Rights and services interoperability for multimedia content management

The main goal of the work presented in this thesis is to describe the definition of interoperability mechanisms between rights expression languages and policy languages. Starting from languages interoperability, the intention is to go a step further and define how services for multimedia content management can interoperate by means of service-oriented generic and standardised architectures. In order to achieve this goal, several standards and existing initiatives will be analysed and taken into account. Regarding rights expression languages and policy languages, standards like MPEG-21 Rights Expression Language (REL), Open Digital Rights Language (ODRL) and eXtensible Access Control Markup Language (XACML) are considered. Regarding services for content management, the Multimedia Information Protection And Management System (MIPAMS), a standards-based implemented architecture, and the Multimedia Service Platform Technologies (MSPT), also known as MPEG-M standard, are considered. The contribution of this thesis is divided into two parts, one devoted to languages interoperability and the other one devoted to services interoperability, both addressed to multimedia content management. They are briefly described next. The first part of the contribution describes how MPEG-21 REL, ODRL and XACML can interoperate, defining the mapping mechanisms to translate expressions from language to language. The mappings provided have different levels of granularity, starting from a mapping based on a programmatic approach coming from high-level modelling diagrams done using Unified Modelling Language (UML) and Entity-Relationship (ER). The next level of mappings includes specific mappings between MPEG-21 REL and XACML and ODRL and XACML. Finally, a more general solution is proposed by using a broker. Part of this work was done in the context of the VISNET-II Network of Excellence and the AXMEDIS Integrated Project. The findings done prove the validity of the interoperability methods described. The second part of the contribution describes how to describe standards based building blocks to provide interoperable services for multimedia content management. This definition is based on the analysis of existing content management use cases, from the ones involving less security over multimedia content managed to the ones providing full-featured digital rights management (DRM) (including access control and ciphering techniques) to support secure content management. In this section it is also presented the work done in the research projects AXMEDIS, Musiteca and Culturalive. It is also shown the standardisation work done for MPEG-M, particularly on elementary services and service aggregation. To demonstrate the usage of both technologies a mobile application integrating both MPEG-M and MIPAMS is presented. Furthermore, some conclusions and future work is presented in the corresponding section, together with the refereed publications, which are briefly described in the document. In summary, the work presented can follow different research lines. On the one hand, further study on rights expression languages and policy languages is required as new versions of them have recently appeared. It is worth noting the standardisation of a contract expression language, MPEG-21 CEL, which has also to be further analysed in order to evaluate its interoperability with rights and policy languages. On the other hand, standard initiatives must be followed in order to complete the map of SB3's, considering MPEG standards and also other standards not only related to multimedia but also other application scenarios, like e-health or e-government

Implementing mobile applications with the MIPAMS content management platform

New mobile devices (pda’s, tablets) permit the implementation of new business models as they are always connected and provide multimedia capabilities for capturing images, videos, music or even conversations. Together with an architecture for the secure management and distribution of multimedia content called MIPAMS, we propose a mobile business model with the implementation of a mobile application based on iOS (Apple operating system for mobile devices) for publishing added value content captured with a mobile device.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author’s final draft

A web-based rights management system for developing trusted value

We present an innovative architecture that enables the digital representation of original works and derivatives while implementing Digital Rights Management (DRM) features. The architecture’s main focus is on promoting trust within the multimedia content value networks rather than solely on content access and protection control. The system combines different features common in DRM systems such as licensing, content protection, authorization and reporting together with innovative concepts, such as the linkage of original and derived content and the definition of potential rights. The transmission of reporting requests across the content value network combined with the possibility for authors to preserve rights over derivative works enables the system to distribute income amongst all the actors involved in different steps of the creation and distribution chain. The implementation consists of a web application which interacts with different external services plus a desktop user application used to render protected content. It is currently publicly accessible for evaluation.Postprint (published version

Access control issues in social networks

Social Networks, as the main axis of Web 2.0, are creating a number of interesting challenges to the research and standardisation communities. In this paper, we analyse the current and future use of access control policies in Social Networks. Subsequently, two main issues are addressed: the interoperability amongst systems using different policy languages and the lack of elements in the existing policy languages when trying to express Social Networks’ access control. In particular, our approach is based on the use of the XACML standard.Postprint (published version

Access control issues in social networks

Social Networks, as the main axis of Web 2.0, are creating a number of interesting challenges to the research and standardisation communities. In this paper, we analyse the current and future use of access control policies in Social Networks. Subsequently, two main issues are addressed: the interoperability amongst systems using different policy languages and the lack of elements in the existing policy languages when trying to express Social Networks’ access control. In particular, our approach is based on the use of the XACML standard

Implementing mobile applications with the MIPAMS content management platform

New mobile devices (pda’s, tablets) permit the implementation of new business models as they are always connected and provide multimedia capabilities for capturing images, videos, music or even conversations. Together with an architecture for the secure management and distribution of multimedia content called MIPAMS, we propose a mobile business model with the implementation of a mobile application based on iOS (Apple operating system for mobile devices) for publishing added value content captured with a mobile device.Peer Reviewe

Definition of standards-based building blocks for multimedia content management

The emergence of new ways of rendering multimedia content from a multiplicity of devices like tablets, smartphones, consoles or smart TVs, opens a complete set of new opportunities for multimedia services providers. It is important that the development of those disruptive services is done in an interoperable way. Existing service-oriented middleware platforms and recently developed standards devoted to the definition and implementation of complex multimedia services may speed up its development. In this context, the identification of different content management scenarios including the high-level functionalities they require is an important aspect to be able to implement services in a flexible and interoperable way. Use of standards and standards-based architectures will be a key aspect to combine services offered by different providers. In this paper, we propose the definition of standards-based building blocks based on the high-level functionalities required by content management and distribution scenarios. This will facilitate provision of complex new services specially focused, but not limited to, the management and distribution of multimedia content.Peer Reviewe

Implementing mobile applications with the MIPAMS content management platform

New mobile devices (pda’s, tablets) permit the implementation of new business models as they are always connected and provide multimedia capabilities for capturing images, videos, music or even conversations. Together with an architecture for the secure management and distribution of multimedia content called MIPAMS, we propose a mobile business model with the implementation of a mobile application based on iOS (Apple operating system for mobile devices) for publishing added value content captured with a mobile device.Peer Reviewe

Implementing mobile applications with the MIPAMS content management platform

New mobile devices (pda’s, tablets) permit the implementation of new business models as they are always connected and provide multimedia capabilities for capturing images, videos, music or even conversations. Together with an architecture for the secure management and distribution of multimedia content called MIPAMS, we propose a mobile business model with the implementation of a mobile application based on iOS (Apple operating system for mobile devices) for publishing added value content captured with a mobile device.Peer Reviewe

Access control issues in social networks

Social Networks, as the main axis of Web 2.0, are creating a number of interesting challenges to the research and standardisation communities. In this paper, we analyse the current and future use of access control policies in Social Networks. Subsequently, two main issues are addressed: the interoperability amongst systems using different policy languages and the lack of elements in the existing policy languages when trying to express Social Networks’ access control. In particular, our approach is based on the use of the XACML standard