Digital rights management system implementing version control

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10133875-B2
Application number	US-201615011157-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 29, 2016
Priority date	Jan 29, 2016
Publication date	Nov 20, 2018
Grant date	Nov 20, 2018

Abstract

A server in a digital rights management system implements version control for the digital documents being managed. Each document belongs to a document series and has a version number. The server maintains a version control database table that stores, for each document, the document series name and version number, and parameters indicating whether the document is obsoleted or deleted. When registering a new document, based on auto-obsolete and auto-delete parameters inputted by the user, the server automatically obsoletes or deletes certain older version documents that belong to the same series as the new document. The server controls access to the documents so that obsoleted documents will not be accessible to users even if they still have local copies of such documents. When a user requests access to an older version document that is not obsoleted, the server may allow access to the latest version document instead.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A digital rights management method implemented in a server of a digital right management (DRM) system, comprising:
(a) storing a plurality of documents in a document storage;
(b) maintaining a version control database table which includes a plurality of entries, at least some of the entries each corresponding to a document stored in the document storage, each entry of the table including: a unique document identification (ID), a name of a document series which the document belongs to, a version number within the document series, an obsoleted parameter indicating whether the document is obsoleted, and a deleted parameter indicating whether the document is deleted;
(c) receiving a document registration request from a first user to register a new document, the document registration request including, for the new document, a name of a document series which the new document belongs to, a version number within the document series, a plurality of auto-obsolete parameters, each of which corresponding to an older version document in the same document series and indicating whether or not that older version document is to be obsoleted, and a plurality of auto-delete parameters, each of which corresponding to an older version document in the same document series and indicating whether or not that older version document is to be deleted, wherein the plurality of auto-obsolete parameters corresponding to different older version documents are uncorrelated with each other and the plurality of auto-delete parameters corresponding to different older version documents are uncorrelated with each other;
(d) creating a new entry for the new document in the version control database table to store a document ID for the new document, the name of the document series, and the version number received in step (c);
(e) based on the auto-obsolete parameter for the new document received in step (c), modifying one or more existing entries of the version control database table which correspond to one or more documents in the document series of the new document that are indicated by the auto-obsolete parameter, to set their obsoleted parameters to a value indicating that they are obsoleted; and
(f) based on the auto-delete parameter for the new document received in step (c), modifying one or more existing entries of the version control database table which correspond to one or more documents in the document series of the new document that are indicated by the auto-delete parameter, to set their deleted parameters to a value indicating that they are deleted, and deleting such one or more documents from the document storage.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising, for each document ID in the version control database table, storing permission information associated with the document which defines a list of users who have rights to access the document.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein in step (b) each entry of the version control database table further includes a linking parameter indicating whether the new document may be permitted to be accessed in response to a document access request that requests access to one or more older version documents in the same document series and a maximum version difference between the latest version and the older version from which the latest version may be permitted to be accessed, wherein in step (c) the document registration request further includes a linking parameter for the new document, and wherein step (d) further includes storing the linking parameter received in step (c) in the new entry of the version control database table.

4. The method of claim 3 , further comprising:
(h) receiving a document access request from a second user to access a document, the document access request including a document ID which identifies the requested document and a user ID which is associated with the second user;
(i) referring to the version control database table using the document ID to determine a version difference between the requested document and a latest version document in the same document series that the requested document belongs to; and
(j) if the version difference is greater than a maximum version difference specified by the linking parameter for the latest version, referring to the stored permission information associated with the requested document to determine whether the second user has rights to access the requested document and transmitting a response to the second user based on the determination, and if the version difference is not greater than the maximum version difference, determining access rights of the second user to the requested document and the latest version document and transmitting another response to the second user based on the determination, the other response being either a response that grants access to the latest version document if the second user has access right to the latest version document regardless of whether the second user has access right to the requested document, or a response that grants access to the requested document if the second user has no access right to the latest version document but has access right to the requested document, or a response that grants no access to either the requested document or the latest version document if the second user has no access right to the latest version document and has no access right to the requested document.

5. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
(h) receiving a document access request from a second user to access a document, the document access request including a document ID which identifies the requested document and a user ID which is associated with the second user; and
(i) referring to the version control database table using the document ID to determine whether the requested document is the latest version in a document series it belongs to, and if it is, referring to the stored permission information associated with the requested document to determine whether the second user has rights to access the requested document and transmitting a response to the second user based on the determination.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein in step (b) each entry of the version control database table further includes an auto-update parameter indicating whether a notification regarding the document is to be sent to users having access rights to the document, wherein in step (c) the document registration request further includes an auto-update parameter for the new document, wherein step (d) further includes storing the auto-update parameter received in step (c) in the new entry of the version control database table, and wherein the method further comprises:
(g) if the auto-update parameter for the new document indicates that a notification regarding the new document is to be sent, sending notifications to users having access rights to the new document.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein in step (b) each entry of the version control database table further includes a document file name and a storage location where the document is stored, wherein in step (c) the document registration request further includes a document file name and a storage location for the new document, wherein step (d) further includes storing the document file name and storage location received in step (c) in the new entry of the version control database table, and wherein in step (g), the notification includes a link which links to the storage location of the new document.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
(h) receiving a document access request from a second user to access a document, the document access request including a document ID which identifies the requested document; and
(i) referring to the version control database table using the document ID to dete

Assignees

• Konica Minolta Laboratory Usa Inc

Inventors

• Pathak Rabindra

Classifications

• G06F21/31

  User authentication · CPC title

• G06F21/6218 Primary

  to a system of files or objects, e.g. local or distributed file system or database · CPC title

• G06F2221/2141

  Access rights, e.g. capability lists, access control lists, access tables, access matrices · CPC title

• G06F21/105 Primary

  Arrangements for software license management or administration, e.g. for managing licenses at corporate level · CPC title

• G06F16/23

  Updating · CPC title