Patent Document

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0001]     1. Field of the invention  
         [0002]     The invention concerns a digital publishing system that protects the intellectual property rights. In particular, it concerns a system that complies with existing business flows and uses the encryption-decryption technologies developed for the financial industry to prevent piracy and protect the copy rights of authors and publishers.  
         [0003]     2. Description of the prior art  
         [0004]     Publishers of today all uses digital technologies in the production of books. The book contents are stored in databases and are the major assets of the publisher. The publishers are reluctant to release high value digital content to others for storage. During publication, publishers, at the expense of much resource, print these contents on paper to make books. For areas that traditional paper books cannot convey, e.g. foreign language pronunciations and dynamic graphics, publishers frequently store them in a compact disk in digital form for readers to retrieve with a computer. These publication flows impose tremendous cost to the publishers and inconveniences to consumers.  
         [0005]     In the earlier days, people built dedicated devices to display the contents and asked publishers to store their contents with the service provider for customers to download from the Internet. In the first place, publishers are reluctant to store their high-value content, their major asset, with others. On the other hand, the devices were expensive and not well built. Consumer did not buy into the plan and the efforts were abandoned.  
         [0006]     The next is the ebooks, digital files of contents of books, accessible with a computer from the Internet. Since most of the readers already own a computer, the cost of an extra device can be eliminated. In order to avoid loss of availability of the content during a computer crash, providers usually offer accesses to more than one computer, thus, effectively making available duplicate content to non-paying users. On account of the lack of intellectual property right protection, publishers are even less willing to put their high-value contents through the Internet, or compact disk, as means of distribution. Because of the lack of high-value content, and the inconvenience involved, consumers do not enthusiastically subscribe to the digital file, and these providers are not, currently, commercial successes.  
         [0007]     In the future, book contents will incorporate videos and become large files. For instance, when school begins, tens of millions of people will need to download many large files simultaneously through the Internet. The sudden excess demand on the infrastructure of the Internet will inevitably lead to complications. The repeated transmission of large files through the Internet, anyway, will be an unnecessary waste of network resource and may be impractical.  
         [0008]     On consideration of these shortcomings, the inventor proposed a convenient and practical solution to provide a copy right protecting digital publishing system.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0009]     The invention is a digital publishing system that protects copy rights against piracy. The system includes:  
         [0010]     A DigiReader, DGR, a device containing a decryption chip for display of contents;  
         [0011]     A DigiBookstore, DGB, a server for storage and downloading of encrypted contents, built specifically for bookstores;  
         [0012]     A PubNetmanager, PNM, a network service center that manages the encryption codes.  
         [0013]     A DigiGuard, DGG, encryption/decryption hardware for publishers.  
         [0014]     The system uses the encryption/decryption technologies developed for the financial industries for copy right protection, and is in compliance with the existing business flow involving the publishers, bookstores and consumers.  
         [0015]     To the consumers, the system provides a device, DGR, which is of the same size and weight of a paper book and is a more capable vehicle (can carry sound and dynamic graphics . . . ). With exchangeable memory card the device has essentially limitless capacity for contents, thus, spreading the cost over many book contents. Similar to paper books, only one device can display a paid content.  
         [0016]     To the authors and publishers, the contents are encrypted, with DGG, once they leave the publisher&#39;s database. Only the device that carries the correct decryption chip, supplied at the manufacturing factory, can decipher and display the content. Neither the bookstore nor the network service center can have access to the content. The content cannot be reproduced or deciphered by any computer. The system prevents piracy, thus, encourages publisher adoption for high-value content.  
         [0017]     To the bookstore, the system provides for a mechanism for both the primary market, selling contents to consumers by publishers and secondary market, buying and selling of used content.  
         [0018]     The secondary market mechanism is not available through the Internet download of content to computer ebook mode.  
         [0019]     The system reduces consumption of paper, thus trees, and is friendly to the environment. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0020]     The drawings disclose an illustrative embodiment of the present invention which serves to exemplify the various advantages and objects hereof, and are as follows:  
         [0021]      FIG. 1  is the operational flow chart of the present invention;  
         [0022]      FIG. 1A  is the interactive flow between the publisher and the PubNetmanager;  
         [0023]      FIG. 1B  is the interactive flow between the publisher and the DigiBookstore;  
         [0024]      FIG. 1C  is the interactive flow between bookstore and consumer;  
         [0025]      FIG. 1D  is the flow when buyer uses DigiReader to access the content;  
         [0026]      FIG. 2  is the structure of DigiReader;  
         [0027]      FIG. 3  is the structure of DigiBookstore;  
         [0028]      FIG. 4  is the structure of PubNetmanager;  
         [0029]      FIG. 5  is the structure of DigiGuard;  
         [0030]      FIG. 6  is the operational flow chart of the secondary market. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT  
       [0031]     As depicted in  FIG. 1 , publisher  1  has a database  11 , and a DGG  12 . Database  11  holds the content  5 . DGG  12  is a hardware that allows the publisher  1  to encrypt/decrypt data. The encryption mechanism of  12  has two layers, the inner layer lock  121  and the outer layer lock  122 .  
         [0032]     Publisher  1  always uses the pocket lock  6  and pocket key  7  for encryption/decryption when sending or receiving messages through the Internet.  
         [0033]     The Network Manager is a network service center that supports a database  21  containing an ISBN table  211  and a device serial number table  212 . The network service center  2  assigns an ISBN lock when presented with a novel ISBN by the publisher and keep the record in table  211 . The PubNetmanager  2  also obtains the device lock  31  and key  311  from the device manufacturer and keeps the record in table  212 .  
         [0034]     The PubNetmanager  2  also uses pocket lock  6  and pocket key  7  for encryption/decryption when sending or receiving messages from the Internet.  
         [0035]     DigiBookstore, DGB  3  is a specialty server designed for bookstores. It can store encrypted digital contents  5  from the publisher  1  for sale to consumers. When a consumer buys a digital content  5 , DGB can relay the ISBN and device serial numbers, provided by the buyer, to the PubNetmanager  2  and request the ISBN key  1221  and the device lock  31 .  
         [0036]     DGB always uses pocket lock  6  and key  7  for encryption/decryption to protect transmitted files when using the Internet to communicate.  
         [0037]     Upon receipt of the ISBN key  1221  and device lock  31 , DGB will release the ISBN lock and replace the encryption with device lock  31  for the content  5 . Content  5 , thus encrypted, are ready for download by the consumer.  
         [0038]     DigiReader, DGR  4  is a device built for the consumer to decrypt the encrypted content  5  and display the information. DGR  4  has a flash memory  41  and a decryption chip  42 . The flash memory is for the storage of content  5  downloaded from the DGB  3  and the decryption chip  42  contains a specific device key  311  and the publisher key  1211  for device lock  31  and publisher lock  121 .  
         [0039]      FIG. 1A  illustrates the interactive flow between the publisher and the PubNetmanager.  
         [0040]     Publisher  1 , when publishing a content  5 , produces digital content  100  and assigns an ISBN number  101 , and stores the information in a content database  102 . The publisher encrypts in a pocket lock  103  and dispatch the file through the Internet to the PubNetmanager  104 .  
         [0041]     PubNetmanager  2  will decrypt the pocket lock with her pocket key  200  to obtain the ISBN number and assign an ISBN lock  201  to the number, and store the information in the ISBN table  202 . The PubNetmanager  2  will also encrypt a copy of the ISBN lock in a pocket lock  203  and dispatch the file to the publisher via the Internet  204 .  
         [0042]     Upon receipt of the package from the PubNetmanager the publisherwill open the pocket lock  105 , and install the ISBN lock into DGG 106 . DGG  12  has a two layer structure; the inner layer, the publisher lock  121 , comes preinstalled by the manufacturer and the outer layer is the ISBN lock  122 .  
         [0043]      FIG. 1B  illustrates the interactive flow between the publisher  1  and the DigiBookstore.  
         [0044]     Before sending the digital content  5  to the bookstore  3 , publisher  1  will secure the content with the DGG  12  encryption facility and, after the input of the ISBN number and payment information  110 , protect the file with a pocket lock encryption  111  and then will dispatch the file to the DGBvia Internet  112 .  
         [0045]     Upon receipt of the file, bookstore  3  will release the pocket lock  300  and store the content file in DGB for purchase by consumer  301 .  
         [0046]      FIG. 1C  illustrates the interactive flow between bookstore and consumer.  
         [0047]     Buying content  5 , consumer will provide the ISBN number of the content and the serial number of his DGR to the DGB  320 . DGB will secure the information with a pocket lock encryption  321  and request, via Internet  322 , the PubNetmanager  2  for the ISBN key and the device lock  323 .  
         [0048]     PubNetmanager  2 , upon receipt of the file, will release the pocket lock with pocket key  220  and search the ISBN table for the corresponding ISBN key and the device lock  221 . Retrieving both, PubNetmanager  2  will secure the information with a pocket lock encryption  222  and send the file, via Internet, to the DGB  223 .  
         [0049]     DGB  3 , upon receipt of the file, will release the pocket lock with a pocket key  324 , and obtain the ISBN key and device lock  325 . With the ISBN key, DGB will release the ISBN lock  326  and replace the outer layer with the device lock  327 . The resulting encrypted content is ready for downloading into the flash memory of the consumer  328 . (Flash memory  41  can be either replaceable or embedded.)  FIG. 1D  illustrates the flow when buyer uses DGR to access the content.  
         [0050]     Consumer places his flash memory  41  into the device, DGR  4 , for access to the content  400  using the embedded chip for decryption  401 . The content  5 , encrypted with the inner publisher lock  121  and the outer device lock  122 , is released of its device lock  402  and, then, of its publisher lock  403  and becomes available to the consumer  404 . Other devices  4  or computers cannot access nor copy the content.  
         [0051]      FIG. 2  illustrates a DigiReader, a device  4  with a core processor and a decryption chip. The device shall contain, in the minimum;  
         [0052]     a cradle for flash memory  411 , using a proprietary interface, DigiPub, for access to the content in the flash memory;  
         [0053]     a decryption chip  42  with a two layer structure, the inner key being publisher key and the outer layer being the device key. The decryption uses Matryoshka architecture, a layered structure;  
         [0054]     a core processor  43 , capable of processing the digital content codes into image, sound, video, and, after decryption, for display;  
         [0055]     control buttons  44 ; allow users to choose the functions of device  4 ;  
         [0056]     a flat panel display  45 , for the display of decrypted content; and  
         [0057]     a speaker, for the sound from the decrypted content.  
         [0058]      FIG. 3  illustrates the DigiBookstore  3 , a specialty server built for bookstores capable of storing encrypted digital content. The server contains, in the minimum;  
         [0059]     database memory  311 , with a database containing the encrypted digital content from publishers;  
         [0060]     a core processor  312 , processing the receiving and storing of the digital content and other information from publishers;  
         [0061]     a pocket lock/key mechanism, for the automatic encryption/ decryption of files when using the Internet;  
         [0062]     a flash memory cradle  314 , using a proprietary DG Pub interface, for the downloading of digital contents into flash memories equipped with the same interface;  
         [0063]     a second flash memory cradle  315 , using the proprietary DG Pub interface, for the downloading/deletion of digital content files in the flash memory in the secondary market;  
         [0064]     a cache memory region  316 , for the temporary storage of digital contents in the secondary market;  
         [0065]     an input keyboard  317 , allowing input of data; and  
         [0066]     a flat panel display  318 , for the display of input and/or received information.  
         [0067]      FIG. 4  illustrates the network service center operating PubNetmanager  2 . The service center can manage the information concerning the devices and the content ISBN numbers. The center contains, in the minimum;  
         [0068]     a network manager database  21 , storing the ISBN number table  211  and the device serial number table  212 ;  
         [0069]     a core processor  22 , for the processing of the data concerning the device and the content ISBN;  
         [0070]     a pocket lock/key mechanism  23 , for the encryption/decryption of files transmitted through the Internet;  
         [0071]     an input keyboard  24 , for the operators to input information; and  
         [0072]     a monitor  25 , for the display of received/input information.  
         [0073]      FIG. 5  illustrates DigiGuard, a hardware device for the publishers to encrypt/decrypt. The device contains, in minimum;  
         [0074]     an encryption mechanism  120 , which uses Matryoshka (one inside another) type encryption method, with the publisher key  121  being the inner key;  
         [0075]     a core processor  123 , for the processing of information including the requesting of ISBN lock  122  to be the outer layer lock and the encryption of digital content:  
         [0076]     a pocket lock/key mechanism  124 , for encryption/decryption of files to be transmitted through the Internet; and  
         [0077]     an input keyboard  126 , that allow the operators to input commands.  
         [0078]      FIG. 6  illustrates the operational flow of the secondary market.  
         [0079]     If there are seller and buyer, the transaction in the secondary market can be carried out with DigiBookstore  3 . During the transaction, the seller&#39;s device lock on the digital content needs to be replaced with the buyer&#39;s device lock to allow access to the digital content  5  by the buyer. The following describes the process:  
         [0080]     Seller  91  of digital content  5  places the flash memory  912  of his device  911  onto the specific cradle of DGB  3  and input the serial number of his device and the ISBN number of the content  5  into the cache memory region of DGB  3 .  
         [0081]     DGB  3  will relay the information to the network service center and request for the device key  9131  of the seller and the buyer&#39;s device lock  923 , as well as the price and other information. The file will be secured with a pocket lock  6  before transmission over the Internet.  
         [0082]     Upon receipt of the file, PubNetmanager  2  will release the pocket lock  6  with her pocket key  7  and obtain the ISBN number and device number, with which to search for the price and other information corresponding to the ISBN number from the ISBN table  211 , and for the seller&#39;s device key  8131  and buyer&#39;s device lock  923  from the device serial number table  212 . PubNetmanager  2  will secure the price and other information and seller&#39;s device key  9131  and buyer&#39;s device lock  923  with a pocket lock and dispatch the file to the DGB  3  via Internet.  
         [0083]     Upon receipt of the file, DGB  3  will release the pocket lock  6  with pocket key  7  and obtain the seller&#39;s device key  9131  and buyer&#39;s device lock  923 . DGB will, then use seller&#39;s device key  9131  to release seller&#39;s device lock  913  and replace it with buyer&#39;s device lock  923 . The digital content can, then, be downloaded into the flash memory  922  of the device  921  of the buyer  92 .  
         [0084]     Buyer  92  can now display the content with his device  921 . The decryption chip of his device will release the buyer&#39;s device lock  923  and the publisher lock  924  to make available digital content  5 , which he bought from the secondary market. (Seller and buyer&#39;s publisher keys are identical and needs no replacement.)  
         [0085]     If bookstore  3  is interested in a transaction even if seller  91  cannot find a buyer  92  temporarily, the bookstore can transplant the content into one of its own device with the aforementioned mechanism. When a buyer  92  is found, the same mechanism can be used to transplant the content into buyer&#39;s device  921 .  
         [0086]     Many changes and modifications in the above described embodiment of the invention can, of course, be carried out without departing from the scope thereof. Accordingly, to promote the progress in science and the useful arts, the invention is disclosed and is intended to be limited only by the scope of the appended claims.

Technology Category: 3