Patent ID: 7516332

Claim:
A digital content processing method comprising processing content with at least one distribution target position, each of said at least one distribution target position corresponds to an authorization key, the step of processing content comprises the steps of: encrypting said content with a content key; forming a key link based on said content key and the authorization key of said at least one distribution target position; and attaching said key link to the encrypted content, wherein said key link is used to associate the content with said at least one distribution target position which comprises: a mapping relation between the authorization key of said at least one distribution target position and said content key; and an identifier for identifying the distribution target position to which said authorization key corresponds, and further comprising forming the key link by combining a parameter used for mapping said authorization key of said at least one distribution target position to said content key with the authorization key identifier; if new distribution target positions manifest after key binding data has been formed for each of the at least one distribution target positions, forming new key links for the new distribution target positions and attaching said new key links to the previously formed key binding data; and attaching different content access rights to each of said authorization keys, when forming the key links; wherein: said parameter used for mapping said authorization key of said at least one distribution target position to said content key selectively comprises: the cipher text used for encrypting the content key with the authorization key, a modified value of applying a one-way algorithm to the authorization key, or a modified value of the XOR operation of the authorization key and the content key; and said authorization key identifier is the URL of the distribution target position; the key link forming step further comprising forming key binding data by combining the key links, if key links have been formed for two or more positions of the at least one distribution target positions; the transfer of the authorization key of the distribution target positions can be earlier than the transfer or generation of the content itself; and said key links or key binding data can be one of a head of the content and a separate index file of the content.