Workflow description of digital rights management systems

Abstract

Digital Rights Management (DRM) is becoming a key issue in our highly networked world. Piracy of digital goods of any kind (music, software, video) is growing day by day. In this scenario, many companies, organisations and administration-funded projects provide solutions for the implementation of digital rights management (DRM) systems. Nevertheless, although these solutions have several points in common, they are incompatible in terms of architecture and system components. This paper analyses some of these solutions, focusing on the description of their data flow, one area where common points can be found. We propose the use of workflow modelling in order to find commonalities among data flow of DRM systems, that would allow easier implementation of new ones. The selected language for performing this modelling is OWL-S (Ontology Web Language for Services). The use of an ontology language will allow us to combine workflow modelling with ontologies defining DRM concepts. © Springer-Verlag 2004.