Patent ID: 7552331

Claim:
A method comprising: establishing one or more paths of components that are to process and render digital content, the components each having an associated address and a signature, at least one component to pass data to another component; receiving encrypted content that is to be processed by the one or more paths, the encrypted content being subject to a license that defines, at least in part, how the encrypted data is to be processed; creating an authenticator to authenticate components along the one or more paths; determining whether any digital rights management data associated with the content needs to be translated to a form that can be understood by an authenticator's DRM system and, if so, effectuating translation of the digital rights management data by using a separate translator module that is configured to translate the digital rights management data; querying, with the authenticator, individual components of the one or more paths to ascertain the addresses of the components the queried components pass data to; creating additional authenticators to authenticate components along the one or more paths, the additional authenticators including a user mode authenticator to authenticate user mode components and a kernel mode authenticator to authenticate kernel mode components; providing a secure communication channel between the authenticators; authenticating, with the authenticators, the signatures of the queried components and the components at the addresses of the components that the queried components pass data to; establishing encryption/decryption keys with multiple components of the one or more paths for the components to use to encrypt and decrypt data.