| 摘要 |
A method of monitoring third party access to a restricted item (e.g. physical/digital media item, such as an eBook) comprises embedding key-data in the restricted item, the data being associated with a store of value (e.g. digital-currency wallet) and being useable to conduct a transaction against that store, where a transaction-record is visible in a transaction ledger; and monitoring the transaction ledger to determine whether a transaction is made, and marking the item as accessed by a third party if a transaction occurs. An authorised party is held accountable for the third party access in the event that such an access is detected. The store of value may be a cryptocurrency, and may be represented by/derived from a public key corresponding to a private key. Key-data may be readable either directly or by software tools, and may comprise a plurality of sets of key-data. An advantage of the invention is incentivising third parties to use the key data, thus notifying the monitoring authority that the restricted item has been accessed by a third party. |
