Method and apparatus for content protection across a source-to-destination interface

• US 20020141578A1
• Filed: 09/22/2001
• Published: 10/03/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 03/29/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Ripley, Michael S., Traw, Brendan S.
• Granted Patent: US 7,111,169 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 380/201
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00086 Circuits for prevention of unauthorised reproduction or copying, e.g. piracy indicating unauthorised use of record carriers in general G11B23/28; scrambling for television signal recording H04N5/913; network architectures or network protocols for network security H04L63/00; cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for secret or secure communication H04L9/00
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00115 wherein the record carrier stores a unique medium identifier
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/0021 involving encryption or decryption of contents recorded on or reproduced from a record carrier
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00362 the key being obtained from a media key block [MKB]
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00449 content scrambling system [CSS]
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00536 wherein encrypted content data is subjected to a further, iterated encryption, e.g. interwoven encryption
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00543 wherein external data is encrypted, e.g. for secure communication with an external device or for encrypting content on a separate record carrier
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00855 involving a step of exchanging information with a remote server
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00884 involving a watermark, i.e. a barely perceptible transformation of the original data which can nevertheless be recognised by an algorithm
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4135 external recorder interface circuits between an apparatus for recording television signals and a television receiver H04N5/775
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4325 by playing back content from the storage medium reproduction of recorded television signals H04N5/76; reproduction of recorded television signals H04N9/79
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4367 Establishing a secure communication between the client and a peripheral device or smart card
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4405 involving video stream decryption
• 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 21/8355 involving usage data, e.g. number of copies or viewings allowed
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8358 involving watermark protecting executable software by watermarking G06F21/16; image watermarking in general G06T1/0021; watermarks inserted in still images for transmission purposes H04N1/32144; inserting watermarks during video coding H04N19/467
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/765 Interface circuits between an apparatus for recording and another apparatus
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/913 for scrambling ; for copy protection
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/1675 Providing digital key or authorisation information for generation or regeneration of the scrambling sequence pseudo-random number generators in general G06F7/58

Abstract

A method and apparatus to protect unencrypted content or data in a storage media from prohibited use or reproduction by encrypting unprotected content before it is transmitted to another device or software application. A compliant device or software application is capable of decrypting the content, detecting any watermark within the content, and accessing or processing the content according to the restrictions associated with the detected watermark. Non-compliant devices or software are prevented from accessing or processing the content since they are unable to decrypt it.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

encrypting originally unprotected content at a source device;

transmitting the encrypted content to a destination device;

decrypting content received from the source device; and

detecting if the content includes a watermark.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

detecting if the content received is encrypted; and

decrypting the content only if it is encrypted.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

accessing the content according to the restrictions associated with the detected watermark.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein detecting if the content includes a watermark occurs at the destination device.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the content includes a key distribution data block.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the key distribution data block is employed by the source device to generate a bus key which is used to encrypt the content.

7. The method of claim 5 further comprising:

transmitting the key distribution data block to the destination device to generate a bus key to decrypt the received content.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the destination device only generates a bus key capable of decrypting the received content if the destination device complies with content protection controls.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

reading content from a storage media.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the storage media is a Digital Versatile Disk (DVD)—

compliant media.

11. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

checking if the content in the storage media is encrypted.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the content is encrypted only if is it of a type which is desired to be protected.

14. The device of claim 13 wherein the device encrypts data only if it is of a type which is desired to be protected from prohibited use.

15. The device of claim 13 wherein media reader is capable of reading Digital Versatile Disk (DVD) compliant media.

16. The device of claim 13 wherein the encryption module encrypts the content based on a key distribution data block.

17. The device of claim 16 wherein the key distribution block is found in the storage media.

19. The system of claim 18 wherein the content read from the storage media by the first device is in unencrypted form.

20. The system of claim 18 wherein the first device encrypts the content only if it is of a type which is desired to be protected from prohibited use.

21. The system of claim 18 wherein the second device accesses the content according to the restrictions associated with the detected watermark.

22. The system of claim 18 wherein the storage media includes a key distribution data block.

23. The system of claim 22 wherein the key distribution data block is employed by the encryption component to generate a bus key which is used to encrypt the content read from the storage media.

24. The system of claim 22 wherein the transmitter transmits the key distribution data block to the second device, the second device generates a bus key for the decryption component to decrypt the received content.

25. The system of claim 18 wherein the decryption component is only capable of decrypting the received content if the second device complies with content protection controls.

27. The machine-readable medium of claim 26 wherein the storage media is a Digital Versatile Disk (DVD)—

compliant media.

28. The machine-readable medium of claim 26 wherein the content read from the storage media is encrypted only if it is of a type which is desired to be protected.

29. The machine-readable medium of claim 26 further comprising:

checking if the content in the storage media is encrypted.

30. The machine-readable medium of claim 26 wherein the storage media includes a key distribution data block, and further comprising:

generating a bus key from the distribution data block, the bus key employed to encrypt the unprotected content read from the storage media.

13. A device comprising:

a media reader to read data from a storage media;

an encryption module to encrypt unprotected data read from the storage media without attempting to detect a watermark; and

a communication interface to couple to other devices and transmit the encrypted data.

18. A system comprising:

a first device including,

a media reader to read content from a storage media,

an encryption component, coupled to the first component, to encrypt the content if it is unprotected without attempting to detect a watermark, and

a transmitter coupled to the encoder to transmit the encrypted content; and

a second device, communicatively coupled to the first device, including,

a receiver to receive the encrypted content,

a decryption component, coupled to the receiver to decrypt the content, and

a watermark detector to detect if the content contains a watermark.

26. A machine-readable medium comprising at least one instruction to protect unprotected content from unauthorized use, which when executed by a processor, causes the processor to perform operations comprising:

reading content from a storage media on a first module;

encrypting unprotected content without attempting to detect a watermark; and

sending the encrypted content from the first module over an interface to a second module.