Systems and methods for playing back alternative streams of protected content protected using common cryptographic information

• US 10,244,272 B2
• Filed: 04/06/2017
• Issued: 03/26/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 09/01/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sonic IP Incorporated (Endeavor Group Holdings Inc.)
• Original Assignee: DivX, LLC (f/k/a DivX CF Holdings LLC) (SoftBank Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Kiefer, Michael George, Grab, Eric William, Braness, Jason
• Primary Examiner(s): Getachew, Abiy
• Application Number:
  US15/481,340
• Publication Number:
  US 20170214947A1
• Time in Patent Office: 719 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/603 Digital right managament [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0428 wherein the data content is protected, e.g. by encrypting or encapsulating the payload
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/0819 Key transport or distribution, i.e. key establishment techniques where one party creates or otherwise obtains a secret value, and securely transfers it to the other(s) network architectures or network communication protocols for key distribution in a packet data network H04L63/062
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/0822 using key encryption key
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/0861 Generation of secret information including derivation or calculation of cryptographic keys or passwords
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/14 using a plurality of keys or algorithms
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/32 including means for verifying the identity or authority of a user of the system or for message authentication, e.g. authorization, entity authentication, data integrity or data verification, non-repudiation, key authentication or verification of credentials
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2347 involving video stream encryption
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2541 Rights Management protecting software against unauthorised usage in a vending or licensing environment G06F21/10; security in data switching network management H04L41/28; security management or policies for network security H04L63/20; access security in wireless networks H04W12/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4408 involving video stream encryption, e.g. re-encrypting a decrypted video stream for redistribution in a home network
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4627 Rights management associated to the content security in data switching network management H04L41/28; security management or policies for network security H04L63/20; access security in wireless networks H04W12/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6334 for authorisation, e.g. by transmitting a key wireless communications network key management H04W12/04; wireless communications network access security H04W12/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/64715 Protecting content from unauthorized alteration within the network verifying the information received for network security in communication control or processing H04L63/12; integrity in wireless network security H04W12/10

Abstract

Systems and methods for performing adaptive bitrate streaming using alternative streams of protected content in accordance with embodiments of the invention are described. One embodiment of the invention includes a processor, and memory containing a client application. In addition, the client application configures the processor to: request a top level index file identifying a plurality of alternative streams of protected content, where each of the alternative streams of protected content are encrypted using common cryptographic information; obtain the common cryptographic information; request portions of content from at least the plurality of alternative streams of protected content; access the protected content using the common cryptographic information; and playback the content.

Claims

1. A source encoder, comprising:

a hardware processor; and

a non-transitory non-volatile storage medium containing an encoding application for encoding and protecting frames of a source content to create a plurality of alternative streams of protected content, wherein the encoding application configures the processor to;

identify a plurality of sections for the source content;

identify a common set of frame keys for encrypting corresponding portions of the source content across a plurality of different encodings;

for each particular section of the plurality of sections;

encode the particular section to produce a plurality of encodings of the particular section for each of the plurality of alternative streams;

encrypt a corresponding portion of each of the plurality of encodings of the particular section using a particular frame key of the common set of frame keys; and

store the encrypted plurality of encodings of the particular section on a set of servers that distribute the source content; and

store the common set of frame keys on the set of servers.

2. The source encoder of claim 1, wherein the plurality of alternative streams of protected content are stored in a corresponding plurality of containers, wherein the encrypted plurality of encodings of the particular section are stored in the corresponding container of the plurality of containers.

3. The source encoder of claim 2, wherein the particular frame key is stored in the corresponding container of the plurality of containers.

4. The source encoder of claim 1, wherein the encoding application further configures the processor to store a set of DRM information that identifies, for each particular section of the plurality of sections, the particular frame key and the encrypted corresponding portion of the particular section encrypted with the particular frame key.

5. The source encoder of claim 1, wherein the common set of frame keys are encrypted such that they can be decrypted using a decryption key.

6. The source encoder of claim 5, wherein the decryption key is based on a device identifier.

7. The source encoder of claim 1, wherein the encoding application identifies the common set of frame keys by configuring the processor to:

send a request to a DRM server of the set of servers for the common set of frame keys; and

receive the common set of frame keys from the DRM server.

8. The source encoder of claim 1, wherein a title identifier is associated with the common set of frame keys and each of the plurality of alternative streams.

9. The source encoder of claim 1, wherein the container files are Matroska container files, wherein the encoding application configures the processor to write a DRMHeader element to a TracksData element in a Tracks element within each of the Matroska container files, where the DRMHeader element includes the encrypted copy of the common set of frame keys.

10. The source encoder of claim 1, wherein each alternative stream of the plurality of alternative streams is associated with an encoding parameter set of a plurality of encoding parameter sets, wherein the encoding application configures the processor to encode a particular section to produce a plurality of encodings of the particular section by encoding the particular section according to each encoding parameter set of the plurality of encoding parameter sets.

11. The source encoder of claim 1, wherein the encoding parameter set comprises at least one of a bitrate, frame rate, resolution, and sample aspect ratio.

12. The source encoder of claim 1, wherein each encoded section includes at least one Instantaneous Decoder Refresh (IDR) frame and can be decoded without reference to any other encoded section.

21. The source encoder of claim 1, wherein the common set of frame keys comprises a plurality of keys.

13. A computer implemented method implemented using a hardware processor, for encoding and protecting frames of a source content to create a plurality of alternative streams of protected content, wherein the method comprises:

identifying a plurality of sections for the source content;

identifying a common set of frame keys for encrypting corresponding portions of the source content across a plurality of different encodings;

for each particular section of the plurality of sections;

encoding the particular section to produce a plurality of encodings of the particular section for each of the plurality of alternative streams;

encrypting, by the hardware processor, a corresponding portion of each of the plurality of encodings of the particular section using a particular frame key of the common set of frame keys; and

storing the encrypted plurality of encodings of the particular section on a set of servers that distribute the source content; and

storing the common set of frame keys on the set of servers.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the plurality of alternative streams of protected content are stored in a corresponding plurality of containers, wherein the encrypted plurality of encodings of the particular section and the particular frame key are stored in the corresponding container of the plurality of containers.

15. The method of claim 13 further comprising storing a set of DRM information that identifies, for each particular section of the plurality of sections, the particular frame key and the encrypted portion of the particular section encrypted with the particular frame key.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein identifying the common set of frame keys comprises:

sending a request to a DRM server of the set of servers for the common set of frame keys; and

receiving the common set of frame keys from the DRM server.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein the container files are Matroska container files, wherein the method further comprises writing a DRMHeader element to a TracksData element in a Tracks element within each of the Matroska container files, where the DRMHeader element includes the encrypted copy of the common set of frame keys.

18. The method of claim 13, wherein each alternative stream of the plurality of alternative streams is associated with an encoding parameter set of a plurality of encoding parameter sets, wherein the method further comprises encoding a particular section to produce a plurality of encodings of the particular section by encoding the particular section according to each encoding parameter set of the plurality of encoding parameter sets.

19. The method of claim 13, wherein the encoding parameter set comprises at least one of a bitrate, frame rate, resolution, and sample aspect ratio.

20. The method of claim 13, wherein each encoded section includes at least one Instantaneous Decoder Refresh (IDR) frame and can be decoded without reference to any other encoded section.

22. The method of claim 13, wherein the common set of frame keys comprises a plurality of keys.

23. A computer implemented method implemented using a hardware processor, for encoding and protecting frames of a source content to create a plurality of alternative streams of protected content, wherein the method comprises:

identifying a plurality of sections for the source content;

for each particular section of the plurality of sections;

encoding the particular section to produce a plurality of encodings of the particular section for each of the plurality of alternative streams;

encrypting, by the hardware processor, a portion of each of the plurality of encodings of the particular section using a particular common frame key, where each encoded section commences with at least one Instantaneous Decoder Refresh (IDR) frame and can be decoded without reference to any other encoded section;

generating a set of DRM information that identifies, for each particular section of the plurality of sections, the particular common frame key and the encrypted portion of the particular section encrypted with the particular common frame key; and

storing the encrypted plurality of encodings of the particular section and the DRM information on a set of servers that distribute the source content.

24. The method of claim 23 further comprising storing the common set of frame keys on the set of servers.

25. The method of claim 23 further comprising identifying a common set of frame keys for encrypting corresponding portions of the source content across a plurality of different encodings.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the common set of frame keys comprises a plurality of keys.

27. The method of claim 23, wherein the plurality of alternative streams of protected content are stored in a corresponding plurality of containers, wherein the encrypted plurality of encodings of the particular section and the particular frame key are stored in the corresponding container of the plurality of containers.

28. The method of claim 23 further comprising storing a set of DRM information that identifies, for each particular section of the plurality of sections, the particular frame key and the encrypted portion of the particular section encrypted with the particular frame key.

29. The method of claim 23 further comprising:

sending a request to a DRM server of the set of servers for the particular common frame key; and

receiving the particular common frame key from the DRM server.

30. The method of claim 23, wherein each encoded section includes at least one Instantaneous Decoder Refresh (IDR) frame and can be decoded without reference to any other encoded section.