Managing Rights Management

BofA Smart Contract and IBM Blockchain DRM Patents

Smart contracts, (blockchains, distributed ledgers) and rights management broadly construed are the themes of today's Spotlight Patents. Assigned to BofA, the first patent addresses logistics sensors for smart contract arbitration. Assigned to IBM, the second patent addresses techniques for multimedia content player with digital rights management while maintaining privacy of... Read more →

Adobe and Nielsen Fingerprinting and Watermarking Patents

Today's Spotlight Patents concern aspects of digital fingerprinting and digital watermarking (a form of steganography). Assigned to Adobe, the first patent addresses techniques for content creation, fingerprints, and watermarks. Assigned to Nielsen, the second patent addresses techniques for using steganographically-encoded time information as basis to establish a time offset, to... Read more →

DISH and Salesforce Blockchain Patent Applications

Blockchains (smart contracts, distributed ledgers) and rights management broadly construed are the themes of today's Spotlight Applications. Assigned to DISH, the first application discloses techniques for content anti-piracy management. Assigned to salesforce.com, the second application discloses techniques for implementing super community and community sidechains with consent management for distributed ledger... Read more →

Anonos and Proclus Blockchain and Rights Management Patents

New patents are issued by the USPTO on Tuesdays. Today's Spotlight Patents continue the theme of blockchains (distributed ledgers, smart contracts) and rights management broadly construed. Assigned to Anonos, the first patent addresses techniques for enforcing centralized privacy controls in de-centralized systems. Assigned to Proclus, the second patent addresses techniques... Read more →

WSJ: RIAA Drops MediaSentry, Picks Up DtecNet

The Wall Street Journal reports that the RIAA has dropped MediaSentry (Safenet), an application that finds and documents copyrighted music on consumer and student PCs. The information is then used as evidence in the RIAA-instigated lawsuits against individuals. Instead, the RIAA will use software or servies from Danish software provider... Read more →

BD+ Broken Yet Again

As many news outlets (e.g., CDRInfo, ) have noted, the latest version of BD+, the virtual machine based software that protects movies and games on Blu-ray discs. The cat and mouse game continues. Read more →

CNET: The RIAA's Letter to ISPs

cnet.com has obtained a copy of letters sent by the RIAA to ISPs regarding P2P downloading of music files. Please bear in mind that this letter serves as an official notice to you that this network user may be liable for the illegal activity occurring on your network. This letter... Read more →

Judge postpones hearing in key RIAA lawsuit

CNet reports that a hearing regarding the RIAA initiated copyright infringement suit in Rhode Island federal court against Joel Tenenbaum has been postponed until January 6. As reported here and elsewhere, Harvard professor Charles Nesson and Law School students have intervened in Massachusetts Federal Court to get the copyright law... Read more →

Blu-ray BD+ Resealed, At Least For A While

Slashdot, Engadget, and others are reporting that there are now at least 16 Blu-ray titles that cannot be cracked by SlySoft because of updated / upgraded BD+ programming on the optical disc. The Engadget article also presents a useful BD+ architecture drawing. As I've noted earlier, the BD+ VM-based programmable... Read more →

Harvard Professor Fires Back At RIAA

The AP reports that Harvard Law School professor Charles Nesson has filed a law suit in Boston federal court challenging on constitutional grounds the RIAA's aggressive legal tactics against individuals. Nesson argues that the Digital Theft Deterrence and Copyright Damages Improvement Act of 1999 is unconstitutional because it effectively lets... Read more →