초록 ▼

Content such as computer software, data representing audiovisual works, and electronic documents can converted from a machine-bound state to user-bound state without modification to the content data itself. Instead, keys used to access the content are converted from the machine-bound state to the us

Content such as computer software, data representing audiovisual works, and electronic documents can converted from a machine-bound state to user-bound state without modification to the content data itself. Instead, keys used to access the content are converted from the machine-bound state to the user-bound state. In particular, the keys are kept in a passport data structure which can represent either a machine-binding or a user-binding. A machine-bound passport can be upgraded to a user-bound passport without modifying the bound content. The private key of the machine-bound passport, in cleartext form, is included in the user-bound passport and encrypted using a user-supplied password to bind the private key to the user. In addition, private user information is collected and verified and included in the user-bound passport. Upgrading a machine-bound passport can be initiated automatically upon detection that an attempt is made to play back machine-bound content on a machine other than the one to which the content is bound.

대표청구항 ▼

What is claimed is: 1. In a system for securing content data, a method of securing multiple content data files using a passport data structure, the method comprising: binding a first content data file to a first hardware device using a first binding key related to the first hardware device; binding

What is claimed is: 1. In a system for securing content data, a method of securing multiple content data files using a passport data structure, the method comprising: binding a first content data file to a first hardware device using a first binding key related to the first hardware device; binding a second content data file to a second hardware device using a second binding key related to the second hardware device; converting the first binding key and the second binding key to form cleartext keys independent of the hardware devices; adding the cleartext keys to a user-bound passport such that the passport now contains multiple cleartext keys, the user-bound passport represented by the passport data structure. 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the passport data structure is encoded on a computer readable medium, and the passport data structure comprises: a signature algorithm field to specify an algorithm to generate a cryptographic signature; a signature field to store the cryptographic signature; a passport information field to store data related to the passport data structure's digital content, wherein said passport information field includes a private key to decrypt said cryptographic signature and grant access to the digital content to the passport; and one or more entity keys to bind the private key, wherein the entity keys are associated with a set of a entities; wherein the cryptographic signature secures the passport information field. 3. The method of claim 2, wherein at least one of the entities in the set of entities comprises a hardware device. 4. The method of claim 3, wherein at least one of the one or more entity keys comprises a hardware-based key. 5. The method of claim 4, wherein the hardware-based key is a hardware identifier specific to a hardware device. 6. The method of claim 2, wherein at least one of the entities in the set of entities comprises a user. 7. The method of claim 6, wherein at least one of the one or more entity keys comprises a user-bound key. 8. The method of claim 7, wherein the user-bound key is a user password. 9. The method of claim 6 further comprising: a set of private user information related the user to be displayed during playback of content data. 10. The method of claim 1, wherein the second hardware device is the same as the first hardware device. 11. The method of claim 1, wherein the adding comprises binding the cleartext keys to a user to form user-bound keys. 12. The method of claim 11, wherein the binding the cleartext key to a user comprises: requesting a user-specified password; and binding the user-bound passport using the user-specified password.