Patent ID: 8019687

Claim:
An apparatus for use in a node of a public data network comprising: a node data device that stores digital rights management (DRM) data associated with a plurality of digital files, the DRM data including a plurality of DRM identifiers each associated with a corresponding one of the plurality of digital files, a report indicator associated with each of the plurality of DRM identifiers that indicates whether a report should be generated and a transfer indicator associated with each of the plurality of DRM identifiers, indicating whether transfer of the corresponding one of the plurality of digital files is authorized by a rights-holder of the corresponding one of the plurality of digital files; a packet monitoring device, coupled to the node data device, that receives the DRM data from the node data device, that receives packets containing incoming content and compares the incoming content to the plurality of DRM identifiers, and that generates event data when the incoming content matches at least one of the DRM identifiers and when the report indicator associated with the at least one of the DRM identifiers indicates that the report should be generated, that evaluates the transfer indicator associated with the at least one of the plurality of DRM identifiers, and that passes transmission of the corresponding one of the plurality of digital files when the transfer indicator indicates that the transfer is authorized; and a node reporting device, coupled to the packet monitoring device, that receives the event data, and that generates node report data based on the event data.