ROBUST AND FLEXIBLE DIGITAL RIGHTS MANAGEMENT INVOLVING A TAMPER-RESISTANT IDENTITY MODULE

摘要

The invention relates to digital rights management, and proposes the implementation of a DRM agent (125) into a tamper-resistant identity module (120) adapted for engagement with a client system (100), such as a mobile phone or a computer system. The DRM agent (125) is generally implemented with functionality for enabling usage, such as rendering or execution, of protected digital content provided to the client system from a content provider. In general, the DRM agent (125) includes functionality for cryptographic processing of DRM metadata associated with the digital content to be rendered. In a particularly advantageous realization, the DRM agent is implemented as an application in the application environment of the identity module. The DRM application can be preprogrammed into the application environment, or securely downloaded from a trusted party associated with the identity module. The invention also relates to a distributed DRM module, with communication between distributed DRM agents (125, 135) based on usage-device specific key information.