Digital rights management for electronic documents

Abstract

Digital Rights Management controls and manages rights for digital media. The current definition of DRM includes management of rights to "all forms of rights usages over both tangible and intangible assets." Base on the definition, this thesis addresses DRM issues for electronic documents in business and administrative environment. We've identified security and interoperability as the two basic requirements for management of electronic documents. Towards the two requirements, we have proposed and developed three key novel techniques for the DRM system: 1. An authentication method for electronic documents based on digital watermark scheme and content-based authentication technique. 2. An authentication method for printed paper documents utilizing inherent non-repeatable randomness existing in the printing process. 3. Model and framework for XML based access control for electronic documents and document source data. These three techniques collectively form a complement framework for end-to-end document rights management.