Method and apparatus for assisting with content key changes

A method comprising:

• receiving, at a digital video recorder, a plurality of segments of a set of content and a plurality of corresponding content rule sets;
• providing, at the digital video recorder, the plurality of content rule sets to a digital rights management component, wherein the digital rights management component is configured to insert the plurality of content rule sets into a content license associated with the set of content, the content license including a master key;
• receiving, at the digital video recorder, a plurality of marker tokens from the digital rights management component, each marker token of the plurality of marker tokens being associated with a segment of the plurality of segments and a corresponding content rule set of the plurality of content rule sets, and each marker token of the plurality of marker tokens associated with a segment of the plurality segments indicating when a content encrypting key associated with the segment is to change during playback of the associated segment, wherein a marker token associated with a segment includes the corresponding content rule set within the marker token, and the content encryption key for the segment is derived from the master key;
• inserting, at the digital video recorder, the plurality of marker tokens into a digital video recorder index file so that one of the marker tokens associated with one of the plurality of segments of the set of content is detected during playback at a remote client device that communicates with the digital video recorder to receive the set of content stored on a storage medium at the digital video recorder;
• and
• providing, from the digital video recorder to the remote client device, the master key and a subset of the list of the plurality of corresponding content rule sets.

A method comprising:

• receiving, at a digital video recorder from a diskless set top box, a plurality of encrypted segments of a set of content and a plurality of corresponding content rule sets, the plurality of segments of the set of content encrypted by the diskless set top box based in part on a master key;
• receiving, at the digital video recorder from the diskless set top box, a plurality of marker tokens, each marker token of the plurality of marker tokens being associated with a segment of the plurality of segments and a corresponding content rule set of the plurality of content rule sets, and each marker token of the plurality of marker tokens associated with a segment of the plurality segments indicating when a content encrypting key associated with the segment is to change during playback of the associated segment, wherein a marker token associated with a segment includes the corresponding content rule set within the marker token, and the content encryption key for the segment is derived from the master key;
• and
• providing, at the digital video recorder, the plurality of content rule sets to a digital rights management component, wherein the digital rights management component is configured to insert the plurality of content rule sets into a content license associated with the set of content, the content license including the master key.