Managing Rights Management

Atrium and nChain Blockchain and Rights Management Patent Applications

Both of today's Spotlight Applications continue the theme of blockchains (smart contracts, distributed ledgers) and rights management broadly construed. Assigned to Atrium Separate IP Holdings, the first application discloses blockchain techniques for automated cybersecurity and data privacy law compliance with a partitioned replication protocol. Assigned to nChain, the second application... Read more →

Two Salesforce Blockchain and Rights Management Patent Applications

New patent applications are published by the USTPO on Thursdays. Assigned to Salesforce, both of today's Spotlight Applications concern blockchains (smart contracts, distributed ledgers) and rights management broadly construed. The first application discloses techniques for implementing declarative smart actions for coins and assets transacted onto a blockchain using distributed ledger... Read more →

IBM and Forcepoint Blockchain and Rights Mangement Patents

New patents are issued by the USPTO on Tuesdays. Today's Spotlight Patents continue our theme of blockchains (smart contracts, distributed ledgers) and rights management broadly construed. assigned to IBM, the first of today's patents addresses techniques for anonymous consent and data sharing on a blockchain. Assigned to Forcepoint, the second... Read more →

CGP IP Holdings and Americorp Blockchain and Rights Management Patents

New patents are issued by the USPTO on Tuesdays. Both of today's Spotlight Patents continue the theme of blockchains (distributed ledgers, smart contracts) and rights management broadly construed. Assigned to CGP IP Holdings, the first patent addresses techniques for a distributed overwatch system that allows transactions with government-grade privacy and... Read more →

Yoti and Walmart Blockchain and DRM Patents

New patents are issued by the USPTO on Tuesdays. Today's Spotlight Patents concern aspects of blockchains (distributed ledgers, smart contracts) and rights management broadly construed. Assigned to Yoti, the first patent addresses techniques for a digital identity system generating a sharing token for authenticating a bearer to a validator. Assigned... Read more →

GCP IP and Listat Blockchain and DRM Patent Applications

New pending patent applications are published by the USPTO on Thursdays. Both of today's Spotlight Applications concern aspects of blockchains (distributed ledgers, smart contracts) and rights management broadly construed. Assigned to GCP IP Holdings, the first application discloses techniques for a distributed overwatch system that allows transactions with government-grade privacy... Read more →

Symbiont and Sensoriant Blockchain and DRM Patents

New patents are issued by the USPTO on Tuesdays. Today's Spotlight Patents continue the theme of blockchain (distributed ledger, smart contracts) and digital rights management broadly construed. Assigned to Symbiont.IO, the first of today's patents addresses techniques for encrypted electronic storage and confidential network transfer of private data through a... Read more →

Labyrinth Research and Comcast Blockchain and DRM Patent Applications

New pending patent applications are published on Thursdays. Today's Spotlight Applications continue the theme of blockchain (distributed ledger, smart contracts) and digital rights management broadly construed. Assigned to Labyrinth Research, the first application discloses techniques for unified control of privacy-impacting devices. Assigned to Comcast, the second application discloses techniques for... Read more →

Accenture and Anonos Blockchain and DRM Patent Applications

New pending patent applications are published on Thursday. Today's Spotlight Applications continue the theme of blockchain (distributed ledger, smart contracts) and digital rights management broadly construed. Assigned to Accenture, the first application discloses techniques for entitlement management. Assigned to Anonos, the second application discloses techniques for enforcing centralized privacy controls... Read more →

IBM and SAP Blockchain and DRM Patent Applications

New patent applications are published on Thursdays. Both of today's Spotlight Applications continue the theme of blockchain (distributed ledger, smart contracts) and digital rights management broadly construed. Assigned to IBM, the first application discloses techniques for privacy-preserving transaction validation mechanisms for smart contracts that are included in a ledger. Assigned... Read more →

Cerner and Microsoft DRM Patent Applications

Thursdays the PTO publishes new pending patent applications. Both of this week's Spotlight Applications concern aspects of digital rights management. Assigned to Cerner Innovation, the first application discloses techniques for HIPAA-compliant third party access to electronic medical records. Assigned to Microsoft, the second application discloses a privacy enhancing personal data... Read more →

Intertrust and Feitian DRM Patent Applications

Thursdays the PTO publishes new pending patent applications. Both of today's Spotlight Applications concern aspects of digital rights management. Assigned to Intertrust, the first of today's applications discloses techniques for protecting and governing genomic and other information. Assigned to Feitian Technologies (CN), the second application discloses techniques for accessing and... Read more →

DigitalQuick

I've started using DigitalQuick from Fasoo (a spinout from Samsung). Very smart guys. App addresses a problem that's kept me off the cloud. Read more →

Vanishing Act

The NYTimes article on reports on the work of University of Washington computer scientists on "self-destructing messages." Vanish uses a key-based encryption system in a different way, making it possible for a decrypted message to be automatically re-encrypted at a specified point in the future without fear that a third... Read more →

Dennis McDonald: Will Hard Times Lead To More DRM?

A few days ago, Dennis McDonald wrote: An important question is whether competition exists (or is allowed to exist). DRM can be viewed as an artificial restriction on competition. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. As we’ve seen in the U.S. it also helps if you manipulate the legal system... 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 →

Backdooring Skype

[tip o' the hat to Dave Farber's IP list] Speculation abounds that Skype has incorporated backdoors so that national security agencies can listen in on Skype calls. So much for privacy. An article posted by Daniel AJ Sokolov on the heise security site says in part: At a meeting with... Read more →

Viacom Agrees To Anonymous YouTube User Information

Reuters and the New York Times report that Viacom and Google/YouTube have agreed to anonymize user information as part of discovery in the lawsuit between them over copyright infringement in user generated or uploaded content. Earlier in July, a federal judge in Manhattan ordered Google to turn over YouTube user... Read more →

ISP Targeted Advertising

One example of the current discussion regarding ISP efforts to participate in revenue streams based on advertising is this overview article that appeared in MediaPost. Charter and others are looking into ad insertion based on capturing information about the web browsing behavior of their customers. In the U.S., ad company... Read more →

Annals of Privacy Protection: The NGS Genographic Project

A friend mentioned contributing DNA to the National Geographic Society's Genographic Project "which is seeking to chart new knowledge about the migratory history of the human species by using sophisticated laboratory and computer analysis of DNA contributed by hundreds of thousands of people from around the world." I got curious... Read more →

Switzerland Warns File Trackers

InfoWorld reports that the Swiss government has warned Logistep, a company that tracks file sharers, that its tactics may be illegal under Swiss law. Identifying file sharers is part of global antipriracy efforts that in the view of some compromises the privacy of individuals. Logistep, which supplies information on suspected... Read more →

Snooping on Skype

[tip o' the hat to Digital Freedom Campaign] Jeremy Reimer writes on ArsTechnica that the Bavarian government sought assistance from software vendor Digitask in snooping on Skype conversations. So much for privacy. The method outlined involved the installation of malware referred to as the "Skype Capture Unit" that would be... Read more →

Canadian Privacy Minister Cautions Against DRM

Privacy is a touchy subject. For nearly 20 years, I have advocated that consumers be informed in advance and "opt in" to any collection of usage information by DRM technologies. The reason is that this information has value. In some business models, it's perfectly reasonable to provide compensation to consumers... Read more →

DRM 3.0 - Privacy

Dennis McDonald posted a comment on my DRM 3.0 blogicle asking, "Did any of the industry folks you talked with say anything about possible privacy implications for "DRM 3.0" applications?" The direct answer is "yes and no." Privacy issues turn, in my view, on what is done with information relating... Read more →

Privatunes Doesn't Privatize iTunes Music Files - EFF

Privatunes announced software that removes the identifying information that Apple includes in each music file, including those sold without FairPlay DRM. However, the Electronic Frontier Foundation says the removal is not complete: There are two fairly large fields, marked sign and chtb, that are unique to each copy of a... Read more →

The iTunes User Mark - Risks and Hacks

Chris Maxcer has written an informative article on iTunes embedding buyer information in each file and on the possible consequences of sharing such files with others. It's been recently discovered, though, that each song sold through iTunes Plus --the section of iTunes that sells the higher-quality, DRM-free music -- is... Read more →

What Apple Embeds

The EFF has taken a closer look at iTunes music files that lack Apple's FairPlay DRM. As part of what appears to be their ongoing investigation, they concluded: We've found that there isn't a watermark in the compressed audio signal itself, but there are surprisingly huge differences in the encoded... Read more →

Reigning In The RIAA and MPAA

The LA Times [registration required] is reporting that the Motion Picture Association of America and the Recording Industry Association of America are lobbying the California legislature for an exemption to proposed laws that would outlaw pretexting, the practice of misrepresenting one's identity in order to gain access to confidential or... Read more →

Intel's Legrande Security Coming to Home PCs - Not?

Writing in TG Daily, Wolfgang Gruener notes in a very informative article that Intel's Legrande security platform is unlikely to come to home PCs any time soon largely out of Intel's concerns around privacy implications. Snippets: LT surfaced first in 2002 and was part of the short-lived security initiatives of... Read more →

Further on the Halderman Felton Paper

Yesterday I noted the terrific paper by Alexander Halderman and Ed Felton that provides an in-depth look at the technologies underlying the Sony-BMG rootkit fiasco. As with the fiasco itself, this paper is certain to gather substantial attention in the blogosphere. Here is a quasi- random selection of commentary that... Read more →