SOURCE AUTHENTICATION AND USAGE TRACKING OF VIDEO

• US 20080240490A1
• Filed: 03/30/2007
• Published: 10/02/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Finkelstein, Charles A., Rowe, Dean, Burch, Warren L., La Chapelle, Kevin Leigh, Walker, Brian, Clarke, James E.
• Application Number:
  US11/694,829
• Publication Number:
  US 20080240490A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/100
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/235 Processing of additional data, e.g. scrambling of additional data or processing content descriptors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23892 involving embedding information at multiplex stream level, e.g. embedding a watermark at packet level
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/435 Processing of additional data, e.g. decrypting of additional data, reconstructing software from modules extracted from the transport stream
• 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 video at a host is authenticated using a watermark in the video, wherein the watermark includes metadata related to the video, wherein authenticating the video includes comparing metadata in the watermark to unwatermarked metadata attached to the video. Watermarked host-related information is added to the video by the host.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

authenticating a video at a host using a watermark in the video, wherein the watermark includes metadata related to the video, wherein authenticating the video includes comparing metadata in the watermark to unwatermarked metadata attached to the video; and

adding watermarked host-related information to the video by the host.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating the metadata at a content provider;

encoding the video with the watermark, wherein the watermark includes the metadata; and

sending the video to the host from the content provider.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein designating, by the host, the video as authentic with a tag, wherein the tag indicates that the video has been authenticated by the host.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether the video violates video usage terms included in the watermark.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

notifying the host of a usage term violation.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying revenue sharing rules included in the watermark.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

selecting the video by a user at a computing device;

receiving notification from the host that the video is authentic; and

displaying authenticity indicia at the computing device when the video is played at the computing device.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

running an authentication tool against a second video on the host; and

notifying the host by the computing device when the second video is not authenticated by the authentication tool.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

displaying indicia that the video is authentic in search results that include the video, wherein the search engine reads an authentication tag associated with the video to determine the video is authentic.

10. One or more computer readable media including computer readable instructions that when executed perform the method of claim 1.

11. One or more computer readable media including computer readable instructions that when executed perform operations comprising:

receiving a video from a content provider, wherein the video includes a watermark having metadata related to the video;

authenticating the video using the watermark by comparing metadata in the watermark to unwatermarked metadata attached to the video;

designating the video as authentic; and

adding watermarked host-related information to the video.

12. The one or more computer readable media of claim 11 wherein the computer readable instructions when executed further perform operations comprising:

determining whether the video has violated video usage terms included in the watermark.

13. The one or more computer readable media of claim 11 wherein the computer readable instructions when executed further perform operations comprising:

identifying viewings of the video that trigger a revenue sharing rule encoded in the watermark of the video; and

reporting the identified viewings to an advertising center.

14. The one or more computer readable media of claim 11 wherein adding watermarked host-related information to the video includes enveloping the video with a watermark envelope that is encoded with the host-related information.

15. The one or more computer readable media of claim 11 wherein adding watermarked host-related information to the video includes modifying the watermark with the host-related information.

16. The one or more computer readable media of claim 11 wherein adding watermarked host-related information to the video includes modifying one or more macroblocks of the video to include the host-related information.

17. A system, comprising:

a content provider to encode a video with a watermark, wherein the watermark includes metadata related to the video; and

a first host coupled to the content provider via a network, the first host to receive the video, to authenticate the video using the watermark, and to add watermarked first host-related information to the video.

18. The system of claim 17, further comprising:

a second host coupled to the first host via the network, the second host to receive the video from the first host, authenticate the video using the watermark, and to add watermarked second host-related information to the video.

19. The system of claim 17, further comprising:

a search engine coupled to the first host via the network, the search engine to display indicia that the video is authentic in search results that include the video.

20. The system of claim 17, further comprising:

a viewer coupled to the first host via the network, the viewer to authentic the video using an authentication tool.