Content Protection Using Encryption Keys Where only part of the private key is associated with end user data
AssigneeVizio Inc.
InventorsWilliam Pat Price, Timothy J. Elliott
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The current invention addresses the problem of securely encrypting video content or any other content where a secret symmetrical key is used to decrypt the data by a hardware device such as a DVD player. The invention uses the same length of symmetrical key as used by current technology but the key is changed for every dataset encrypted. The symmetrical key is itself contained inside a packet attached to the first encryption data set where the packet is encrypted with a device's public key. The invention further adds to the security of the asymmetrical private key where the device itself only has part of the private key and the user has the other part of the private key.
Claims18
A method comprising
- protecting content on a readable medium, wherein said content includes at least one video portion, said protecting including using an encryption system to encrypt said content to form encrypted content, wherein said encrypted content is decoded by a decryption key;
- associating only a first part of the decryption key that will decrypt said content with a player for said medium, where said only a first part will not decrypt said content without an additional second part of key information;
- associating a second part of the decryption key with a second repository, separate than said player;
- and
- combining said first part and second part to form a combined decryption key, and using said combined decryption key to decrypt said content.
A player for encrypted data, comprising:
- a player portion, reading information from a media that includes both a first encrypted data set and a second encrypted data set;
- a decryption key portion, obtaining a first decryption key which is used to decrypt the first encrypted data set to obtain content therefrom using a content decryption manager, and obtaining a second decryption key which is used to decrypt the second encrypted data set to obtain metadata therefrom, using a metadata decryption manager, using a second decryption key different from the first decryption key, where said metadata relates to further information about said encrypted data set.
A method of playing encrypted data stored on a medium, comprising:
- using a key manager to obtain one portion of the decryption key from a first source, and another portion of the decryption key from a second source;
- combining the one portion and the another portion to form a combined decryption key;
- and
- using said combined decryption key to decrypt data stored on the media.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.