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Packing Information for Superdistribution
By Peter M. Benton
Cryptographic envelopes, or Cryptolopes(TM), provide security for
electronic information distributed via the Internet and other public domains.
Invented within the past two years,
they have already
found use in
several
industries.
In Brief:
Cryptolopes(TM), developed at IBM Research, enable authors and publishers to protect their copyright over electronic information. More than 30 major publishers have already signed up to have selected products distributed within encrypted files known as Cryptolope containers. Proposed new applications for the technology range from web-based information publishing to software distribution.
"Information wants to be free, but I have rights, too" is a frequent complaint of Internet entrepreneurs. Individuals who set up shop on the information superhighway are worried about getting paid. They know that copyright, privacy, confidentiality, security and authenticity are troubling challenges for both provider and customer. Users, meanwhile, ask: "Isn't there some way to
organize content so I can buy just what I need?" And publishers make the plea: "How do I know an order is authentic, and what can I do to prevent piracy?"
Enter Cryptolopes. These electronic packages - conceived by Jeff Crigler, vice president of the IBM infoMarket service, and Marc Kaplan of the Thomas J. Watson Research Center - parcel up chunks of information, along with pricing and usage rules, in encrypted files. Kaplan, along with his colleagues Josh Auerbach and Chee-Seng Chow, designed and prototyped the Cryptolope technology so that Cryptolope containers can be distributed - online, on diskette, dial-up, or even be broadcast - in a process called "superdistribution." Their essential characteristic enables a user who wants information to obtain the decryption key swiftly and access the information in moments.
"Because Cryptolopes are 'lockboxes' for transporting contents, they address the concerns about confidentiality, authenticity and piracy," says Crigler. "Go ahead: copy a Cryptoloped document from the Internet. Without the key, all you have is a file of meaningless bits. To get the key, you must agree to pay for the contents, which you can do easily and automatically from your PC."
The essential role of Cryptolopes as enablers for electronic commerce is maintaining the privacy of chunks of content passing through "open" environments, such as the
Internet, that are subject to copying and
tampering. Such chunks can range from high-value business reports to graphics, to videos, to software. To maintain security, the Cryptolope architecture combines a variety of proven
security technologies, such as private-public encryption keys and authentication.
Brainstorming session
The need for secure transport emerged in a brainstorming session two years ago at IBM's Networked Application Services Division (now the Internet Division). Crigler, with experience in commercial information services, pointed out that the traditional private network dial-up and log-in approach just wouldn't work for commercial transactions on the Internet. He wanted more than technology: a solution that would enable secure and convenient purchase of chunks of information - in the form of individual articles, graphics, software, reports or entire databases - and provide the data necessary to pay authors and reporters for their work. A year later, Kaplan and his team came up with the basic Cryptolope architecture. "The hardest part wasn't integrating diverse technologies, such as several variations of public key encryption, but defining the right problem statement," explains Kaplan. "What did the authors, publishers and information users really need to reach their objectives?" Only by asking Crigler and the inf
oMarket team lots of questions over a period of months, he recalls, was he able to create the flexible architecture that underpins the Cryptolope technology.
The architecture that resulted supports a wide range of features important for different industries. Cryptolopes, explains Kaplan, "convey text, graphics, sound and video, as well as large data sets. The terms and conditions section of a Cryptolope states whether and how it can be used, defines varying prices for different uses, and designates who is permitted to view a given document."
In addition, continues Kaplan, "Cryptolope contents can be watermarked and fingerprinted, although infoMarket has not yet
implemented these feature. Watermarking adds visible but unobtrusive markers on pages printed or displayed from Cryptolopes. Fingerprinting adds hidden data about who bought and has rights to use the contents of a Cryptolope. Today's Cryptolopes must interact with a server to obtain the decryption key. Tomorrow's Cryptolopes may need only to access a smart card or other stored-value device to allow decryption by the user."
The technology provides a mechanism for authors and publishers to be paid when users buy their content. The tools supplied by the IBM infoMarket service enable the encryption of copyrighted content, which remains encrypted even as it flows through a distribution channel that may be subject to copying.
Details of distribution
How are Cryptolopes distributed? The basic model enables the publisher, or content provider, to license their content to IBM infoMarket and helps the author "pour" content into Cryptolopes. The publisher's information distributor puts that content, in the form of Cryptolopes, onto the Internet, an intranet or another medium. Users can peruse content abstracts or excerpts - visible as plain text in the Cryptolope - and decide to buy. After they supply billing information to the IBM infoMarket Clearinghouse in a brief, automated session, they receive an electronic key that opens the Cryptolope.
The infoMarket service is using Cryptolopes to obtain both service revenue, through reselling a wide range of premium business information by the document, and licensing revenue, from companies that set up Cryptolope clearinghouses for defined uses. The service already has dozens of content providers, ranging from multimedia publishers and software houses to banks and lawyers. "In a year or so," says Crigler, "expect to encounter Cryptolope technology in entertainment, business, publishing and person-to-person applications."
Kaplan agrees. Cryptolopes, he believes, will play a major role in expanding commercial uses of the
Internet. Because the architecture is driven by market needs, he explains, it should support diverse commercial applications.
Peter M. Benton is a consultant specializing in business development and technology planning. His company, Informed Decision, is based in Brooklyn, New York.
For More Information: Complements for Cryptolopes
Cryptolope technology doesn't always work alone. IBM's infoMarket service often combines it with a very flexible search engine, Minerva, that it acquired from Booz-Allen & Hamilton. Minerva helps customers pinpoint the information they need, which Cryptolopes then deliver.
In addition, infoMarket recently announced that it will license a digital property rights language developed at Xerox PARC. The language enables a publisher to define precisely to whom and under what circumstances and prices given content may be sold. Xerox's language can be used to express sales terms and conditions in future versions of Cryptolopes. All three technologies - invented, acquired and licensed - complement each other in the infoMarket service.
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