Adobe, Inc.

Oracle International Corporation

Gary Gilchrist

Sangameswaran Viswanathan

Jonathan David Herbach

Steven D Viavant

Systems and techniques to provide distributed document version control. In general, in one implementation, the technique includes: receiving information, in a distributed document control system, specifying a locally saved copy of a first electronic document; determining, in response to the received information, whether the first electronic document should supersede a second electronic document in the distributed document control system; and storing, based on an outcome of the determining, information in the distributed document control system that links the first electronic document with the second electronic document in a superior-subordinate relationship such that when an action is requested with respect to the second, subordinate electronic document, the distributed document control system forces an action to be taken with respect to the first, superior electronic document. Various implementations include those in computer program products and client-server systems.

Distributed document version control

Method and apparatus are described wherein, in one example embodiment, there is provided one or more policy templates that may define a set of policy permissions or other attributes that may be desirable to specify in a policy. One or more policy templates may be specified in a user interface of a policy creation and maintenance program that may run on the policy server and/or run on a workstation computer. Each policy template specified by a user may include permissions for how a user may access and use a document. The maintenance program may, in one embodiment, associate both templates to a policy used for a specific unit of digital content, or, for example, an electronic document. The permissions for the policy are determined by aggregating the permissions associated with each respective templates chosen by the user. According to another example embodiment, a user selects a policy template and defines one or more additional permissions to form an augmented policy.

Method and apparatus for digital rights management policies

Method and apparatus are described wherein, in one example embodiment, there is provided one or more policy templates that may define a set of policy permissions or other attributes that may be desirable to specify in a policy. One or more policy templates may be specified in a user interface of a policy creation and maintenance program that may run oh the policy server and/or run on a workstation computer. Each policy template specified by a user may include permissions for how a user may access and use a document. The maintenance program may, in one embodiment, associate both templates to a policy used for a specific unit of digital content, or, for example, an electronic document. The permissions for the policy are determined by aggregating the permissions associated with each respective templates chosen by the user. According to another example embodiment, a user selects a policy template and defines one or more additional permissions to form an augmented policy.

One embodiment of the present invention provides a method for authenticating an identity of a user in order to secure access to a host system. In this embodiment, the host system receives an identifier for the user from a client system. This identifier is used to retrieve a template containing biometric data associated with the user, and this template is returned to the client. The client then gathers a biometric sample from the user, and compares this biometric sample with the template to produce a comparison result. Next, the client computes a message digest using the template, the comparison result and an encryption key, and sends the message digest to the host system. This computation takes places within a secure hardware module within the client computing system that contains a secure encryption key in order to guard against malicious users on the client system. Next, the host system receives the message digest and authenticates the user by determining whether the message digest was computed using the template, the encryption key, and a comparison result indicating a successful match between the biometric sample and the template. If so, the host has confidence that the client has successfully matched the template with the biometric sample, and the client is allowed to access a service on the host system. By requiring the secure hardware in the client system to include the template in the message digest, the host system can guard against a malicious user who substitutes another template to gain unauthorized access to the host system. In a variation on this embodiment, the host system retrieves the template from a centralized repository for templates.

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San Francisco, CA, United States of America

Gary Gilchrist