Digital rights management unit for a digital rights management system

摘要

The present invention relates to a DRM user unit ( 2 ) for interacting with DRM client units ( 3 ) and DRM server units ( 1 ) of a DRM system, said DRM client units ( 3 ) storing digital data objects (DDO) and said DRM server units ( 1 ) issuing digital rights objects (DRO) representing usage rights of associated digital data objects, said DRM user unit ( 2 ) comprising an authentication unit ( 21 ) and a rights storage unit ( 22 ) for the storage of said digital rights objects. According to the invention the authentication of a DRM client ( 31 ) is relocated to the DRM user unit ( 2 ) that is possessed by an end user. This has the advantage that now a digital rights objects is a personal license that can be used with more than one playback device/playback system while guaranteeing that no illegal copies in any form can be made of the purchased content. A service provider may now implement his own specific software routines in the DRM user unit ( 2 ) to authenticate the DRM client ( 31 ) running on the DRM client unit ( 3 ) of the user.