Digital rights management system implemented on a scanner

摘要

In a digital rights management system where a scanner is connected to a rights management server, the process of applying digital rights protection is performed by the scanner, rather than the server, so that scanning and document protection can be done even when the server is not available. Upon scanning a document, the operator selects a rights management policy to be applied to the digital document. The scanner generates a document ID, embeds the document ID as metadata in the document, encrypts the document, and stores the document ID, policy ID of the selected policy, and encryption key as an entry in a local document-policy association table on the scanner. The scanner uploads the above information of the digital document to the server, which stores the information in a document-policy association table on server and uses it to perform document access control.

主权项

1. A method implemented in a system comprising a digital document generation apparatus connected to a digital rights management server via a network, the digital document generation apparatus being a scanner or a mobile device with a camera, for managing digital rights of digital documents generated by the digital document generation apparatus, the method comprising:
by the digital document generation apparatus: (a) storing a plurality of right management policies in a storage device local to the digital document generation apparatus, each right management policy defining user access rights with respect to digital documents with which the policy is to be associated; (b) generating a digital document by scanning a hardcopy document using the scanner or photographing a hardcopy document using the camera; (c) receiving an operator input indicating a policy ID of a selected one of the plurality of rights management policies; (d) generating a unique document ID for the digital document; (e) embedding the document ID and information identifying the digital rights management server in metadata of the digital document; (f) encrypting the digital document using an encryption key; (g) storing the document ID, the policy ID and the encryption key as an entry in a local document-policy association table in the storage device local to the digital document generation apparatus; (h) storing or transmitting the encrypted digital document to a user, without permitting any access to content of the digital document; and (i) transmitting, after step (h), the document ID, the policy ID and the encryption key to the digital rights management server.