Electronic media player with metadata based control and method of operating the same

• US 20050080743A1
• Filed: 10/08/2003
• Published: 04/14/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 10/08/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Time Warner Inc. (Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Time Warner Inc. (Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc.)
• Inventors: Ostrover, Lewis S., Blumenfeld, Steven M.
• Granted Patent: US 7,343,347 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/50
• 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]

Abstract

A method and apparatus is described that prevents viewing or other type of playback of unauthorized copies of media files, whether received through a network or retrieved from a magnetic or optical disc. The apparatus uses data in a metadata field that forms a part of the media files. Viewing or playback is allowed only if the data meets certain predetermined criteria. An apparatus is also provided that can be used to generate a new metadata field if a media file has a metadata field with unacceptable data.

Claims

1. A method for enabling the playback of digital media file including a portion composed of metadata, the method comprising:

examining the content of a data field in the metadata; and

enabling the playing of the content if the data in the data field meets a predetermined criteria.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising analyzing said data to determine if said predetermined criteria is met.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising comparing said content with reference data in a local database.

4. The method of claim 2 further comprising comparing said content with reference data from a remote database.

5. The method of claim 2 wherein the step of determining comprises a checksum calculation.

6. The method of claim 2 wherein the step of determining comprises a cyclic-redundancy-check calculation.

7. A method for disabling the playback of digital media content, the method comprising:

examining the content of a metadata field of the digital media to determine the presence of at least one specified data entry;

retrieving data contained from the at least one specified metadata field;

comparing the retrieved data reference data to determine if the data is acceptable; and

disabling the playing of the content if the data is not acceptable.

8. A player for playing a digital media file based on the presence of at least one metadata field, the player comprising:

a digital input to receive the digital media file including the metadata field;

electronic circuitry that converts the digital media file into corresponding signals for playing content corresponding to said digital media file based on the presence of predetermined data in the metadata field.

9. The player of claim 8 wherein said digital input includes a network interface receiving said digital media file from a remote network.

10. The player of claim 8 wherein said digital input includes a digital data storage.

11. The player of claim 8 wherein said digital input includes a removable digital data storage.

12. The player of claim 8 further comprising a controller that analyzes the data in the metadata field and determines if the data conforms to a predetermined criteria.

13. The player of claim 12 wherein the controller is coupled to the electronic circuitry and enables the electronic circuitry when the data is acceptable.

14. A system for playing digital content based on metadata, the system comprising:

an input receiving a digital media file, wherein said digital media files contains digital media content and metadata;

a digital media playback subsystem connected to the input for reading the digital media file; and

a controller that enables the digital media playback subsystem only if at least one specified metadata field of the metadata contains data that meets a predetermined criteria.

15. The system as in claim 14, where the predetermined criteria is related to a characteristic of the digital media content.

16. The system as in claim 14, where the predetermined criteria is that the data of the metadata field matches reference data in a local database.

17. The system as in claim 14, where the predetermined criteria is that the data of the metadata field matches reference data in a remote database.

18. The method of claim 16 or 17 wherein the metadata exactly matches the reference data.

19. The method of claim 16 or 17 wherein the metadata matches the reference data to within a prespecified limit.

20. An apparatus for generating a new media file from an old media file, media file including a payload and metadata, comprising:

an input receiving the old media file;

a controller that generates the new metadata based on at least one characteristic of said old file; and

a file assembler that combines a payload with the new metadata to form the new media file.

21. The apparatus of claim 20 wherein said input means includes a demultiplexer that receives the old media file formed of said payload and old metadata, said old metadata including an old metadata field with unacceptable data, and wherein said file assembler replaces said old metadata field with a new metada field, said new metadata field including acceptable data.

22. The apparatus of claim 21 further comprising a controller that analyzes the payload to determine said acceptable data.

23. The apparatus if claim 22 further comprising a data base, said controller using information from said data base to analyze the payload.

24. The apparatus of claim 23 wherein said data base is a local database.

25. The apparatus of claim 23 further comprising a network interface, and a downloaded data base, said downloaded data base including information regarding said content, said information being provided from a remote location through said network interface.

26. The apparatus of claim 21 wherein the old metadata field contains no information and the controller populates the old metadata field thereby generating the new metadata field.

27. The apparatus of claim 21 wherein the old metadata field includes incorrect information and the controller populates the old metadata field with correct information thereby generating the new metadata field.