Copy protection arrangement

A method for generating fees using a receiving device, comprising:

• distributing censored video from a video distributor to a receiving device;
• uncensoring said censored video using the receiving device upon payment of a fee, said receiving device using overlay data received from said distributor to uncensor said censored video by overlaying the overlay data over the censored video using a video overlay frame to overlay a video frame containing the censored video data in accordance with boundaries determined by an alpha plane within the receiving device;
• wherein the censored video data comprises at least one region selected from the following:
• a static portion of the video data, a motion vector portion of the video data, a random block of the video data, a macroblock of video data, or any combination thereof;
• and
• wherein the uncensoring comprises compositing the video data with the video overlay data in accordance with the boundaries defined by the alpha plane.

A method for generating fees using a receiving device, comprising:

• distributing censored video from a content provider serving as a video distributor to a receiving device;
• uncensoring said censored video using the receiving device upon payment of a fee, said receiving device using overlay data received from said distributor to uncensor said censored video by overlaying the overlay data over the censored video using a video overlay frame to overlay a video frame containing the censored video data in accordance with boundaries determined by an alpha plane within the receiving device;
• wherein the overlay video data are encrypted;
• wherein the censored video data comprises at least one region selected from the following:
• a static portion of the video data, a motion vector portion of the video data, a random block of the video data, a macroblock of video data, or any combination thereof;
• wherein the uncensoring comprises compositing the video data with the video overlay data in accordance with the boundaries defined by the alpha plane;
• and further comprising permitting a user to store the video data having the censored region and the overlay data on a personal video recorder, and permitting the user to store data defining the alpha plane on the personal video recorder.