| 摘要 |
An apparatus, method and system to track information access over a communications network. The present disclosure teaches how to associate access credentials with content accesser in a global and persistent manner. Both content and people are registered with a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) handle system. Furthermore, security and other information such as certificates, personal records, encryption keys, and all other objects involved in such transactions may also be registered with a DOI in the handle system and/or may be associated with another DOI as one of the multiple-resolution pointers contained in a DOI record. A right clearinghouse the maintains a rights database associated content rights with content accessers by DOIs. The association of people, i.e., content accessers, with digital object identifiers further ensures that content and accessers may be mapped in a manner allowing for the secure tracking of content access. The present disclosure further teaches that client software may be enabled with a facility to contact clearinghouse upon every access of content items. In one embodiment, no digital rights management is engaged, but rather the use of the content is simply tracked by a rights clearinghouse. Such tracking may be useful to maintain accurate access counts of any given item of content and/or for any given user. In another embodiment, this tracking facility allows a rights clearinghouse to limit access to any content items. As a result, the disclosure facilitates the distribution, access and tracking of a collection of content across a communications network in a more streamlined manner. |
