Interoperability of Digital Rights Management Systems via the Exchange of XML-based Rights Expressions

The dissertation deals with the cutting-edge subject of electronic contracts, which have the potential to automatically process and control the access rights for (electronic) goods. The dissertation shows the design and the implementation of a rights expression exchange framework. The framework enables digital rights management systems to exchange electronic contracts with each other and thus, provides DRM system compatibility. The electronic contracts, which are formulated in a standardized rights expression language, serve as exchange format between different DRM systems. The dissertation introduces a methodology for the standardized composition, exchange and processing of electronic contracts respectively rights expressions. (author´s abstract)