US 8,526,610 B2 · Methods and apparatus for persistent control and protection of content

Abstract

A novel method and apparatus for protection of streamed media content is disclosed. In one aspect, the apparatus includes control means for governance of content streams or content objects, decryption means for decrypting content streams or content objects under control of the control means, and feedback means for tracking actual use of content streams or content objects. The control means may operate in accordance with rules received as part of the streamed content, or through a side-band channel. The rules may specify allowed uses of the content, including whether or not the content can be copied or transferred, and whether and under what circumstances received content may be “checked out” of one device and used in a second device. The rules may also include or specify budgets, and a requirement that audit information be collected and/or transmitted to an external server. In a different aspect, the apparatus may include a media player designed to call plugins to assist in rendering content. A “trust plugin” is disclosed, along with a method of using the trust plugin so that a media player designed for use with unprotected content may render protected content without the necessity of requiring any changes to the media player. In one aspect, the streamed content may be in a number of different formats, including MPEG-4, MP3, and the RMFF format.

Claims19

Dependent claims

A streaming media player providing content protection and digital rights management, including:

a port configured to receive a digital bit stream, the digital bit stream including:
content which is encrypted at least in part, and
at least one secure container including control information, the control information including one or more rules for controlling at least one aspect of access to or use of the content and for selectively determining whether to proceed with a decrypting step and comparing a system identifier included in the control information with an identifier associated with the player, the secure container further including at least one key suitable for decryption of at least a portion of the content;
and
a control arrangement including:
a processor and a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium including program code, the program code being operable, when executed by the processor for opening the at least one secure container and extracting the at least one key;
and
a stream controller operatively connected to receive the at least one key, the stream controller further decrypting at least a portion of the encrypted content based on the at least one key and when allowed by the one or more rules.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Methods and apparatus for persistent control and protection of content

Life of this patent

Methods and apparatus for persistent control and protection of content

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims19