Non-intrusive digital rights enforcement
View Patent ↗A method for transferring information between a server ( 24 ) and a client ( 28 ), through a converter ( 22 ), comprising: analyzing at least a portion the information by the converter ( 22 ), to determine a standard used by the server ( 24 ) to encode the information in the portion; and replacing at least a portion of the analyzed information with other information, which other information uses a second standard, wherein, analyzing comprises parsing the information on a syntactic level and wherein the information comprises at least one Internet hypertext document.
1. A method for controlling the viewing of copyrighted information, transmitted from a data source, on the Internet, comprising:
receiving, by a data source, a request for information from a client;
transmitting information in an original format, from the data source to a proxy server, responsive to the request;
converting the information, at the proxy server, from the original format to a modified form, wherein converting to the modified form comprises temporally modulating a display of the information in a manner which hinders copying of the information;
transmitting the modified form of the information to the client; and
displaying the modified form of the information at the client so that the displayed information differs from the original format in such a manner that the information is less available for copying than in the original format.
2. A method according to claim 1 , wherein said original format of said information is a format used on the Internet.
3. A method according to claim 2 , wherein said original format is a HTML format.
4. A method according claim 1 , wherein displaying comprises displaying by a server-provided program.
5. A method according to claim 4 , wherein said server-provided program requires a live connection with said server.
6. A method according to claim 4 , wherein said server-provided program is downloaded from the server.
7. A method according to claim 6 , wherein said server-provided program is downloaded from the server without user intervention.
8. A method according to claim 4 , comprising authenticating the server-provided program to the server.
9. A method according to claim 4 , wherein converting comprises converting said information to a four unusable by said client without said server-provided program.
10. A method according to claim 4 , wherein said server-provided program comprises an applet.
11. A method according to claim 10 , wherein converting the information to the modified form comprises converting at least one text object to at least one non text object.
12. A method according to claim 10 , wherein converting the information to the modified form comprises converting at least part of one static to a dynamic object.
13. A method according to claim 10 , wherein said applet is a Java applet.
14. A method according to any of claims 1 – 3 , wherein converting comprises additionally encrypting.
15. A method according to any of claims 1 – 3 , wherein converting the information comprises converting only a portion of the information.
16. A method according to any of claims 1 – 3 , wherein said converting comprises additionally encoding the information and wherein said encoded information is at least partially decoded before displaying it.
17. A method according to claim 1 , wherein said converting comprises modifying some of the information so that the displayed information differs from the original in content.
18. A method according to claim 1 , wherein said proxy server is configured to act as a proxy server which transparently converts and transmits information to the client without requiring substantial changes to said data source.
19. A method according to claim 18 , wherein said proxy server does not require substantial changes in said client.
20. A method according to claim 1 , wherein said proxy server performs conversion on demand by the data source.
21. A method according to claim 20 , wherein said information is compiled from multiple sources at the data source.
22. A method according to claim 21 , wherein said data source is a web server.
23. A method according to claim 1 , wherein said conversion modifies at least one text object to at least one non text object.
24. A method according to claim 1 , wherein said conversion modifies at least part of one static object to a dynamic object.
25. A method according to claim 1 , wherein said conversion reduces the ease of interception said information.
26. A method according to claim 1 , wherein said proxy server is located at said data source.
27. A method according to claim 1 , wherein said proxy server is located at said client.
28. A method according to claim 1 , wherein said proxy server is located at a location in the network different than the location of said data source and said client.
29. A method according to claim 1 , wherein converting the information to the modified form comprises inserting advertisements into said displayed information.
30. A method according to claim 1 , wherein said displaying uses software which is of a type inherently incapable of interaction with the client station other than input handling and display.
31. A method according to clan 30 , wherein converting the information comprises converting said information to a form unusable by said client without said software.
32. A method according to claim 1 , wherein transmitting the information in the original format, from the data source to the proxy server comprises transmitting in a format suitable for display by the client using a standard browser.
33. A method according to claim 1 , wherein converting the information to the modified form, in which the information is less available for copying comprises converting to a format in which display of the information is easily accessible to the senses of a consumer, but is less accessible to data manipulation tools on a computer performing the display.
34. A method according to claim 1 , wherein converting the information to the modified form comprises converting to a format not supported by a simple browser.
35. A method according to claim 34 , wherein displaying the modified form comprises displaying by the simple browser using an applet.
36. A method of providing copyright information by a server between a data source and a client computer, comprising:
receiving information in a first format;
determining that the received information requires format conversion for copyright protection;
converting the information in to a second format, in which display of the information is easily accessible to the senses of a consumer, but is less accessible to data manipulation tool on a computer performing the display, than in the first format; and
displaying the information in the second format, by the client computer so that the displayed information differs from the first format in such a manner that the information is less available for copying than in the first format.
37. A method according to claim 36 , wherein the received information in the first format comprises a page and wherein the second format comprises a temporally modulation of the information, such that only small parts of the information are displayed at any instant.
38. A method according to claim 37 , wherein in displaying the information only a small portion of the information of the displayed page is on the client computer at any given moment.
39. A method according to claim 37 , wherein in displaying the information each small part is displayed in a flashing manner at a rate of at least 30 Hz.
40. A method according to claim 36 , wherein the received information in the first format comprises both data and advertisements and wherein in the second format the advertisements and data are displayed in a manner which allows easy separation by humans but not by standard data manipulations programs.
41. A method according to claim 36 , wherein the first format is a text format supported by the client computer and the second format is a graphical display format.