Content distribution with renewable content protection

Abstract

A method of renewing encryption applied to a content file in a playback device comprising determining a specified variant of at least one microcode function to be used in playing back the content file, determining if variants are stored in internal memory on the playback device to determine if the specified variant is included in the stored variants, retrieving the specified variant from a variant storage in a memory located in a media device in communication with the playback device, if the specified variant is not included in the stored variants, and using the specified variant to access the content file. A playback device has at least one memory having a variant storage, the variant storage including at least one variant of a microcode function, and a processor configured to execute instructions to determine at least one specified variant, access the variant storage of at least one memory to acquire the specified variant, and use the specified variant to decrypt a content file downloaded to a media device in communication with the playback device.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.