Secure content transfer systems and methods to operate the same

• US 20070265978A1
• Filed: 05/15/2006
• Published: 11/15/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 05/15/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DIRECTV, LLC (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: The DIRECTV Group, Inc. (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Basse, Hanno, James, Thomas, Kahn, Raynold, Klauss, Peter, Dulac, Stephen, Schlacht, David
• Granted Patent: US 8,775,319 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/59
• 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 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/1235 with control of digital rights management [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/10 Services
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/184 Intellectual property management
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/0014 for vending, access and use of specific services not covered anywhere else in G07F17/00 meter-controlled dispensing of liquid, gas or electricity G07F15/00

Abstract

Secure content transfer systems and methods to operate the same are disclosed. An example system includes a content server to encrypt content according to an encryption key, and to transfer the encrypted content, the encryption key and a license to a client that supports a digital rights management technology. The example system further includes a broadcast system headend to determine the encryption key, wherein the broadcast system headend is physically separate from the content server, and a digital rights management license server to provide the license.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a content server to encrypt content according to an encryption key, and to transfer the encrypted content, the encryption key and a license to a client that supports a digital rights management technology;

a broadcast system headend to determine the encryption key, wherein the broadcast system headend is physically separate from the content server; and

a digital rights management license server to provide the license.

2. A system as defined in claim 1, wherein the content server implements the digital rights management license server.

3. A system as defined in claim 1, wherein the broadcast system headend broadcasts at least one of a satellite broadcast signal, a wireless broadcast signal, a wired broadcast signal, a cable television broadcast signal, an Ultra High Frequency (UHF)/Very High Frequency (VHF) radio frequency broadcast signal, a Multi-channel Multi-point Distribution System (MMDS) broadcast signal, a Local Multi-point Distribution System (LMDS) broadcast signal, an Internet-based broadcast signal, a cellular broadcast signal, a power-line broadcast signal, a fiber optic broadcast signal, or any point-to-point or multicast Internet Protocol (IP) delivery mechanism.

4. A system as defined in claim 1, wherein the content data is at least one of video data, audio data, computer data, interactive data, gaming data, messaging data, or website data.

5. A system as defined in claim 1, wherein the broadcast system headend comprises:

a first interface to receive a content transfer authorization request from the content server; and

a key server to determine the encryption key based on at least one of the content transfer authorization request or the specific content; and

a second interface to send the encryption key and a license request to the digital rights management license server.

6. A system as defined in claim 1, wherein the content server comprises a processor to detect a content transfer initiation via at least one of an interface communicatively coupled to the client, a user interface provided by at least one of the content server or the client, a content management application executing in the content server, a transfer request from the client, a command from the broadcast system headend, or a command from the digital rights license server.

7. A system as defined in claim 6, wherein the content server comprises an interface to send a content transfer authorization request to at least one of the key server or the broadcast system headend.

8. A system as defined in claim 1, wherein the content server comprises:

an interface to receive the encryption key;

a security device to at least one of store the encryption key or decrypt an encrypted version of the encryption key; and

an encrypter to encrypt the content based on the encryption key.

9. A system as defined in claim 1, wherein the content server is also configured to receive encrypted content from the client and to decrypt the received content based on a second encryption key received from the broadcast system headend.

10. A system as defined in claim 1, wherein the license is provided to the client via at least one of an Internet-based network, the broadcast system headend or the content server.

11. A system as defined in claim 1, wherein the license and the encryption key are provided to the client by the digital rights management license server.

12. A method comprising:

detecting a content transfer initiation at a content server;

determining an encryption secret for the initiated content transfer at the content server, wherein the encryption secret is known to a geographically-separate broadcast system headend; and

encrypting transferred content at the content server based on the encryption secret.

13. A method as defined in claim 12, wherein determining the encryption secret for the initiated content transfer comprises:

sending a content transfer authorization request to the geographically-separate broadcast system headend; and

receiving the encryption secret for the initiated content transfer from the geographically-separate broadcast system headend at the content server.

14. A method as defined in claim 13, further comprising skipping the sending of the content transfer authorization request and the receiving of the encryption secret if an encryption secret applicable to the initiated content transfer is already available, wherein the transferred content is encrypted with the already available encryption secret.

15. A method as defined in claim 14, wherein the already available encryption secret was previously received from the geographically-separate broadcast system headend.

16. A method as defined in claim 12, wherein determining the encryption secret for the initiated content transfer comprises obtaining or generating a seed value that is also available at the geographically-separate broadcast system headend.

17. A method as defined in claim 16 wherein the seed comprises at least one of a content identifier, a license term, a hashed value of the content identifier, a hashed value of the license term, or a hashed value of a plurality of license terms.

18. A method as defined in claim 12, further comprising:

determining a content transfer license based on the encryption secret at the content server; and

sending the content transfer license to a client.

19. A method as defined in claim 12, wherein the content transfer request is detected via at least one of an interface communicatively coupled to a client, a user interface provided by at least one of the content server or the client, a content management application executing in the content server, a transfer request from the client, a command from the broadcast system headend, or a command from a digital rights license server.

20. A method as defined in claim 12, further comprising:

receiving a content transfer license; and

forwarding the content transfer license to a client.

21. A method as defined in claim 12, wherein the content is transferred from a client to a content server.

22. A method as defined in claim 12, wherein the content is transferred from a content server to a client.

23. A method as defined in claim 12, further comprising:

determining a code word based on the encryption secret, wherein the encryption secret is a seed; and

encrypting the transferred content with the code word.

24. A method as defined in claim 23, further comprising sending the seed to the broadcast system headend.

25. A method comprising:

receiving a content transfer authorization request;

determining an encryption secret for the content transfer authorization request;

sending the encryption secret to a geographically-separate content server; and

sending a content transfer license request to a digital rights management license server.

26. A method as defined in claim 25, wherein the encryption secret is at least one of an encryption code word or a seed, wherein the seed may be used to determine the encryption code word.

27. A method as defined in claim 25, further comprising:

receiving a seed from the geographically-separate content server, the seed used to determine the encryption secret; and

skipping the sending of the encryption secret to the geographically-separate content server.

28. A method as defined in claim 25, wherein the content transfer authorization request is received from the geographically-separate content server.

29. A method as defined in claim 25, further comprising encrypting the encryption secret.

30. A method as defined in claim 25, wherein sending the content transfer license request comprises sending at least one of a content identifier, the encryption secret or content transfer requirements

31. A method as defined in claim 25, further comprising:

receiving a content transfer license; and

forwarding the content transfer license.

32. A method as defined in claim 31, wherein the content transfer authorization request is received from the geographically-separate content server, wherein the content transfer license is received from the digital rights management license server, and wherein the content transfer license is forwarded to the geographically-separate content server.

33. A method comprising:

receiving a license renewal request for previously transferred content;

determining an encryption secret used to encrypt the previously transferred content; and

renewing a content transfer license based on the determined encryption secret.

34. A method as defined in claim 33, wherein the encryption secret is at least one of an encryption code word or a seed, wherein the seed may be used to determine the encryption code word.

35. A method as defined in claim 33, further comprising receiving a seed from a geographically-separate content server, the seed used to determine the encryption secret.

36. A method as defined in claim 35, wherein the seed was previously received from the geographically-separate key server.

37. A method as defined in claim 33, wherein the seed is determined at a content server.

38. A method as defined in claim 33, wherein the seed comprises at least one of a content identifier, a license terms, a hashed value of the content identifier, a hashed value of the license term, or a hashed value of a plurality of license terms.

39. A method as defined in claim 33, wherein the license renewal request is received from a geographically-separate content server.

40. A method as defined in claim 33, wherein at least one of receiving the license renewal request or renewing the content transfer license is performed at a content server.

41. An article of manufacture storing machine readable instructions which, when executed, cause a machine to:

detect a content transfer initiation at a content server;

determine an encryption secret for the initiated content transfer at the content server, wherein the encryption secret is known to a geographically-separate broadcast system headend; and

encrypt transferred content at the content server based on the encryption secret.

42. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 41, wherein the machine readable instructions, when executed, cause the machine to determine the encryption secret for the initiated content transfer by:

sending a content transfer authorization request to the geographically-separate broadcast system headend; and

receiving the encryption secret for the initiated content transfer from the geographically-separate broadcast system headend at the content server.

43. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 41, wherein the machine readable instructions, when executed, cause the machine to determine the encryption secret for the initiated content transfer by obtaining or generating a seed value that is also available at the geographically-separate broadcast system headend.

44. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 41, wherein the machine readable instructions, when executed, cause the machine to:

determine a content transfer license based on the encryption secret at the content server; and

send the content transfer license to a client.