Digital Identity

DRM Reference Architecture

Figure 10-1 shows a reference architecture for a digital rights management system. The reference architecture is by Bill Rosenblatt, et al., and is discussed in some detail in the book Digital Rights Management: Business and Technology (John Wiley & Sons). The reference architecture points out the key interactions in a DRM system and also exposes some of the weaknesses in current DRM schemes.

In Figure 10-1, there are three primary participants. The client is an application invoked on behalf of the entity wanting to access and use a digital resource. The content server is the application that is invoked on behalf of the entity supplying the digital resource. The license server is the application invoked on behalf of the person who owns or controls the rights associated with the good. The license server and content server might be operated by the same entity or they might not. For example, the owner of the goods may contract with multiple distributors to supply the good but control the licensing centrally.

In the reference architecture, the client, on behalf of the user, requests a specific resource from the content server (1). The content server uses a content repository along with product information to create a content package. The content repository might be part of the content server itself or a standalone content management system. The product information specifies price and other product-specific information. It makes sense to separate the product ...