Domain-based trust models for rights management of content

Abstract

In a system for distributing and licensing rights-managed digital content, the way in which content is distributed and licensed can be affected by the trust relationships that are established between the various servers that participate in the system. In a typical system, a license server licenses content to particular identities, and an identity server defines those identities by issuing certificates for those identities. The license server issues licenses to identities that have been issued by trusted identity servers. Also, the license server can issue a license on behalf of any entity whose private key it holds. Thus, in one embodiment, the universe of people to whom the license server can issue licenses can be expanded by adding new identity servers to the list of trusted identity servers. In another embodiment, exceptions to the general trust of an identity server can be carved out by creating an exclusion list, which excludes particular identity certificate (e.g., on the basis of e-mail address, domain name, etc.) that have been issued by a trusted identity server. In another embodiment, the universe of content for which the license server can issue licenses can be expanded by providing the license server with the private keys of other license servers.