SYSTEM FOR DIGITAL RIGHTS MANAGEMENT USING DISTRIBUTED PROVISIONING AND AUTHENTICATION

摘要

A digital rights management system (DRM) (100) for restricting and permitting content access in a digital content distribution network such as a network used to deliver television programming. The DRM uses distributed authentication and provisioning so that the potentially many different entities involved in the content distribution network can have localized management control. Distributed authentication can use single or multiple instances of authentication services. A ticket granting service (TGS) (108) is used to allow clients to request services. In one approach, multiple authentication services use a common key that is known to the TGS (108). In another approach, unique keys are provided to each authentication service and these keys are communicated to the TGS.