rights to content, per use charges, and the like) based on the billing rules  178 . At  222 , the content provisioning system  140  can optionally publish or advertise available content  156  to all or a portion of the client wireless devices  110  (such as by e-mail messaging of content lists). Such a publishing  222  may also be performed upon the receipt or updating of content  156  at steps  206 - 210 .  
     [0038] At  224 , a user of a device  110  transmits a discovery request to determine what content  156  is available for the device  110  to get digital rights (such as with client mechanism  172 ). At  228 , the content registry  152  is accessed by the client mechanism  172  or directly by the client wireless device  110  to identify the content  156 , such as in a directory listing, and this listing or other content identification information is displayed on the user interface  124 . At  232 , a decision or request to obtain digital rights to a portion of the content  156  is received by the rights manager  170  (optionally, along with a form of payment that is transmitted to the billing system  176 ). At  236 , the rights manager  170  updates the client rights profile  158  corresponding to the requesting client wireless device  110 , the billing system  176  is notified (to initiate up front billing and/or to initiate ongoing per use or other usage-based billing programs), and the content-to-user device link information is updated (either in the profile  158  or in the content registry  152 ). Optionally, at  236 , the requested content  156  can be downloaded or provided to the wireless device  110 .  
     [0039] At  240  (which can occur concurrently with 224-236), a client wireless device  110  transmits a request for access or discovery of their previously obtained digital rights. The client mechanism  172  of the rights manager  170  acts to process the request and retrieve information from the client rights profile  158  corresponding to the device  110 . The retrieved rights information is displayed (such as on a GUI) on the user interface  124  of the device  110 . In some cases, the client rights profile  158  is dynamically created at this point in the process  200  based on additional device information provided by the context provider  198  (such as a current location of the device  110 ), as explained in detail with reference to FIG. 1.  
     [0040] The user can then operate the user interface  124  to browse their digital rights and if desired, to transmit an update request for the digital rights, such as terminating a subscription. At  248 , the client mechanism  172  determines if an update request or input is received. If an update is received, at  252 , the client rights information is updated and stored in the client rights profile  158 . As part of such updating at  252 , the content-to user device link information is typically also updated in the profile  158  or the content registry  152 .  
     [0041] The user at  256  may also indicate via user interface  124  (such as in input boxes) that they wish to perform a content action, e.g., perform actions allowable or acceptable based on a corresponding digital right. If a content action request is detected at  256  by the client mechanism  172 , the process  200  continues at  260  with performing the requested content action (such as sharing the content with other devices  110 , referring the content to other devices  110 , and the like). At this point, the rights granting mechanism  164  determines whether the requested content action can be carried out based on the requesting devices digital rights to the content  156  and based on default access rules or access rules  160  provided by the content provider  190  (or carrier  184 ). If it is determined that rights correspond to or match the requested action, the content action is taken (such as by sharing the content with another device  110 ).  
     [0042] At  264 , the provisioning system  140  receives a request from the carrier  184  to access and manage digital rights granted to the clients  110  (and in some cases, content  156 ). The carrier mechanism  174  of the rights manager  170  acts at  268  to process the client rights profiles  158  and display digital rights granted to clients  110  such as on a GUI on user interface  188  of the carrier system  184 . If a management action is detected at  272 , the process  200  continues at  276  with the carrier mechanism  174  acting to update the client rights profiles  158 , such as by terminating a license for non-payment or by adding rights or modifying rights. In some embodiments, content  156  via the registry  152  is viewable by the carrier  184  at user interface  188  and is also manageable or controllable by the carrier  184 . If a content management action is detected at  272 , the content action is performed at  276  followed by an updating as necessary of the content  156 , the content registry  152 , and the client rights profiles  158 .  
     [0043]FIG. 3 illustrates another embodiment of a wireless content distribution system  300  according to the invention. The system  300  differs from system  100  in that first and second wireless networks  308 ,  309  are operated for client wireless devices  304 ,  305  by first and second carriers  354 ,  356 . To manage content and rights for the different networks  308 ,  309 , first and second provisioning systems  310 ,  330  are linked to the devices  304 ,  305  via wireless networks  308 ,  309  and to carriers  354 ,  356  via communications network  350 . As with system  100 , content providers  358  are linked to the communications network  350  to provide content (and, in some cases, access rules) to the provisioning systems  310 ,  330 . In contrast to system  100 , system  300  provides a single billing system  352  as a separate component linked to the provisioning systems  310 ,  330  for servicing both provisioning systems  310 ,  330  and/or both carriers  354 ,  356 . Additionally, other client devices  360  are linked to the communications network  350  and may be other computing devices (such as an office PC or home laptop) operated by the users of the wireless devices  304 ,  305  or by other operators with or without wireless devices. During operation of the system  300 , client wireless devices  304 ,  305  can request the provisioning systems  310 ,  330  to share content for which they have rights with the other client devices  360 . In this manner, the resource, constrained devices  304 ,  305  can download or transfer larger sized or resource demanding content to more powerful devices  360  for more effective use of their digital rights.  
     [0044] The provisioning systems  310 ,  330  include wireless network interfaces  312 ,  332  and communications interfaces  322 ,  342  similar to system  100 . The components of a digital locker mechanism are shown more consolidated with the inclusion of rights and content management tools  316 ,  336 . The tools  316 ,  336  provide the functions of the rights granting mechanism  164 , the usage and rights reporting mechanism  168 , and the rights manager  170  of provisioning system  140 .  
     [0045] Additionally, in some embodiments, the first and second provisioning systems  310 ,  330  work at least partially as a federation or in a combined effort to manage content and digital rights. In these embodiments, the tools  316 ,  336  are configured to discover other provisioning systems  310 ,  330  with rights and content management tools  316 ,  336  (e.g., operating under digital locker principles) and form a trusted relationship or federation. This arrangement is particularly useful when one or more of the devices  304 ,  305  utilizes more than one provisioning system  310 ,  330  (as may be the case when multiple provisioning systems service a single wireless device or a user operates more than one client wireless device  304 ,  305  on multiple wireless networks  308 ,  309  in which case a user may not be required to obtain repetitive digital rights). In the federation arrangement, the first and second provisioning systems  310 ,  330  can use their management tools  316 ,  336  to respond to content requests from devices  304 ,  305  and if the device is not in their profiles  320 ,  340 , transmit the request to the appropriate provisioning system  310 ,  330  (optionally, a provisioning system identifier can be included in communications from the devices  304 ,  305 ). In this manner, the digital locker concepts of the invention can be utilized in a wireless content distribution system  300  with distributed provisioning systems  310 ,  330 . Such federation and linking of provisioning systems  310 ,  330  is also useful for allowing one provisioning system  310 ,  330  to sell or distribute digital rights to content on the other provisioning system  310 ,  330 . In this fashion, the system  300  can be constructed to position the point from which content is distributed as close to the user devices  304 ,  305  as possible (with “close” being defined in terms of network bandwidth, latency, and topology) such that rights may be managed by a more distant or remote provisioning system  310 ,  330  while content is distributed from the more local or close provisioning system  310 ,  330 .  
     [0046] In the provisioning systems  310 ,  330 , data storage  324 ,  344  is provided for storing content  328 ,  348  provided by the content providers  358  and with content registries  326 ,  346  providing a discoverable index or listing of the content  328 ,  348  and its location in data storage  324 ,  344 . Again, a content-to-user device link may be indicated in the content registries  326 ,  346  or alternatively, within a user&#39;s locker profile. In the illustrated provisioning systems  310 ,  330 , separate client rights mechanisms  318 ,  338  are provided which provide some of the functions of the client mechanism  172  of system  140  in FIG. 1 and which further include the user&#39;s client rights profiles  320 ,  340  for the devices  304 ,  305 . The profiles  320 ,  340  may include the content-to-user device link information or in some embodiments, the link information is provided as a separate component (not shown) that may be part of the client rights mechanisms  318 ,  338  or a separate component within the systems  310 ,  330 . Such separation of the links information may be warranted when the profiles  320 ,  340  and the registries  326 ,  346  are in use or existing prior to initiation of the provisioning system  310 ,  330  for digital locker operations. Additionally, such separation provides a clean point for managing the many-to-many links between the users and the content  328 ,  348  and does not complicate the profiles  320 ,  340  or the registries  326 ,  346 .  
     [0047] Although the invention has been described and illustrated with a certain degree of particularity, it is understood that the present disclosure has been made only by way of example, and that numerous changes in the combination and arrangement of parts can be resorted to by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, as hereinafter claimed.  
     [0048] For example, it will be understood that in some cases the wireless devices  110 ,  304 ,  305  may be able to obtain content from devices other than from the provisioning systems  140 ,  310 ,  330  (such as by infrared or hardwired connections). In such cases the systems  100 ,  300  can be adapted such that this additional content is transferred to the provisioning systems  140 ,  310 ,  330  from the wireless device  110  (or from the content source) typically via a communication network such as the Internet  180 ,  350  but in some causes over the wireless network  130 ,  308 ,  309  (such as when the volume of the content is small or the provisioning system  140 ,  310 ,  330  is “close”).