Rights management system for streamed multimedia content

• US 20060242080A1
• Filed: 04/22/2005
• Published: 10/26/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 04/22/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Cheng, David J., Van Dyke, Clifford P., Mohan, Siva
• Granted Patent: US 9,507,919 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/59
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/00 Security arrangements for protecting computers, components thereof, programs or data against unauthorised activity
• 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: G06Q 20/1235 with control of digital rights management [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3246 of data relating to permitted access or usage, e.g. level of access or usage parameters for digital rights management [DRM] related to still images

Abstract

To communicate requirements for a digital license from a receiver of corresponding digital content to a computing device upon which the digital content is to be rendered, the receiver tunes the content and locates within the content information relating to the requirements for the license, constructs the requirements from the located information, and sends such constructed requirements to the computing device. The computing device upon receiving the sent requirements constructs the license based on such received requirements, stores such constructed license in a license store of such computing device, and thereafter renders the content only in accordance with the license. Thus, the receiver need not communicate the license itself to the computing device.

Claims

1. A method for communicating requirements for a digital license from a receiver of corresponding digital content to a computing device upon which the digital content is to be rendered, the method comprising:

the receiver tuning the content;

the receiver locating within the content information relating to the requirements for the license;

the receiver constructing the requirements from the located information and sending such constructed requirements to the computing device; and

the computing device upon receiving the sent requirements constructing the license based on such received requirements, storing such constructed license in a license store of such computing device, and thereafter rendering the content only in accordance with the license,

whereby the receiver need not communicate the license itself to the computing device.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the digital content is a stream of digital content from a signal having a plurality of such streams therein, the method comprising the receiver tuning the stream from the signal.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising the receiver decrypting the content if necessary and re-encrypting same according to a symmetric content key (CK) that is shared with the computing device.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the receiver locates the information relating to the requirements at a known interval and location within the content.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the receiver constructs the requirements from the located information according to a common format expected by the computing device, whereby the computing device receives such requirements from any source in the common format.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the receiver constructs the requirements from the located information according to a common format comprising a multi-bit representation divided into a number of pre-defined fields including:

an input copy protection method field specifying a value that corresponds in a predetermined manner to a particular content protection method employed on the content;

a copy control value field representing how the content may be sub-licensed from the computing device to another computing device; and

one or more copy protection method-specific fields containing information unique to one or more specific copy protection methods.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the receiver constructs the requirements from the located information to include whether the computing device can issue a sub-license to another computing device to render the content thereon, and if so how many times the computing device can issue such a sub-license.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the receiver sends the constructed requirements to a trusted component of the computing device.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the computing device constructs the license based on the received requirements by employing a mapping algorithm that maps each field of the requirements to the license according to pre-defined mapping rules.

10. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions implementing a method for communicating requirements for a digital license from a receiver of corresponding digital content to a computing device upon which the digital content is to be rendered, the method comprising:

the receiver tuning the content;

the receiver locating within the content information relating to the requirements for the license;

the receiver constructing the requirements from the located information and sending such constructed requirements to the computing device; and

the computing device upon receiving the sent requirements constructing the license based on such received requirements, storing such constructed license in a license store of such computing device, and thereafter rendering the content only in accordance with the license,

whereby the receiver need not communicate the license itself to the computing device.

11. The medium of claim 10 wherein the digital content is a stream of digital content from a signal having a plurality of such streams therein, the method comprising the receiver tuning the stream from the signal.

12. The medium of claim 10 wherein the method further comprises the receiver decrypting the content if necessary and re-encrypting same according to a symmetric content key (CK) that is shared with the computing device.

13. The medium of claim 10 wherein the receiver locates the information relating to the requirements at a known interval and location within the content.

14. The medium of claim 10 wherein the receiver constructs the requirements from the located information according to a common format expected by the computing device, whereby the computing device receives such requirements from any source in the common format.

15. The medium of claim 14 wherein the receiver constructs the requirements from the located information according to a common format comprising a multi-bit representation divided into a number of pre-defined fields including:

an input copy protection method field specifying a value that corresponds in a predetermined manner to a particular content protection method employed on the content;

a copy control value field representing how the content may be sub-licensed from the computing device to another computing device; and

one or more copy protection method-specific fields containing information unique to one or more specific copy protection methods.

16. The medium of claim 10 wherein the receiver constructs the requirements from the located information to include whether the computing device can issue a sub-license to another computing device to render the content thereon, and if so how many times the computing device can issue such a sub-license.

17. The medium of claim 10 wherein the receiver sends the constructed requirements to a trusted component of the computing device.

18. The medium of claim 10 wherein the computing device constructs the license based on the received requirements by employing a mapping algorithm that maps each field of the requirements to the license according to pre-defined mapping rules.