This research studies the problem of digital content distribution in conjunction with the effective enforcement of intellectual property rights and laws from a cryptographic viewpoint. Understanding, modeling and constructing the necessary framework and tools for digital content distribution and rights enforcement are fundamental for the development of future Digital Rights Management (DRM) systems. Cryptography is a technology that, if applied correctly, has a recognized potential in minimizing trust assumptions, alleviating production and distribution costs, facilitating legal frameworks as well as mitigating threats in the context of DRM systems. The methodological viewpoint of the present research is to harvest the techniques of modern cryptography for the specification and solution of various facets of the DRM problem and advance the understanding of what cryptography can offer to future DRM technologies. The present investigation provides a framework for modeling digital content distribution systems together with the arrays of adversarial behaviors against them and delves into the development of novel cryptographic constructions finely tuned to DRM environments. Various cryptographic tools for DRM systems are investigated, their interoperability and composition within a digital content distribution system are studied and their threat mitigation capabilities as well as interactions with legal frameworks are examined.
