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This section describes the Windows Media Device Manager Secure Content Provider (SCP) interfaces. The Secure Content Provider is a COM interface set that Windows Media Device Manager employs for handling secured content. Providers of content-securing solutions can implement an SCP so that Windows Media Device Manager can interact with the secured content without having direct information about how to read it.
Windows Media Device Manager API consists of a collection of interfaces and methods that an application uses to enumerate and control media devices. Media devices can be physical devices such as portable music players, or software devices such as decoders and encoders. Within the API set are methods that applications call to download content to media devices. Those methods interact with SCPs to ensure that secured content is handled correctly and that the usage rights associated with secured content are honored.
Usage rights can be limited to certain people, computers, portable devices, or dates, as specified in the SCP and the associated rights language.
Secured device and content methodology is contained completely within Windows Media Device Manager and the various SCPs. This means that applications do not interact directly with SCP implementations. They interact only through the API calls, which do not expose the security details of the content or the rights granted to that content.
Content security providers may be concerned with the trust levels of Windows Media Device Manager operations. To verify authenticity from Windows Media Device Manager, they can use Digital Signature Authentication mechanisms that are provided with a software component. Within the Windows Media Device Manager implementation, all secured software components must be able to provide an authentication signature. The Service Provider for the secured device must communicate with Windows Media Device Manager in a secure manner to ensure that only an authorized Windows Media Device Manager implementation can provide the authentication information of a device to an application. This improves the trust relationship between an application, the Service Provider through which the device’s authentication information is provided, and the device.
Windows Media Device Manager implementations and the devices they support use trust in determining which functions an application can access, by requiring the same authenticity verification from SCP implementations.
The SCP is a collection of COM interfaces supporting secure content exchange with Windows Media Device Manager. They are organized in a hierarchy; each interface is typically acquired from another interface. The interfaces of the SCP are designed to be small and limited in scope to increase the secure nature of the SCP. Interfaces returned to Windows Media Device Manager represent only the scope of operation necessary to get to the next step in content interaction with the SCP. The SCP interfaces provide methods for handling the following tasks:
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