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Issuing Licenses
Licenses can be delivered to consumers in many ways, depending on your business model and how much consumer involvement you want. For example, if you are responsible for packaging Windows Media files but not issuing licenses, it may be better to have a consumer's player trigger the license acquisition process rather then predeliver licenses. Or, if you want to hide license acquisition from consumers, you can predeliver licenses or issue them silently .
The method you use for issuing licenses should accommodate different situations, such as when consumers are using players that cannot handle silent license acquisition. Consumers can also acquire packaged Windows Media files from friends, so if you predeliver licenses, you must also be able to handle the license acquisition that is triggered by the friend's player (the friend tries to play a Windows Media file for which he or she does not have a license, so the player opens the license acquisition URL). This same URL is opened when a consumer tries to play a file with an expired license, so the license acquisition page should handle any situation in which a license is needed. The following list provides the various ways you can issue a license:
Issue a license before a Windows Media file is played. You can issue a license before the consumer tries to play a Windows Media file. For example, when a consumer selects a song from a Web site and pays for it, a license is issued, and the consumer is directed to a location to download the song. Because a license is already present on the consumer's computer, he or she can play the song immediately.
Predelivering licenses is also appropriate for promotional offers. For example, when a consumer purchases a song, you can issue a license for that song and for another song you are promoting. You can set the license rights for the promotional song so the consumer can play it five times. If the consumer tries to play the song a sixth time, you can display a Web page with information about purchasing the song.
Issue a license by player request. When a consumer tries to play a protected Windows Media file for which he or she does not have a license, the player uses the license acquisition URL stored in the Windows Media file to request a license. Windows Media License Service at this URL issues a license, and the consumer can play the Windows Media file. The license is issued in one of the following ways:
- Silently. When a player requests a license, you can issue the license silently; that is, without the consumer being aware of it. This method of license delivery is useful if you do not need further input from the consumer and you want to hide the license acquisition process from the consumer. For example, the first time you issue a license to consumers, you can request an e-mail address, and then place a cookie on their computer. The next time they need a license, you can issue the license silently because the cookie is detected. This method requires that the consumers' players handle silent license acquisition.
- Nonsilently (requires input from the consumer). When a player requests a license, you can issue it after prompting the consumer to enter personal information or submit payment, or you can display a Web page that displays the license information. Players that support Windows Media Rights Manager 7 SDK or later host this delivery process in an application window. Players that do not support Windows Media Rights Manager 7 SDK or later open the consumer's Web browser to a license acquisition page.
Issue licenses based on the consumer's player and platform. Each license request from a player includes information about the player and the platform it's running on. Certain players and platforms have greater security (such as players based on Windows Media Format 9 Series SDK or later, or Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition) so you can issue different licenses (or none at all) based on this information.
See Also