Repeated reselling permission multi-reselling approach for a license in DRM environment

In this paper, a novel approach, called Repeated Reselling Permission based Multiple Reselling (RRP-MR), is proposed. This approach allows a consumer who has bought his license from another consumer to resell this license to a third consumer. This reselling process continues till the license is resold N-times. This multiple reselling process is achieved without compromising neither the content owner´s rights nor the consumer´s rights. In addition, the RRP-MR approach not only provide secure license reselling process but also fair license reselling between the two involved consumers. Also, the RRP-MR gives the buyer the power to stop the multiple resellings of the license at a given reselling process. Furthermore, it enables the buyer to detect any fake license reselling at the first step of the reselling process. The RRP-MR approach makes use of a License Issuer (LI), License Revocation List (LRL), digital token called Reselling Permission (RP) and a special contract signing protocol known as Reselling Deal Signing (RDS) protocol to achieve fair and secure reselling. An analysis of potential threats has shown that this approach has met its security objectives.