Steganographic techniques for securely delivering electronic digital rights management control information over insecure communication channels

A computer-readable medium containing instructions, which when executed by an electronic appliance, are operable to cause the electronic appliance to perform actions including the following:

• receiving
• (1) a secure digital container including a file and information steganographically-encoded into the file, and
• (2) a control set made up of at least one control;
• opening the secure digital container to retrieve at least a portion of the file, the opening being at least in part controlled by the control set;
• and
• transmitting information relating to the opening of the secure digital container to a remote site, the transmission occurring at least in part under control of the control set.

A computer-readable medium containing instructions, which when executed by an electronic appliance, are operable to cause the electronic appliance to perform actions including the following:

• receiving a first secure digital container including a file and information steganographically-encoded into the file,
• receiving a first control set made up of at least one control;
• and
• performing the following steps at least in part under the control of the first control set:
• (a) locating at least a portion of the steganographically-encoded information;
• (b) retrieving at least a portion of the steganographically-encoded information;
• (c) evaluating at least a portion of the retrieved information;
• (d) based at least in part on the evaluation, determining whether a user of the first apparatus may access or otherwise use at least a portion of the file;
• and
• (e) based on the determination, authorizing or blocking use of the file.

A computer-readable medium containing instructions, which when executed by an electronic appliance, are operable to cause the electronic appliance to perform actions including the following:

• receiving a signal including governed information and a steganographically-encoded first rule;
• steganographically decoding the signal to recover the first rule;
• receiving a second rule in a communication with a second electronic appliance;
• and
• using the first rule or the second rule to govern an aspect of access to or other use of at least a portion of the governed information.

A computer-readable medium containing instructions, which when executed by an electronic appliance, are operable to cause the electronic appliance to perform actions including the following:

• receiving a signal including governed information and a steganographically-encoded first rule, the first rule requiring payment to a remote site prior to an access to or other use of at least a portion of the governed information;
• initiating an attempt to access at least a portion of the governed information;
• and
• communicating payment information to a remote second electronic appliance, the payment information relating to the access to the governed information portion.