Pairing devices to prevent digital content misuse

• US 10,409,964 B2
• Filed: 11/04/2016
• Issued: 09/10/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 11/04/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SR Labs, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Screening Room Media, Inc.
• Inventors: Baldwin, James Armand, Akkaraju, Prem, Vanzini, Giorgio
• Primary Examiner(s): Cribbs, Malcolm
• Application Number:
  US15/344,278
• Publication Number:
  US 20170124297A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,040 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/10 Protecting distributed programs or content, e.g. vending or licensing of copyrighted material protection in video systems or pay television H04N7/16 ; Digital rights management [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/105 Arrangements for software license management or administration, e.g. for managing licenses at corporate level
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/1078 Logging; Metering
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/31 User authentication
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/42 using separate channels for security data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/44 Program or device authentication
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/60 Protecting data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2101 Auditing as a secondary aspect
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2111 Location-sensitive, e.g. geographical location, GPS
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/1417 2D bar codes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0635 Processing of requisition or of purchase orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/184 Intellectual property management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/10 for controlling access to devices or network resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/107 wherein the security policies are location-dependent, e.g. entities privileges depend on current location or allowing specific operations only from locally connected terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/00 Network arrangements or protocols for supporting network services or applications user-to-user messaging H04L51/00; network arrangements, protocols or services for supporting real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services

Abstract

A method for preventing digital content misuse can include detecting, by a client-side computing device, that the client-side computing device is paired to a viewing device such that, after being paired, the client-side computing device can cause digital content received from a remote server to be presented on a display of the viewing device; after detecting that the client-side computing device is paired to the viewing device, detecting, by the client-side computing device, that the client-side computing device has been unpaired from the viewing device; and in response to detecting that the client-side computing device has been unpaired from the viewing device, executing a remedial action.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

detecting, by a client-side computing device, that the client-side computing device has been initially paired to a viewing device that is separate from the client-side computing device, wherein pairing the client-side computing device to the viewing device creates a communication interface between the client-side computing device and the viewing device and enables the client-side computing device to cause digital movies received from a remote server to be transmitted to the viewing device via the communication interface and presented on a display of the viewing device;

receiving, via the communication interface, a unique identifier associated with the viewing device;

storing the unique identifier in a memory of the client-side computing device to assign the viewing device as being authorized to operate with the client-side computing device to present digital movies received by the client-side computing device from the remote server;

after detecting that the client-side computing device has been initially paired to the viewing device, receiving a request to cause presentation of a first digital movie;

in response to receiving the request, requesting, via a current communication interface between the client-side computing device and a viewing device that is currently paired to the client-side computing device, a unique identifier of the viewing device that is currently paired to the client-side computing device;

determining that the unique identifier of the viewing device that is currently paired to the client-side computing device does not match the unique identifier stored in the memory of the client-side computing device, indicating that the viewing device that is currently paired to the client-side computing device is not the viewing device that was assigned as being authorized to operate with the client-side computing device to present digital movies received by the client-side computing device from the remote server;

in response to determining that the unique identifier of the viewing device that is currently paired to the client-side computing device does not match the unique identifier stored in the memory of the client-side computing device, denying the request to cause presentation of the first digital movie;

subsequently receiving a command from the remote server to allow presentation of the first digital movie, the command received in response to a determination that the first digital movie is not being misused; and

in response to receiving the command, enabling the client-side computing device to cause presentation of the first digital movie.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein detecting that the client-side computing device has been initially paired to the viewing device comprises:

detecting that a physical cord has been connected to the client-side computing device and the viewing device.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the physical cord is a High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) cord.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein detecting that the client-side computing device has been initially paired to the viewing device comprises:

determining that the client-side computing device has established a wireless connection with the viewing device utilizing a first communication protocol.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the first communication protocol is Bluetooth.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

disabling the client-side computing device from presenting digital content; and

transmitting, to the remote server, a notification indicating that the client-side computing device has been unpaired from the viewing device.

7. A client-side computing device comprising:

one or more computer processors; and

one or more computer-readable mediums storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more computer processors, causes the client-side computing device to perform operations comprising;

detecting that the client-side computing device has been initially paired to a viewing device that is separate from the client-side computing device, wherein pairing the client-side computing device to the viewing device creates a communication interface between the client-side computing device and the viewing device and enables the client-side computing device to cause digital movies received from a remote server to be transmitted to the viewing device via the communication interface and presented on a display of the viewing device;

receiving, via the communication interface, a unique identifier associated with the viewing device;

storing the unique identifier in a memory of the client-side computing device to assign the viewing device as being authorized to operate with the client-side computing device to present digital movies received by the client-side computing device from the remote server;

after detecting that the client-side computing device has been initially paired to the viewing device, receiving a request to cause presentation of a first digital movie;

in response to receiving the request, requesting, via a current communication interface between the client-side computing device and a viewing device that is currently paired to the client-side computing device, a unique identifier of the viewing device that is currently paired to the client-side computing device;

determining that the unique identifier of the viewing device that is currently paired to the client-side computing device does not match the unique identifier stored in the memory of the client-side computing device, indicating that the viewing device that is currently paired to the client-side computing device is not the viewing device that was assigned as being authorized to operate with the client-side computing device to present digital movies received by the client-side computing device from the remote server;

in response to determining that the unique identifier of the viewing device that is currently paired to the client-side computing device does not match the unique identifier stored in the memory of the client-side computing device, denying the request to cause presentation of the first digital movie;

subsequently receiving a command from the remote server to allow presentation of the first digital movie, the command received in response to a determination that the first digital movie is not being misused; and

in response to receiving the command, enabling the client-side computing device to cause presentation of the first digital movie.

8. The client-side computing device of claim 7, wherein detecting that the client-side computing device has been initially paired to the viewing device comprises:

detecting that a physical cord has been connected to the client-side computing device and the viewing device.

9. The client-side computing device of claim 8, wherein the physical cord is a High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) cord.

10. The client-side computing device of claim 7, wherein detecting that the client-side computing device has been initially paired to the viewing device comprises:

determining that the client-side computing device has established a wireless connection with the viewing device utilizing a first communication protocol.

11. The client-side computing device of claim 10, wherein the first communication protocol is Bluetooth.

12. The client-side computing device of claim 7, the operations further comprising:

disabling the client-side computing device from presenting digital content; and

transmitting, to the remote server, a notification indicating that the client-side computing device has been unpaired from the viewing device.

13. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by one or more computer processors of a client-side computing device, causes the client-side computing device to perform operations comprising:

detecting that the client-side computing device has been initially paired to a viewing device that is separate from the client-side computing device, wherein pairing the client-side computing device to the viewing device creates a communication interface between the client-side computing device and the viewing device and enables the client-side computing device to cause digital movies received from a remote server to be transmitted to the viewing device via the communication interface and presented on a display of the viewing device;

receiving, via the communication interface, a unique identifier associated with the viewing device;

storing the unique identifier in a memory of the client-side computing device to assign the viewing device as being authorized to operate with the client-side computing device to present digital movies received by the client-side computing device from the remote server;

after detecting that the client-side computing device has been initially paired to the viewing device, receiving a request to cause presentation of a first digital movie;

in response to receiving the request, requesting, via a current communication interface between the client-side computing device and a viewing device that is currently paired to the client-side computing device, a unique identifier of the viewing device that is currently paired to the client-side computing device;

determining that the unique identifier of the viewing device that is currently paired to the client-side computing device does not match the unique identifier stored in the memory of the client-side computing device, indicating that the viewing device that is currently paired to the client-side computing device is not the viewing device that was assigned as being authorized to operate with the client-side computing device to present digital movies received by the client-side computing device from the remote server;

in response to determining that the unique identifier of the viewing device that is currently paired to the client-side computing device does not match the unique identifier stored in the memory of the client-side computing device, denying the request to cause presentation of the first digital movie;

subsequently receiving a command from the remote server to allow presentation of the first digital movie, the command received in response to a determination that the first digital movie is not being misused; and

in response to receiving the command, enabling the client-side computing device to cause presentation of the first digital movie.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein detecting that the client-side computing device has been initially paired to the viewing device comprises:

detecting that a physical cord has been connected to the client-side computing device and the viewing device.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the physical cord is a High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) cord.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein detecting that the client-side computing device has been initially paired to the viewing device comprises:

determining that the client-side computing device has established a wireless connection with the viewing device utilizing a first communication protocol, wherein the first communication protocol is Bluetooth.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 13, the operations further comprising:

disabling the client-side computing device from presenting digital content; and

transmitting, to the remote server, a notification indicating that the client-side computing device has been unpaired from the viewing device.