Víctor Torres

Use of standards for implementing a multimedia information protection and management system

In the multimedia content life cycle, the provision of trust to content creators, content providers and distributors is a key issue. The fight against piracy, and, in general, against unauthorized usage of multimedia content should lie on the protection of content, that helps to guarantee only authorized usage, respecting the rights that users have over the content. Some standard initiatives, like MPEG-21, are trying to provide a framework where trust and protection can be defined and associated to multimedia content. The MIPAMS (multimedia information protection and management system) architecture is our starting point to address the solution to this problem. We are enhancing our initial MIPAMS by adding standards-conformant tools for content protection. In some cases, we conclude that current standards need to be adapted to new applications. In this context, the FP6 programme AXMEDIS project will provide tools and demonstrators to show how to provide trust and protection for the whole distribution chain.

Rights Management in Architectures for Distributed Multimedia Content Applications

There are several initiatives working in the definition and implementation of distributed architectures that enable the development of distributed multimedia applications on top of them, while offering Digital Rights Management (DRM) features. In this chapter, the main features of the MPEG Extensible Middleware (MXM) (ISO/IEC, http://mxm.wg11.sc29.org, 2010) and the new Advanced IPTV terminal (AIT) (ISO/IEC, ISO/IEC JTC1 SC29/WG11 N11230, 2010), which together will form a future second edition of the MXM standard (renamed to Multimedia Service Platform Technologies) are presented. On the other hand, the DMAG’s (Distributed Multimedia Applications Group (DMAG), http://dmag.ac.upc.edu, 2010) Multimedia Information Protection and Management System (MIPAMS) (Torres et al., Springer, Heidelberg, 2006) is also presented, highlighting the common ground and differences between MIPAMS and the standards. A set of usage scenarios is also proposed to show how MIPAMS enables the development of applications, on top of it, which deal with the needs of content creators, distributors and consumers according to different business models.

Trusting Software Tools in a Secure DRM Architecture

In this paper we propose some security mechanisms that can be used in a multimedia content distribution system with digital rights management (DRM) to ensure that the software tools used in the client side are trusted not only in the moment when they are installed but during their whole life operation. For this purpose, certification, verification, reverification and recertification mechanisms are described, discussing the advantages as well as the drawbacks of using such techniques. A complex use case is presented to complement the description of the proposed mechanisms. The presented architecture and mechanisms are being implemented in the AXMEDIS project, which aims to create an innovative technology framework for the automatic production, protection and distribution of digital cross media contents over a range of different media channels, including PC (on the Internet), PDA, kiosks, mobile phones and i-TV.

Event Reporting Scenarios and Implementations in Distributed Multimedia Systems

Distributed multimedia systems require the possibility of tracking any operation occurred in the system, such as those performed by content creators, distributors and final users. These operations may involve not only the consumption of content at the end user side, but also some system operations, such as the issuance of licenses that grant permissions over the content. The collection and storage of reporting messages generated by the different actors of the multimedia value chain, or even by the system itself, can be used for tracking, statistics and even accounting purposes. MPEG-21 has defined a standard way to express the information that needs to be conveyed in these circumstances. In this paper we will analyse the suitability of MPEG-21 event reporting, while reasoning the improvements we have proposed in order to deal with integrity, privacy, non-repudiation and the distributed generation of the reported information. We will also describe different approaches for its implementation, focusing on a new feature such as the inheritance of event report requests in a content creation and distribution environment.