CONTENT VALIDATION FOR DIGITAL NETWORK

• US 20080059609A1
• Filed: 09/01/2006
• Published: 03/06/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/01/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NBC Universal Media LLC (Comcast Corporation)
• Original Assignee: NBC Universal Media LLC (Comcast Corporation)
• Inventors: Ng, Sheau, Reitmeier, Glenn Arthur, Mandel, Bill
• Granted Patent: US 7,836,179 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/220
• 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: 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

Abstract

A method of validating content for use on at least one node of a network, includes identifying whether the content has at least one adjunct; reviewing the at least one adjunct, where found, to determine whether the content is valid for use on the at least one node; and indicating that the content is unauthorized for use on the at least one node where no adjunct is found and/or where an adjunct is found that is not able to render the content valid for use on the at least one node.

Claims

1. A method of validating content for use on at least one node of a network, comprising:

identifying whether the content comprises at least one adjunct;

reviewing the at least one adjunct, where found, to determine whether the content is valid for use on the at least one node; and

indicating that the content is unauthorized for use on a node where no adjunct is found and/or where an adjunct is found that is not able to render the content valid for use on the at least one node.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying whether the content comprises an adjunct comprises at least one of determining whether there is meta data attached to the content and determining whether there is information embedded in the content.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein determining whether there is meta data attached to the content comprises determining whether the content comprises a digital rights management wrapper.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein determining whether there is information embedded in the content comprises determining whether the content comprises a watermark.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein determining whether there is information embedded in the content comprises determining whether the content comprises at least one of a video watermark and an audio watermark.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein reviewing the at least one adjunct, where found, to determine whether the content is valid comprises identifying whether the at least one adjunct provides a source of the content.

7. The method of claim 2, wherein reviewing the at least one adjunct, where found, to determine whether the content is valid comprises identifying whether the at least one adjunct provides restrictions on use on the node.

8. The method of claim 2, wherein reviewing the at least one adjunct, where found, to determine whether the content is valid comprises identifying whether the at least one adjunct provides rights associated with the content that allows use on the node.

9. The method of claim 2, wherein the at least one adjunct comprises a plurality of adjuncts and wherein reviewing the at least one adjunct, where found, to determine whether the content is valid comprises:

identifying whether a first adjunct provides rights associated with the content; and

identifying whether a second adjunct provides a restriction on use of the content.

10. The method of claim 2, wherein reviewing the at least one adjunct, where found, to determine whether the content is valid comprises identifying whether the at least one adjunct grants any transfer rights and identifying whether the at least one adjunct provides at least one prior transferor and comparing the transfer rights with the prior transferor to determine if the content was validly transferred.

11. The method of claim 2, wherein reviewing the at least one adjunct, where found, to determine whether the content is valid comprises identifying at least one of whether the at least one adjunct provides rights associated with the content and whether the at least one adjunct provides a restriction on use of the content;

and

further comprising identifying whether the at least one adjunct provides a prior location the content was transferred from and comparing the rights associated with the content or the restriction on use of the content with the prior location to determine if it was transferred according to the rights or restrictions.

12. The method of claim 2, further comprising a plurality of nodes of a network and wherein outputting an indication that the content is unauthorized comprises at least one of indicating that the content may not be run on the node, notifying other nodes in the network that this content is not valid for use on any of the nodes of the network and preventing transfer of the content to other nodes.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising outputting an indication that the content is authorized where found to be valid.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the content comprises digital data.

15. The method of claim 4, wherein the watermark is visible.

16. A circuit for validating content entering at least one node of a network, comprising:

a display;

a memory;

means for identifying whether the content comprises an adjunct and for indicating whether the content is unauthorized for use on a node where no adjunct is found and/or where an adjunct is found that is not able to render the content valid for use on the at least one node, the identifying means being interconnected with the display and the memory.

17. The circuit of claim 16, wherein the identifying and indicating means comprises a processor interconnected with the display.

18. The circuit of claim 17, wherein the identifying and indicating means further comprises a stripper communicating with the processor, the stripper being configured to identify meta data in the content and then the strip meta data from the content for communication to the processor.

19. The circuit of claim 18, wherein the identifying and indicating means further comprises an extractor communicating with the processor, the extractor being configured to identify embedded information in the content and then extract the embedded information in the content for communication to the processor.

20. The circuit of claim 19, wherein the processor is further configured to communicate whether the content is valid to other nodes in the network.

21. A method of validating content for use on at least one node of a network, comprising:

identifying whether the content comprises at least one adjunct;

reviewing the at least one adjunct, where found, to determine whether the content is valid for use on the at least one node; and

indicating that the content is unauthorized for use on a node where an adjunct is found that is not able to render the content valid for use on the at least one node.