KR100508010B1 - Method for providing digital contents via on line using authentication and system thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention discloses a method and system for providing digital content online through authentication.

According to the present invention, the content to be provided by the website and the period of providing the content is determined to include the ID and the URL of the website that is the identification information of the website that provides the content to a given general user while the content is selected It receives the operation information as input, stores the information about the content and the operation information, and when the general user who accesses the website selects the content to use, the information about the selected content, the URL of the website and the IP address of the selected general user Is generated and reported online, and if the ID included in the reported access information and the URL of the website substantially match the stored ID and URL and are within the content providing period, the selected content is designated in the access information. Deliver content to end users by delivering to IP addresses, digital content As for the authentication of the content provider it is able to offer services online.

Description

Method and providing digital contents via on line using authentication and system

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention [0001] The present invention relates to the field of providing digital content, and more particularly, to an authentication method and system for providing content that is legally licensed online and making the content unavailable.

Conventionally, digital contents such as music or video such as music videos that are distributed or provided online are often illegally supplied and used on personal web sites or warez sites. Copyright owners who provide digital content will want to make sure that the content they provide is paid for and used by many users. Due to the nature of digital information, once it is disclosed, it spreads rapidly online, and in many cases, the copyright holder cannot be compensated for the effort required to produce the content.

As a result, copyright owners want to provide their content to various people at a reasonable price, but it is difficult to prevent illegal use of the content in the process of supplying it, which impedes the expansion of distribution of works online. It will cause a problem.

The technical problem to be solved by the present invention, in order to solve the above problems, a method for providing digital content online through the authentication to expand the path to use the digital content online, but not to use the content without permission. And to provide the system.

Another technical problem to be solved by the present invention is to provide a computer-readable recording medium recording a program including the above method.

According to the present invention for solving the above technical problem, a method for providing digital content online through authentication, the method for providing content online, (a) providing the content to be provided by the website and the content Determining a period of time to receive the operation information including an ID, which is identification information of the website, and a URL of the website that provides the content to a predetermined general user while the content is selected; (b) storing the information about the content and the operation information; (c) When the general user who accesses the website selects the content to be used, access information including information about the selected content, the URL of the website and the IP address of the selected general user is generated and online. Reported steps; And (d) if the ID included in the reported access information and the URL of the website are substantially the same as the ID and the URL stored in step (b) and are within the content providing period, the selected content may be selected in step (c). And delivering the content to the general user by transferring the IP address specified in the received access information.

According to the present invention for solving the other technical problem, the system for providing digital content online through authentication, in the system for providing content online, allowing a general user who accesses a website to select the content A website server for generating and transmitting access information including information on the selected content, a URL of the website, and an IP address of the selected general user when the general user selects the content; A user terminal that allows a user to access the website server online and select content, and when the selected content is transmitted online, playing the content and displaying the content to the user; And a predetermined amount of digital content, the content to be provided to a general user through a website, a period for providing the content, an ID (ID) which is recognition information of the website, and a website for providing the content to the general user. Receives and stores the operational information including the URL (URL) as input, and when the general user accesses the website server and selects the content, the corresponding access information is received from the website server and included in the transmitted access information. If the ID and the URL of the website matches the stored ID and the URL and is within the content providing period, the content providing server for delivering the selected content to the IP address specified in the received access information to provide the content to the user terminal; Characterized in that.

According to another aspect of the present invention, a computer-readable recording medium having recorded thereon a program for providing digital content through authentication, includes: (a) content to be provided on a website and the content thereof; Determining a period of providing and receiving, as content, operational information including an ID, which is identification information of the website, and a URL of the website providing the content to a predetermined general user as input; (b) storing the information about the content and the operation information; (c) When the general user who accesses the website selects the content to be used, access information including information about the selected content, the URL of the website and the IP address of the selected general user is generated and online. Reported steps; And (d) if the ID included in the reported access information and the URL of the website are substantially the same as the ID and the URL stored in step (b) and are within the content providing period, the selected content may be selected in step (c). And delivering the content to the general user by transferring the IP address specified in the received access information.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 illustrates a flow of a method for providing digital content online through authentication according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a system for providing digital content online through authentication according to the present invention. will be.

Hereinafter, the operation of the present invention according to the method of FIG. 1 and the configuration of FIG. 2 will be described in detail.

Website personnel provided by the website server 200 or the operator who operates the website to access the content providing server 220, which is a system for providing digital content according to the present invention online to provide on their website digital Select the content. In addition, the user selects a period during which the content can be provided on his website (step 100). At this time, a website operator or the like may pay the content providing server 220 for a predetermined cost depending on the content and the providing period of the content.

Website operators, etc. can recognize their own website in the content providing server 220 or identification information (hereinafter referred to as 'ID') that is unique to the website, and a web for general users to select content. Input URL (URL, Uniform Resource Locator, hereinafter 'URL') of the site server 200 (step 100). The URL of the website server 200 may be a URL of a homepage of a website or a URL of a predetermined page of a subdirectory of the homepage.

The ID assigned to the website server 200 in the content providing server 220 or selected by the website operator is unique information uniquely recognizing the website or the website server 200 in the content providing server 220. URL, which is a page for the general user who accesses the website server 200 through the user terminals 210-1 and 210-2, can select content, and is the only information that can select or specify the content. will be. The URL will contain the URL of the address that specifies the website, the address of the website is unique, and the specific page within that website is unique within that website, so the URL of the page where you can select content within the website is also unique. It is information.

The website operator who selects the content may select a period during which the content may be provided on his website, which may be as short as 1 month or as long as desired on his website. From a revenue model's perspective, the price you pay for using your content will depend on how long your website can provide it.

In addition, a website operator may enter information such as information for paying a price and a contact number of a place where the website is operated.

The content providing server 220 stores the operation information input as described above in step 100 (step 110). As described above, the operational information includes the content selected on the website, the period of service, the ID and URL of the website. Although described above, the URL may be a URL of a website homepage or a URL of a lower page.

The website server 200 administrator who has obtained the permission for using the content or purchased the contents through the above process may configure a page for the general user who accesses the website to select the content as described above. Allows the user to select content.

At this time, the content providing server 220 provides in advance information for accessing the content by a general user who accesses the website server 200. This information includes the URL where the content is located on the network and the file name that represents the content. This information may be provided in the form of an HTML source so that an operator of the website server 200 may insert the HTML source into his or her source code to select a content. Alternatively, this information is provided in the form of a pop-up window so that the website server 200 operator provides the pop-up window to a general user who selects the homepage or the content providing page of the website and then clicks the pop-up window. The selected user is connected to the content providing server 220 that provides the content using a device such as the same.

A screen for allowing a user to access the website server 200 through a communication network such as the Internet using the user terminals 210-1 and 210-2, and to select contents provided by the website is as described above. When displayed to the user through the user terminal (210-1, 210-2) through the user can select the necessary content using a device such as a mouse. At this time, the website server 200 generates access information for authentication and content request for content use and reports online to the content providing server 220 through a communication network (step 120).

The content to be reported is access information including information indicating which content is selected by the general user, a URL of a website of the user, and IP addresses of the user terminals 210-1 and 210-2 of the general user who selected the content.

At this time, to determine the IP address of the general user accessing the website server 200 is the source address when the socket protocol (socket protocol) connection used by the general user to access the website server 200 (source address) It is desirable to determine by looking at.

The content providing server 220 confirms whether the content selected by the general user is provided to the website server 200, and the ID and URL stored in step 110 corresponding to the content are included in the reported access information. Determine whether it actually matches the URL of the website.

At this time, if the ID entered by the website operator and the like in step 100 is different from the reported ID, it is determined that it is not a legitimately purchased website server, and the authentication is unsuccessful.

In some cases, the URL entered by the website administrator in step 100 may be different from the URL reported in step 120. For example, the URL entered in step 100 and the URL of the screen displayed to the user by the website server 200 may be slightly different. However, even if the URL of the top page of the website is different from the URL entered in step 100 and the URL of the screen displayed to the user in the website server 200 will be the same, so if the URL of the top page is the same, even if the URL is It is necessary to determine that it is the content purchased from the website server 200 in accordance with the formal procedure.

If the ID and URL match, the content providing server 130 determines whether the content selected by the user has not elapsed in the step 100 provided by the website server 200. If the period has not elapsed, the content is delivered to the IP address included in the access information (step 130).

As a result, the content selected by the user is transmitted to the user terminal 210-1 or 210-2 of the user corresponding to the IP address included in the access information through the authentication process as described above, and the user terminal 210-1 or 210. The content is reproduced and displayed to the user by the program corresponding to the content operating at -2).

Such a service does not have content data in the website server 200, but only a kind of content link, and the actual content data is supplied from the content providing server 220. In this case, the content data may be transmitted to the website server 200 and then transmitted to the user terminal 210-1 or 210-2, but the user terminal 210 is directly transmitted from the content providing server 200. -1 or 210-2). In this case, the content providing server 220 provides a service such as a kind of content delivery network (CDN).

The website server 200 may deliver the user's content selection to the content providing server 220 to provide all the unspecified users accessing the website server 200 in step 120. .

Or, for example, the content may be provided only to members of a website who have certain qualifications or only to members who have certain qualifications. Therefore, in this case, when the website server 200 reports the access information to the content providing server 220, the ID of the user who is a member who can distinguish the user as a member can be transmitted together with the information about the member. The ID of a user who is a member may use the ID for accessing the website.

The website server 200 provides the general users with the content provided by the content providing server 220 at their own cost at their own site, and the general user accessing the site except for the limitation of the content usage period. It will be possible to provide such a service without any time limitation.

However, if there are a lot of users who use these services, in order to allocate fair use time, a user can set a time when a member can receive the content providing service according to the present invention per day. For example, set a member to use the content providing service only for one hour a day. To this end, the website sets a time before the content is available to the general user who is a member of the site before the step 120. In addition, the predetermined time information and information on the user who is the member who selected the content are also transmitted to the content delivery server 220 together with the access information in step 120.

The content delivery server 220 may distinguish each user based on the user's ID. Of course, each user may be distinguished using the IP addresses of the user terminals 210-1 and 210-2, but several users may use the service according to the present invention by using one terminal device at different time zones. It would be better to distinguish each user by each user ID.

The content delivery server 220 may calculate the time for providing the content for each user in step 130 and provide the content to each general user within the time available for the content in the day.

Since the time for using the content per day is determined by the website server 200 and notified to the content providing server 220, the time for using the content per day in the website server 200 is changed or applied for each user. It will be natural to be able to do things differently.

In addition, as described above, a user may set a total time for using the content per day, but may set a time zone for the user to use the content so that the user may use the content providing service according to the present invention only during that time. will be. To this end, the website server 200 may set a time zone during which the general user can use the content before step 120, and the content providing server 220 provides the content to the general user only during the preset time period in step 130. In this case, the content can be provided only at a certain time.

Such restrictions on use time or time zones may be combined and serviced. The service is provided only at certain times of the day, and at the same time, the total time that the service is provided per day for each user is determined in advance to provide the service. For example, the service is provided only from 4 am to 12 pm and only one hour per day per user.

Through this, it is possible to provide a fair service for each user, and it will be easy for the operator of the website server 200 or the content providing server 220 to secure time for server management.

In addition to the above cases, in step 130, the general user who accesses the content for each use once sets the time that the content can be used after accessing the content, and accesses the content to the general user only for the available time after the access. It is desirable to provide.

For example, if the content playback time selected by the user is 5 minutes, the user's IP is allowed for 10 minutes after the user's access information is reported to the content providing server 200 in consideration of the delay time due to factors such as the load of the communication network. Register to provide content. This margin may be given statically or dynamically depending on the content playback time. If a user is given permission to use each content and wants to use another content, it is necessary to make the content available again through the website server 200. However, if the user is given a time for a predetermined time when a single content is played, the content may not be played properly due to factors including the above-described problems in the communication network. Therefore, it is desirable to allocate a spare time to solve this problem.

3 is a block diagram showing an example of a configuration for providing streaming content by authenticating during a content providing service process according to the present invention.

When the user selects the content, the authentication unit 300 receives the access information reported in step 120 and compares it with the ID and URL of the website server 200 for each content stored in the ID / URL database 310. In this case, it is natural that the content information selected by the user (the type of content and the content providing period) is also compared. If the information about the content selected by the user is not present in the ID / URL database 310, the authentication process will not proceed any further and a message will be returned to the user that the service cannot be provided. If the ID and URL do not match, the user is informed that the service is not available.

The IP address of the user terminal 210-1 or 210-2 of the user is stored in the authentication IP database 320.

After verification with the information previously stored in the ID / URL database 310 is authenticated, that is, when the permission is used, the ticket authentication proxy server 330 requests a ticket for content playback. When the ticket is issued, it is transmitted to the streaming server 340, and the content selected by the user stored in the streaming server 340 is transmitted to the IP address stored in the authentication IP database 320, so that the user terminal 210-1 Or 210-2).

In addition, the authentication unit 300 or the ticket authentication proxy server 330 may limit the service time for the user.

The authentication unit 300, the ID / URL database 310, the authentication IP database 320, the ticket authentication proxy server 330 and the streaming server 340 is implemented in or included in the content providing server 220 or the content providing server It may be implemented to be connected to the content providing server 220 from the outside of the 220. Even in the latter case, the whole of the authentication unit 300, the ID / URL database 310, the authentication IP database 320, the ticket authentication proxy server 330, the streaming server 340, and the content providing server 220 are the same. Configure the content providing server 220 described in.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the present invention can be implemented in a modified form without departing from the essential features of the present invention. Therefore, the disclosed embodiments should be considered in descriptive sense only and not for purposes of limitation. Examples included in the above description are introduced for the understanding of the present invention, and these examples do not limit the spirit and scope of the present invention. For example, in the above description, the Internet is mainly used as an example of a communication network, but this can be implemented even if there is a problem in performance even when using a public telephone communication network such as a PSTN, and various embodiments according to the present invention in addition to the above examples. It will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention pertains. The scope of the present invention is shown not in the above description but in the claims, and all differences within the scope will be construed as being included in the present invention.

In addition, it can be easily understood by those skilled in the art that each of the above steps according to the present invention can be variously implemented in software or hardware using a general programming technique.

And some steps of the invention may also be embodied as computer readable code on a computer readable recording medium. The computer-readable recording medium includes all kinds of recording devices in which data that can be read by a computer system is stored. Examples of computer-readable recording media include ROM, RAM, CD-ROM, CD-RW, magnetic tape, floppy disks, HDDs, optical disks, magneto-optical storage devices, and carrier wave (eg, Internet It also includes the implementation in the form of). The computer readable recording medium can also be distributed over network coupled computer systems so that the computer readable code is stored and executed in a distributed fashion.

According to the present invention, the content to be provided by the website and the period of providing the content is determined to include the ID and the URL of the website that is the identification information of the website that provides the content to a given general user while the content is selected It receives the operation information as input, stores the information about the content and the operation information, and when the general user who accesses the website selects the content to use, the information about the selected content, the URL of the website and the IP address of the selected general user Is generated and reported online, and if the ID included in the reported access information and the URL of the website substantially match the stored ID and URL and are within the content providing period, the selected content is designated in the access information. Deliver content to end users by delivering to IP addresses, digital content As for the authentication of the content provider it is able to offer services online.

Website officials or the operators who operate the website may create their own digital content and provide it to the website members. However, it is difficult to create all the content of the website itself that contains content that will interest many people. When multiple users simultaneously use the contents provided by the website, when providing contents to multiple users simultaneously while maintaining the quality of the content providing service, a service such as a content delivery network (CDN) must be implemented. Providing these services on a scale website is a difficult problem.

In the case of using the system and service according to the present invention, the function of the CDN is provided to each website, and at the same time, the authorized contents are provided and the function of reliable authentication is provided.

Therefore, it is possible to charge for digital contents providing services such as recordings and videos, and it is possible to provide a highly reliable service because authentication can be performed at the level of the server providing the contents for the first time in the process.

In addition, it becomes easier to provide content through a general personal website, so that even a small website operator can provide a content providing service to a user who is a member of his or her own site. Will be provided.

This will create a new revenue model for personal websites on the Internet, and provide content creators with a reliable way to present their products to the public while preventing data leakage.

As a result, when using the present invention, it becomes possible to provide various types of digital contents online while guaranteeing reliability, thereby greatly extending the use area of the communication network.

1 illustrates the flow of a method for providing digital content online through authentication in accordance with the present invention.

2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a system for providing digital content online through authentication according to the present invention.

3 is a block diagram showing an example of a configuration for providing streaming content by authenticating during a content providing service process according to the present invention.

Claims (5)

In the method of providing content online, (a) ID which is the identification information of the website which provides the content to a predetermined general user while the content is selected by determining the content to be provided by the website and the period of providing the content, and the URL of the website Receiving as input an operation information including a (URL); (b) storing the information about the content and the operation information; (c) When the general user who accesses the website selects the content to be used, access information including information about the selected content, the URL of the website and the IP address of the selected general user is generated and online. Reported steps; And (d) if the ID included in the reported access information and the URL of the website are substantially identical to the ID and the URL stored in step (b) and are within the content providing period, delivering the selected content in step (c). And delivering the content to the general user by transferring the received access information to the designated IP address. The method of claim 1, In step (c), the IP address of the general user who accesses the website is determined by viewing and determining the source address of the socket protocol connection used by the general user to access the website. To provide digital content. In a system for providing content online, The general user who accesses the website can select content, and when the general user selects the content, access information including information about the selected content, the URL of the website, and the IP address of the selected general user is displayed. Generating and transmitting a website server; A user terminal that allows a user to access the website server online and select content, and when the selected content is transmitted online, playing the content and displaying the content to the user; And The digital content is stored, and the content to be provided to the general user through the website, the period of providing the content, ID (ID), which is the recognition information of the website, and the web site providing the content to the general user. Receives and stores the operation information including the (URL) as an input, and when the general user accesses the website server and selects the content, the corresponding access information is received from the website server and the ID included in the transmitted connection information is received. And a content providing server that delivers the content to the user terminal by transferring the selected content to the IP address specified in the received access information when the URL of the website matches the stored ID and the URL and is within the content providing period. Digitize online through authentication A system that provides content. The method of claim 3, The determining of the IP address of the general user who accesses the website by the website server may be performed by viewing the source address of the connection of the socket protocol used by the general user to access the website. System for providing digital content. (a) ID which is the identification information of the website which provides the content to a predetermined general user while the content is selected by determining the content to be provided by the website and the period of providing the content, and the URL of the website Receiving as input an operation information including a (URL); (b) storing the information about the content and the operation information; (c) When the general user who accesses the website selects the content to be used, access information including information about the selected content, the URL of the website and the IP address of the selected general user is generated and online. Reported steps; And (d) if the ID included in the reported access information and the URL of the website are substantially identical to the ID and the URL stored in step (b) and are within the content providing period, delivering the selected content in step (c). And delivering the content to the general user by transferring the received access information to the designated IP address. A computer-readable recording medium having recorded thereon a program for providing digital contents online through authentication.