Enhancing smart card usage for associating media content with households

A method of encrypting all media content received at a user's home from a programming source, the method comprising:

• checking, at the user's home, whether a smart card is authorized to encrypt the media content;
• and
• encrypting, at the user's home using a key that is a combination of a household identifier associated with the user's home and a private key of a private key/public key pair, the media content regardless of whether the received media content was received scrambled, but only if the smart card is authorized to encrypt the media content.

A system comprising:

• a plurality of smart cards, each to be used for encrypting different categories of multimedia presentations;
• and
• an encryption module coupled to receive a multimedia presentation and encrypt, at the user's home, the multimedia presentation based on a combination of a household identifier and a private key of a private key/public key pair maintained on one of the plurality of smart cards.

A method of allowing parental control over media content, the method comprising:

• comparing a rating corresponding to the media content to a rating associated with a smart card;
• and
• allowing access to the media content if the rating corresponding to the media content does not exceed the rating associated with the smart card, wherein a plurality of ratings do not exceed the rating associated with the smart card, and wherein the allowing access comprises allowing the media content to be encrypted using a combination of a household identifier and a private key of a private key/public key pair, at a user's home, for subsequent processing.

A smart card comprising:

• a key, associated with one particular household, to be used to encrypt and decrypt media content associated with the one particular household at the one particular household but not to encrypt and decrypt media content associated with other households, wherein the key is to encrypt all the media content associated with the one particular household without regard for whether the media content was received scrambled, and wherein the key comprises a combination of a household identifier of the one particular household and a private key of a private key/public key pair;
• and
• a user-specific information storage section to store user preferences.

A method comprising:

• maintaining, on an integrated circuit card, information regarding a user's preferences corresponding to media content;
• and
• maintaining, on the integrated circuit card, a key to be used to encrypt and decrypt media content associated with one particular household at the one particular household but not to encrypt and decrypt media content associated with other households, wherein the key is to be used to encrypt all the media content associated with the one particular household without regard for whether the media content was received scrambled, and wherein the key is a combination of a household identifier of the one particular household and a private key of a private key/public key pair.

A method of identifying boundaries of a network of devices, the method comprising:

• encrypting, at a single house using a key that is a combination of a household identifier and a private key of a private key/public key pair, media content based on an identifier corresponding to a plurality of smart cards regardless of whether the media content is received scrambled;
• and
• limiting rendering of the media content to a network of devices to which the plurality of smart cards are coupled, wherein the network of devices is maintained within the single house.