The access-usage-control-matrix: a heuristic tool for implementing a selected level of technical content protection

Content providers are faced with massive intellectual property piracy and resort to technical protection measures encapsulated in digital rights management systems (DRMS). Given the cost-benefit trade-off of varying levels of content protection there is a need to implement a selected level of content protection. Based on a functional reference model of a DRMS, this paper proposes an access-usage-control-matrix to heuristically determine the protective strength of a given DRMS installation. The underlying assumption is that the combined robustness of the preventive security functions access control and usage control determines overall strength. The robustness of both matrix dimensions is refined with concrete authentication and client tamper-resistance methods.