System for controlling the distribution and use of digital works having a fee reporting mechanism

What is claimed:

1. A system for controlling the distribution and use of digital works through a network, said system having a mechanism for reporting fees based on the distribution and use of digital works, said system comprising:

a digital work having attached usage rights, each of said usage rights for specifying how a digital work may be used or distributed, each of said usage rights specifying usage fee information, said usage fee information comprising a fee type and fee parameters which define a fee to be paid in connection with the exercise of said usage right;

a plurality of repositories, each of said repositories comprising:

an external interface for removably coupling to said network;

storage means for storing digital works having attached usage rights and fees;

requesting means for generating a request to access a digital work stored in another of said plurality of repositories, said request indicating a particular usage right;

processing means for processing requests to access digital works stored in said storage means and for generating fee transactions when a request indicates a usage right that is attached to a digital work and said usage right specifies usage fee information;

each of said plurality of repositories further removably coupled to a credit server, said credit server for recording fee transactions from said repository and subsequently reporting said fee transactions to a billing clearinghouse.

2. The fee reporting system as recited in claim 1 wherein said fee type of said fee information is a metered use fee and said fee parameters of said fee information are comprised of a fee unit and a time unit.

3. The fee reporting system as recited in claim 1 wherein said fee type of said fee information is a per use fee and said fee parameter of said fee information is comprised of a fee unit.

4. The fee reporting system as recited in claim 1 wherein said fee type of said fee information is a best price fee and said fee parameters of said fee information is comprised of an identifier to identify said best price.

5. The fee reporting system as recited in claim 1 wherein said fee type of said fee information is a scheduled fee and said fee parameters of said fee information is comprised of time units and fee units.

6. The fee reporting system as recited in claim 1 wherein said fee type of said fee information is a mark-up fee and said fee parameters of said fee information is a mark-up percentage.

7. In a system for controlling the distribution and use of digital works, a method for reporting fees associated with said distribution and use, said method comprising the steps of:

a) attaching one or more usage rights to a digital work, each of said one or more usage rights comprising an indicator of how said digital work may be distributed or used and a usage fee to be paid upon exercise of said right;

b) storing said digital work and attached one or more usage rights in a server repository, said server repository for controlling access to said digital work;

c) said server repository receiving a request to access said digital work from a requesting repository;

d) said server repository identifying a usage right associated with said access request;

e) said server repository determining if said identified usage right is the same as one of said one or more usage rights attached to said digital work;

f) if said identified usage right is not the same as any one of said one or more usage rights attached to said digital work, said server repository denying access to said digital work;

g) if said usage right is included with said digital work, said server repository determining if a usage fee is associated with the exercise of said usage right;

h) if a usage fee is associated with said usage right, said server repository calculating said usage fee;

i) said server repository transmitting a first assign fee transaction identifying said requesting repository as a payer for said usage fee to a first credit server;

j) said requesting repository transmitting a second assign fee transaction identifying said requesting repository as a payer for said usage fee to a second credit server;

k) said server repository transmitting said digital work to said requesting repository;

l) said server repository transmitting a first confirm fee transaction to said first credit server;

m) said requesting repository transmitting a second confirm fee transaction to said second credit server; and

n) said first credit server and said second credit server reporting said usage fee to a billing clearinghouse for payment of said usage fee.

8. In a system for controlling the distribution and use of digital works, method for reporting fees associated with said distribution and use, said method comprising the steps of:

a) attaching one or more usage rights to a digital work, each of said one or more usage rights comprising an indicator of how said digital work may be distributed or used and a usage fee to be paid for exercise of said right;

b) storing said digital work and said attached one or more usage rights in a server repository, said server repository for controlling access to said digital work;

c) said server repository receiving a request to access said digital work from a requesting repository;

d) said server repository identifying a usage right associated with said access request;

e) said server repository determining if said digital work has attached thereto said identified usage right;

f) if said identified usage right is not attached to said digital work, said server repository denying access to said digital work;

g) if said usage right is attached to said digital work, said server repository determining if a usage fee is associated with the exercise of said usage right;

h) if a usage fee is associated with said usage right, said server repository determining a fee type;

i) said server repository transmitting a first fee transaction identifying said requesting repository as a payee for said usage fee to a first credit server, said first fee transaction dependent on said determined fee type;

j) said requesting repository transmitting a second fee transaction identifying said requesting repository as a payee for said usage fee to a second credit server, said second fee transaction dependent on said determined fee type;

k) said server repository transmitting said digital work to said requesting repository;

l) said first credit server reporting said first fee transaction to a billing clearinghouse; and

m) said second credit server reporting said second fee transaction to said billing clearinghouse.

9. The method as recited in claim 8 wherein said fee type is a per use fee and said first fee transaction is an assign fee transaction.

10. The method as recited in claim 8 wherein said fee type is a metered fee and said first fee transaction is a begin fee transaction.

11. The method as recited in claim 10 wherein after said use of said digital work, said server repository transmits an end fee transaction to said credit server.

12. In a system for controlling the rendering of digital works by a rendering system, said rendering system comprised of a rendering repository and a rendering device, said rendering device utilizing a rendering digital work for rendering a digital work, a method for reporting fees associated with use of rendering digital works by said rendering device, said method comprising the steps of:

a) storing a first digital work in a server repository, said digital work specifying a first usage fee to be reported of a use of said first digital work;

b) storing a rendering digital work in said rendering repository, said first rendering digital work specifying a second usage fee to be reported for a use of said rendering digital work;

c) said server repository receiving a request to use said first digital work from said rendering repository;

d) said server repository determining if said request may be granted;

e) if said server repository determines said request may not be granted, said server repository denying access to said first digital work;

f) if said server repository determines said request may be granted, said server repository transmitting said digital work to said rendering repository;

g) said server repository transmitting a first fee transaction identifying said rendering repository as a payee for said first usage fee for use of said first digital work to a first credit server;

h) said rendering device rendering said first digital work using said rendering digital work; and

i) said rendering repository transmitting a second fee transaction identifying said rendering repository as a payee for said first usage fee for use of said first digital work and said second usage fee for use of said rendering digital work to a second credit server.

13. The method as recited in claim 12 wherein said rendering digital work is a set of coded rendering instructions for controlling said rendering device.

14. The method as recited in claim 13 further comprising the step of storing a second digital work in said rendering repository, said second digital work having a third usage fee to be reported for a use of said second digital work; and

said step of said rendering device rendering said first digital work using said rendering digital work is further comprised of the step of inputting said second digital work to said rendering digital work.

15. The method as recited in claim 14 further comprising the step of said rendering repository transmitting a fourth fee transaction identifying said rendering repository as a payee for said third usage fee for use of said second digital work to said second credit server.

16. The method as recited in claim 15 wherein said second digital work is a font.

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RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is related to the following co-pending and commonly assigned U.S. patent applications:

Ser. No. 08/344,760, entitled "System For Controlling the Distribution and Use of Digital Works Using Digital Tickets" filed Nov. 23, 1994;

Ser. No. 08/344,041, entitled "System For Controlling the Distribution And Use Of Digital Works Utilizing A Usage Rights Grammar" filed Nov. 23, 1994;

Ser. No. 08/344,042, entitled "System For Controlling the Distribution and Use Of Digital Works" filed Nov. 23, 1994; and

Ser. No. 08/344,776, entitled "System For Controlling the Distribution and Use of Composite Digital Works" filed Nov. 23, 1994.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to the field of distribution and usage rights enforcement for digitally encoded works.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

A fundamental issue facing the publishing and information industries as they consider electronic publishing is how to prevent the unauthorized and unaccounted distribution or usage of electronically published materials. Electronically published materials are typically distributed in a digital form and recreated on a computer based system having the capability to recreate the materials. Audio and video recordings, software, books and multimedia works are all being electronically published. Companies in these industries receive royalties for each accounted for delivery of the materials, e.g. the sale of an audio CD at a retail outlet. Any unaccounted distribution of a work results in an unpaid royalty (e.g. copying the audio recording CD to another digital medium.)

The ease in which electronically published works can be "perfectly" reproduced and distributed is a major concern. The transmission of digital works over networks is commonplace. One such widely used network is the Internet. The Internet is a widespread network facility by which computer users in many universities, corporations and government entities communicate and trade ideas and information. Computer bulletin boards found on the Internet and commercial networks such as CompuServ and Prodigy allow for the posting and retrieving of digital information. Information services such as Dialog and LEXIS/NEXIS provide databases of current information on a wide variety of topics. Another factor which will exacerbate the situation is the development and expansion of the National Information Infrastructure (the NII). It is anticipated that, as the NII grows, the transmission of digital works over networks will increase many times over. It would be desirable to utilize the NII for distribution of digital works without the fear of widespread unauthorized copying.

The most straightforward way to curb unaccounted distribution is to prevent unauthorized copying and transmission. For existing materials that are distributed in digital form, various safeguards are used. In the case of software, copy protection schemes which limit the number of copies that can be made or which corrupt the output when copying is detected have been employed. Another scheme causes software to become disabled after a predetermined period of time has lapsed. A technique used for workstation based software is to require that a special hardware device must be present on the workstation in order for the software to run, e.g., see U.S. Pat. No. 4,932,054 entitled "Method and Apparatus for Protecting Computer Software Utilizing Coded Filter Network in Conjunction with an Active Coded Hardware Device." Such devices are provided with the software and are commonly referred to as dongles.

Yet another scheme is to distribute software, but which requires a "key" to enable it's use. This is employed in distribution schemes where "demos" of the software are provided on a medium along with the entire product. The demos can be freely used, but in order to use the actual product, the key must be purchased. These scheme do not hinder copying of the software once the key is initially purchased.

A system for ensuring that licenses are in place for using licensed products is described in PCT Publication WO 93/01550 to Griswold entitled "License Management System and Method." The licensed product may be any electronically published work but is most effective for use with works that are used for extended periods of time such as software programs. Griswold requires that the licensed product contain software to invoke a license check monitor at predetermined time intervals. The license check monitor generates request datagrams which identify the licensee. The request datagrams are sent to a license control system over an appropriate communication facility. The license control system then checks the datagram to determine if the datagram is from a valid licensee. The license control system then sends a reply datagram to the license check monitor indicating denial or approval of usage. The license control system will deny usage in the event that request datagrams go unanswered after a predetermined period of time (which may indicate an unauthorized attempt to use the licensed product). In this system, usage is managed at a central location by the response datagrams. So for example if license fees have not been paid, access to the licensed product is terminated.

It is argued by Griswold that the described system is advantageous because it can be implemented entirely in software. However, the system described by Griswold has limitations. An important limitation is that during the use of the licensed product, the user must always be coupled to an appropriate communication facility in order to send and receive datagrams. This creates a dependency on the communication facility. So if the communication facility is not available, the licensed product cannot be used. Moreover, some party must absorb the cost of communicating with the license server.

A system for controlling the distribution of digitally encoded books is embodied in a system available from VPR Systems, LTD. of St. Louis, Mo. The VPR system is self-contained and is comprised of: (1) point of sale kiosks for storing and downloading of books, (2) personal storage mediums/cartridges) to which the books are downloaded, and (3) readers for viewing the book. In a purchase transaction, a purchaser will purchase a voucher card representing the desired book. The voucher will contain sufficient information to identify the book purchased and perhaps some demographic information relating to the sales transaction. To download the book, the voucher and the cartridge are inserted into the kiosk.

The VPR system may also be used as a library. In such an embodiment, the kiosk manages the number of "copies" that may be checked out at one time. Further, the copy of the book is erased from the users cartridge after a certain check-out time has expired. However, individuals cannot loan books because the cartridges may only be used with the owners reader.

The foregoing distribution and protection schemes operate in part by preventing subsequent distribution of the work. While this certainly prevents unauthorized distributions, it does so by sacrificing the potential for subsequent revenue bearing uses. For example, it may be desirable to allow the lending of a purchased work to permit exposure of the work to potential buyers. Another example would be to permit the creation of a derivative work for a fee. Yet another example would be to permit copying the work for a fee (essentially purchasing it). Thus, it would be desirable to provide flexibility in how the owner of a digital work may allow it to be distributed.

While flexibility in distribution is a concern, the owners of a work want to make sure they are paid for such distributions. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,977,594 to Shear, entitled "Database Usage Metering and Protection System and Method," a system for metering and billing for usage of information distributed on a CD-ROM is described. The system requires the addition of a billing module to the computer system. The billing module may operate in a number of different ways. First, it may periodically communicate billing data to a central billing facility, whereupon the user may be billed. Second, billing may occur by disconnecting the billing module and the user sending it to a central billing facility where the data is read and a user bill generated.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,247,575, Sprague et al., entitled "Information Distribution System", describes an information distribution system which provides and charges only for user selected information. A plurality of encrypted information packages (IPs) are provided at the user site, via high and/or low density storage media and/or by broadcast transmission. Some of the IPs may be of no interest to the user. The IPs of interest are selected by the user and are decrypted and stored locally. The IPs may be printed, displayed or even copied to other storage medias. The charges for the selected IP's are accumulated within a user apparatus and periodically reported by telephone to a central accounting facility. The central accounting facility also issues keys to decrypt the IPs. The keys are changed periodically. If the central accounting facility has not issued a new key for a particular user station, the station is unable to retrieve information from the system when the key is changed.

A system available from Wave Systems Corp. of Princeton, N.Y., provides for metering of software usage on a personal computer. The system is installed onto a computer and collects information on what software is in use, encrypts it and then transmits the information to a transaction center. From the transaction center, a bill is generated and sent to the user. The transaction center also maintains customer accounts so that licensing fees may be forwarded directly to the software providers. Software operating under this system must be modified so that usage can be accounted.

Known techniques for billing do not provide for billing of copies made of the work. For example, if data is copied from the CD-ROM described in Shear, any subsequent use of the copy of the information cannot be metered or billed. In other words, the means for billing runs with the media rather than the underlying work. It would be desirable to have a distribution system where the means for billing is always transported with the work.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In a system for the control of distribution and use of digital works, a fee reporting mechanism for reporting fees associated with such distribution and use is disclosed. The system includes a means for attaching usage rights to a digital work. The usage rights define how the digital work may be used or further distributed by a possessor of the digital work. Usage fees are specified as part of a usage right. The ability to report usage fees may be a condition to the exercise of a usage right. Further, different fees may be assigned to different usage rights.

The present invention enables various usage fee scenarios to be used. Fees may be assessed on a per use basis, on a metered basis or based on a predetermined schedule. Fees may also be discounted on a predetermined schedule, or they can be marked-up a predetermined percentage (e.g. as a distributor fee). Fee reporting may also be deferred to a later time, to accommodate special deals, rebates or some other external information not yet available.

The present invention supports usage fees in an additive fashion. Usage fees may be reported for a composite digital work, i.e. a digital work comprised of a plurality of discrete digital works each having their own usage rights, and for distributors of digital works. Accordingly, fees to multiple revenue owners can be reported.

Usage fee reporting is done to a credit server. The credit server collects the fee information and periodically transmits it to a billing clearinghouse. Alternatively, the credit server may have a pre-allocated credit which is decremented as fees are incurred. In this alternative embodiment, the credit server would have to be periodically reallocated with credits to enable further use.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a flowchart illustrating a simple instantiation of the operation of the currently preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating the various repository types and the repository transaction flow between them in the currently preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a repository coupled with a credit server in the currently preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 4a and 4b are examples of rendering systems as may be utilized in the currently preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 illustrates a contents file layout for a digital work as may be utilized in the currently preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 illustrates a contents file layout for an individual digital work of the digital work of FIG. 5 as may be utilized in the currently preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 illustrates the components of a description block of the currently preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 illustrates a description tree for the contents file layout of the digital work illustrated in FIG. 5.

FIG. 9 illustrates a portion of a description tree corresponding to the individual digital work illustrated in FIG. 6.

FIG. 10 illustrates a layout for the rights portion of a description block as may be utilized in the currently preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a description tree wherein certain d-blocks have PRINT usage rights and is used to illustrate "strict" and "lenient" rules for resolving usage rights conflicts.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram of the hardware components of a repository as are utilized in the currently preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram of the functional (logical) components of a repository as are utilized in the currently preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 14 is diagram illustrating the basic components of a usage right in the currently preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 15 lists the usage rights grammar of the currently preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 16 is a flowchart illustrating the steps of certificate delivery, hotlist checking and performance testing as performed in a registration transaction as may be performed in the currently preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 17 is a flowchart illustrating the steps of session information exchange and clock synchronization as may be performed in the currently preferred embodiment of the present invention, after each repository in the registration transaction has successfully completed the steps described in FIG. 16.

FIG. 18 is a flowchart illustrating the basic flow for a usage transaction, including the common opening and closing step, as may be performed in the currently preferred embodiment of the present invention.