CSC Global Technologies Inc.

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Products » Digital Rights Management

Digital Rights Management

The Industry wide DRM Process

DRM The DRM process starts with the content provider encoding the content into the format supported by the DRM software. The format depends on the software vendor, e.g. software from Microsoft only supports Windows Media files. Next the content is encrypted and packaged using special usage rules or a license key that is saved on the license server. A typical usage rule can be a subscription model, a 24-hour rental, pay-per-view, or a license that is valid forever but the usage is limited to a single PC. The protected content is transferred to the appropriate distribution server or saved on physical distribution media. In the case of video the online distribution can be done using downloading or streaming. At the other end of the process is an online customer who downloads the protected content. Before being able to play it on a PC, the customer needs a license key from the license server. The URL of the license server is included in the header of the protected media file. The license can be downloaded after the customer has paid for it using an e-commerce system.

CSC and the DRM

In our DRM, a hash of uniquely identifying information is taken from the machine of the user purchasing digital media and is used to generate the security keys with which the video is encrypted. The security keys for the encryption algorithms are generated uniquely to each end user's computer system. Since no two machines will produce the same hash of information, no two machines will produce the same security keys and thus there is no way to play a file encrypted for a particular machine on another machine. To further improve the uniqueness of security keys, random information is added to the process of key generation. This way each download the user makes of protected media will use different keys. Even if the user downloads the same file twice it will be different. This eliminates a potential vulnerability of encryption by not re-using keys.

CSC Competitive Advantage

The unique approach to the encryption process provides CSC huge advantage over other DRM software. Since video files residing on distribution servers are not pre-encrypted, the response time to breach in security is fractional of others. Only security patches are required vs. encrypting the entire digital file library.