Certificates and Rights

Content that media devices deal with is often subject to copyright and ownership provisions and rules of usage. For this reason, several aspects of Windows Media Device Manager deal with certification (the permissions that the application needs to use certain features of Windows Media Device Manager) and rights (the rules or policies associated with content and its usage on a media device).

Application Certificates

Applications must be certified before they can communicate with Windows Media Device Manager. Application writers should obtain the appropriate certificate from the designated certificate authority for the Windows Media Device Manager implementation with which the application is going to communicate.

Device Verification

Secured devices must provide verification to the Service Provider that they are SDMI-compliant before the Service Provider can interact with them.

Rights

Content rights are usage policies that can be attached to content. These policies include how often a file can be played, whether it can be copied, and how many times it can be copied. Media devices that are designed to be secure support content rights and follow behavior policies with regard to rights.