초록 ▼

A network publishing authorization protocol, for use in a network connected to a printer, a server and a publisher of network publications. The protocol authorizes the printing of a publication at the printer. It includes the steps of: addressing the publication to a user; signing the publication us

A network publishing authorization protocol, for use in a network connected to a printer, a server and a publisher of network publications. The protocol authorizes the printing of a publication at the printer. It includes the steps of: addressing the publication to a user; signing the publication using a private key; sending the publication to the printer; and confirming that the publication may be printed at the printer, by verifying the private key signature. Confirmation may take place at the printer or at the server.

대표청구항 ▼

1. In a network connected to a plurality of printers associated with a plurality of users and to a publisher of network publications, a network publishing authorization protocol for authorizing the printing of a document at the printers, including the steps of:the publisher obtaining a document iden

1. In a network connected to a plurality of printers associated with a plurality of users and to a publisher of network publications, a network publishing authorization protocol for authorizing the printing of a document at the printers, including the steps of:the publisher obtaining a document identity and page descriptions for the document to be printed from an identity server;the publisher sending the document, including its identity and page descriptions to a page server responsible for that document identity;the publisher creating a message that includes the publisher's own identity, alias identities of the plurality of users, a set of multicast channel names, and a private electronic signature of the publisher;the publisher addressing the document to the plurality of users; andthe publisher sending the document to the plurality of printers associated with the plurality of users. 2. A network publishing authorization protocol according to claim 1, including the further step of:registering a user with a printer by creating a record in a database of the identity server connected to the network. 3. A network publishing authorization protocol according to claim 1, including the further step of:subscribing a user to a publication of the publisher by creating a record in a database of the first server. 4. A network publishing authorization protocol according to claim 3, where the identity server holds details of an alias identity of the user. 5. A network publishing authorization protocol according to claim 4, where the identify server holds a subscription record for the purpose of subscribing a user to a publication, containing details of the publisher's identity and the user's alias identity. 6. A network publishing authorization protocol according to claim 1, including the further step of:verifying at a printer that the printer is registered for the user, by accessing the identify server. 7. A network publishing authorization protocol according to claim 5, including the further steps of:confirming that a publication may be printed at a printer by checking that the publisher is authorized to print the publication to the printer, by confirming the subscription. 8. A network publishing authorization protocol according to claim 7, including the further step of:verifying the publisher's signature using a public signature key. 9. A network publishing authorization protocol according to claim 7, including the fixer step of:verifying that a printer is registered for a user. 10. A network publishing authorization protocol according to claim 1, including the further steps of:the page server using the publisher's identity and user's alias identity to obtain a corresponding user's identity and a user's printer's identity from a registration server. 11. A network publishing authorization protocol according to claim 10, including the further steps of:the page server allocating document and page instance identities and forwarding the page descriptions, including page identities, to a printer; also sending names of multicast channels for a printer to listen to; and returning the newly allocated page identities to the publisher for future use. 12. A network publishing authorization protocol according to claim 1, including the further steps of:sending at least some of the document to a registration server,confirming at the registration server that a document may be printed at a print; and,in the event that the confirmation succeeds, sending the at least some of the document from the registration server to the printer. 13. A network publishing authorization protocol according to claim 12, including the further steps of:accomplishing the confirmation by confirming that the publisher is authorized to print the document to the printer, by accessing the identity server to confirm the subscription. 14. A network publishing authorization protocol according to claim 13, including the further step of:verifying the publisher's signature at the registr ation server using a public key, obtained from the identity server. 15. A network publishing authorization protocol according to claim 14, including the further step of:verifying at the registration server that the printer is registered for the user, by accessing the identity server.