A server architecture for a digital rights management system that distributes
and
protects rights in content. The server architecture includes a retail site which
sells content items to consumers, a fulfillment site which provides to consumers
the content items sold by the retail site, and an activation site which enables
consumer reading devices to use content items having an enhanced level of copy
protection. Each retail site is equipped with a URL encryption object, which encrypts,
according to a secret symmetric key shared between the retail site and the fulfillment
site, information that is needed by the fulfillment site to process an order for
content sold by the retail site. Upon selling a content item, the retail site transmits
to the purchaser a web page having a link to a URL comprising the address of the
fulfillment site and a parameter having the encrypted information. Upon following
the link, the fulfillment site downloads the ordered content to the consumer, preparing
the content if necessary in accordance with the type of security to be carried
with the content. The fulfillment site includes an asynchronous fulfillment pipeline
which logs information about processed transactions using a store-and-forward messaging
service. The fulfillment site may be implemented as several server devices, each
having a cache which stores frequently downloaded content items, in which case
the asynchronous fulfillment pipeline may also be used to invalidate the cache
if a change is made at one server that affects the cached content items. An activation
site provides an activation certificate and a secure repository executable to consumer
content-rendering devices which enables those content rendering devices to render
content having an enhanced level of copy-resistance. The activation site "activates"
client-reading devices in a way that binds them to a persona, and limits the number
of devices that may be activated for a particular persona, or the rate at which
such devices may be activated for a particular persona.
