Patent ID: 7152046

Claim:
A system for managing the state of a protected resource in a system for granting access to a protected resource in accordance with usage rights, said usage rights including state variables indicating a status of an associated protected resource, said system comprising: a protected resource associated with a usage right specifying a plurality of permitted manners of use for the protected resource, where a state of the usage right is defined at least in part by a state variable corresponding to one of the plurality of permitted manners of use for the protected resource; a resource control device coupled to said resource to control use of said resource by enforcing the usage right; a state controller operative to track the value of a state variable; and an interface framework operative to receive a message related to said state variable from said resource management device, load said state controller, and instruct said state controller to manipulate the value of the state variable in accordance with said message, wherein said usage rights further include a method specification specifying how values of said state variables are obtained, said method specification includes one of a location where the values of said state variables are stored, and a communication protocol to communicate with said state controller, and said method specification comprises at least one of said location, said communication protocol and a service parameter for obtaining said values of said state variables.