A novel DRM framework for peer-to-peer music content delivery

Due to rapid advances in the network communications field in recent years, the distribution of large-scale music contents has become easier and more efficient than ever before. However, the unauthorized distribution of copyright-protected content has emerged as a major concern. Accordingly, this paper presents a content distribution framework with a DRM capability for P2P networks. The robustness of the content distribution is ensured by using a network coding approach based on the Lagrange polynomial interpolation method. When the downloading peer within the network receives sufficient coded pieces, it not only reconstructs the associated blocks using a finite field Gaussian elimination method, but also creates its own copies of the coded pieces within these blocks and shares these copies amongst the other peers in the network. As a result, the distribution overhead imposed on the music provider is substantially reduced and the number of coded pieces within the network is significantly increased, thereby overcoming the “last piece problem” inherent in existing P2P schemes. In the DRM module of the framework, the RSA public-key cryptosystem is used to generate a unique digital fingerprint for every user within the network. The fingerprint is embedded within the music file in a protected form such that the music provider can establish the identification of any user performing an unauthorized distribution of the file. The experimental results confirm that the proposed framework provides an efficient and secure means of distributing large-scale copyright-protected music contents with no discernible degradation in the audio quality.