The present invention relates to data rights management and more particularly to a secured system and methodology and production system and methodology related thereto and to apparatus and methodology for production side systems and are consumer side systems for securely utilizing protected electronic data files of content (protected content), and further relates to controlled distribution, and regulating usage of the respective content on a recipient device (computing system) to be limited strictly to defined permitted uses, in accordance with usage rights (associated with the respective content to control usage of that respective content), on specifically restricted to a specific one particular recipient device (for a plurality of specific particular recipient devices), or usage on some or any authorized recipient device without restriction to any one in specific, to control use of the respective content as an application software program, exporting, modifying, executing as an application program, viewing, and/or printing of electronic data files.

A novel method and apparatus for protection of streamed media content is disclosed. In one aspect, the apparatus includes control means for governance of content streams or content objects, decryption means for decrypting content streams or content objects under control of the control means, and feedback means for tracking actual use of content streams or content objects. The control means may operate in accordance with rules received as part of the streamed content, or through a side-band channel. The rules may specify allowed uses of the content, including whether or not the content can be copied or transferred, and whether and under what circumstances received content may be checked out of one device and used in a second device. The rules may also include or specify budgets, and a requirement that audit information be collected and/or transmitted to an external server. In a different aspect, the apparatus may include a media player designed to call plugins to assist in rendering content. A trust plugin is disclosed, along with a method of using the trust plugin so that a media player designed for use with unprotected content may render protected content without the necessity of requiring any changes to the media player. In one aspect, the streamed content may be in a number of different formats, including MPEG-4, MP3, and the RMFF format.

Systems and methods are described for performing policy-managed, peer-to-peer service orchestration in a manner that supports the formation of self-organizing service networks that enable rich media experiences. In one embodiment, services are distributed across peer-to-peer communicating nodes, and each node provides message routing and orchestration using a message pump and workflow collator. Distributed policy management of service interfaces helps to provide trust and security, supporting commercial exchange of value. Peer-to-peer messaging and workflow collation allow services to be dynamically created from a heterogeneous set of primitive services. The shared resources are services of many different types, using different service interface bindings beyond those typically supported in a web service deployments built on UDDI, SOAP, and WSDL. In a preferred embodiment, a media services framework is provided that enables nodes to find one another, interact, exchange value, and cooperate across tiers of networks from WANs to PANs.

There is provided a system for regulating access and managing distribution of content in a network, such as the Internet. The system includes communication gateways, installed at a subscriber site, internet control points, installed remotely, and various network elements installed throughout the network. The communication gateways and network elements operate in conjunction with the internet control points to restrict or allow access to specified Internet sites and to manage efficient distribution of content such as music, video, games, broadband data, real-time audio and voice applications, and software to subscribers.

Personal Digital Server (PDS) is a unique computer application for the storage, updating, management and sharing of all types of digital media files, including audio, video, images and documents, irrespective of their format. PDS provides users with a single location to store and access, both locally and remotely, all of their digital media. It also provides the user total control of the overall management of these assets.

Generating and presenting electronic media content to employees of a subscriber are provided. An aspect includes a service provider computer having a network connection, a service provider storage accessible by the service provider computer, and software executing on the service provider computer providing a web page allowing a subscriber to log in to the service provider computer. The software provides a plurality of electronic media to the subscriber. The subscriber selects from among the electronic media to generate an electronic media collection that is saved on the service provider storage. The software allows the subscriber to set access to the electronic media collection by a user via the web page, and the software executing on the service provider computer provides a web page allowing a user to log in to the service provider computer. The software identifies the user and presents the electronic media collection to the user.

Methods, computer program products, and systems are presented and can include for instance: crowdsourcing data from a plurality of users via a computer network, the data including feedback data regarding digital rights click through documents, wherein each of the users is a party to at least one of the digital rights click through documents; storing the data obtained by the crowdsourcing into a digital rights history repository; examining a digital rights click through document of a certain user, wherein the digital rights click through document controls access to a digital asset, wherein the examining includes using at least a portion of the feedback data of the digital rights history repository; and augmenting content of the digital rights click through document based on a result of the examining.

Disclosed systems and methods provide media content through an electronic commerce server. In one implementation, a method for providing electronic content is provided. The method includes receiving an order of a user. The order of the user may comprise a request of the user for a physical copy of media content. The commerce server may determine whether to provide to the user an electronic copy of the media content based at least on the order. Further, a request to access the electronic copy of the media content is received from the user. The method further grants the user access to the electronic copy of the media content based at least on the request to access the electronic copy of the media content.

An apparatus for adapting authorization information for a terminal is provided. The apparatus has a communication unit for communicating with the terminal, the communication unit being configured to carry out the communication as a test communication using an encryption protocol, a checking unit for checking a configuration of the encryption protocol on the terminal, and a control unit for adapting the authorization information for the terminal on the basis of a result of the check. A corresponding method for adapting authorization information for a terminal is also proposed. The proposed apparatus makes it possible to check the options supported by a terminal in an encryption protocol. In this case, the check can be carried out, in particular, using an encrypted communication connection which could not be monitored by a firewall.

In a digital rights management system, a rights management server sends event notifications to certain users when other users perform certain actions (read, print, copy, etc.) on documents managed by the system. For each document, a notification rule defines which users will receive what event notifications for that document. The notification rule is determined based on document access permissions possessed by the users, so that only users who have permission to perform an action on the document will receive notifications when other users perform that action on the document, while users with no permission to perform an action will not receive notifications when other users perform that action. The server also allows the users who have permission to perform an action to opt out of the notifications. The server monitors events that occur on the documents, and sends event notifications to appropriate users according to the notification rules.