Comment Re:I've worked with Intertrust (Score 1) 191
AC, you said...
Yeah, with my new wireless Discman I guess. Will this work at the top of a mountain? In a tunnel?
To which I reply...
Well, perhaps. The InterTrust system creates (and assumes) a personal database (PDB) that contains its knowledge of your rights. ("Rights" in their lingo, not the more common usage you mentioned). Your PDB also has knowledge of clearinghouses that you can use when you want to pay for content.
When you first grab the content, it is in a package that contains a rights descriptor -- what rights are available for this package -- that can include per-use charge (i.e., rent), purchase, superdistribution (e.g., you could get paid for getting your friends to listen to something... the only analogy I can think of isn't pleasant).
The rights descriptor should also contain information about acceptable clearinghouses. This should include information about "How do I attain rights the first time" (i.e., must I go online to get rights NOW, can I debit the appropriate clearinghouse and settle when next online, etc.)
The client software looks at the rights descriptor when you open a package, looks at your PDB to see which rights you have. If you don't yet have approved rights, the software does the "attain rights the first time" logic. So far, the (relatively few) content packagers have mostly allowed "debit-then-settle-later" transactions, since they want people to use content on devices that are not always online.
A key focus for vulnerability analysis of the system is the PDB and how it handles deferred rights -- this is a high-value, and obvious, place to break the system. If the system becomes common, I guess we'll see how smart the computer scientists at InterTrust actually are...
So, given all the caveats provided so far in this thread, there is a way to handle content on your wireless diskman, even if you haven't paid yet.
Yeah, with my new wireless Discman I guess. Will this work at the top of a mountain? In a tunnel?
To which I reply...
Well, perhaps. The InterTrust system creates (and assumes) a personal database (PDB) that contains its knowledge of your rights. ("Rights" in their lingo, not the more common usage you mentioned). Your PDB also has knowledge of clearinghouses that you can use when you want to pay for content.
When you first grab the content, it is in a package that contains a rights descriptor -- what rights are available for this package -- that can include per-use charge (i.e., rent), purchase, superdistribution (e.g., you could get paid for getting your friends to listen to something... the only analogy I can think of isn't pleasant).
The rights descriptor should also contain information about acceptable clearinghouses. This should include information about "How do I attain rights the first time" (i.e., must I go online to get rights NOW, can I debit the appropriate clearinghouse and settle when next online, etc.)
The client software looks at the rights descriptor when you open a package, looks at your PDB to see which rights you have. If you don't yet have approved rights, the software does the "attain rights the first time" logic. So far, the (relatively few) content packagers have mostly allowed "debit-then-settle-later" transactions, since they want people to use content on devices that are not always online.
A key focus for vulnerability analysis of the system is the PDB and how it handles deferred rights -- this is a high-value, and obvious, place to break the system. If the system becomes common, I guess we'll see how smart the computer scientists at InterTrust actually are...
So, given all the caveats provided so far in this thread, there is a way to handle content on your wireless diskman, even if you haven't paid yet.
