APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR PLAYBACK OF DIGITAL CONTENT

• US 20090083856A1
• Filed: 01/05/2007
• Published: 03/26/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 01/05/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: Aisu, Hideyuki, Ito, Satoshi
• Granted Patent: US 8,769,698 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/26
• 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: G11B 20/00086 Circuits for prevention of unauthorised reproduction or copying, e.g. piracy indicating unauthorised use of record carriers in general G11B23/28; scrambling for television signal recording H04N5/913; network architectures or network protocols for network security H04L63/00; cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for secret or secure communication H04L9/00
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00427 advanced access content system [AACS]
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00847 wherein the usage restriction is defined by a licence file
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/2541 Blu-ray discs; Blue laser DVR discs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/2579 HD-DVDs [high definition DVDs]; AODs [advanced optical discs]
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/034 on discs G11B27/036, G11B27/038 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/105 of operating discs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/322 used signal is digitally coded

Abstract

There is provided with a digital content playback apparatus which generates new digital content by replacing a content part in digital content by an other content parts, including: a storage to store license conditions defined for the content parts in the digital content, each of which includes at least a replacement permission condition and a replacement target specification condition, a specifying unit configured to allow a user to specify a replacement source content part as a content part to be replaced, and a replacement target content part as a content part for adding to the digital content for replacing the replacement source content part, and a verifying unit to verify whether license conditions of content parts in the digital content and the replacement target content part would be satisfied when replacing the replacement source content part in the digital content by the replacement target content part.

Claims

1. A digital content playback apparatus which generates new digital content by replacing one or more content parts included in digital content by one or more other content parts, comprising:

a content storage configured to store a plurality of content parts,

a license information storage configured to store license information describing license conditions defined for the content parts, each of which includes at least a replacement permission condition and a replacement target specification condition among

the replacement permission condition defining whether the content part is replaceable by an other content part,

the replacement target specification condition specifying content parts being candidates of replacement target when the replacement permission condition is replaceable and

a complementary relationship condition specifying an other content part that must be contained in digital content when using the content part,

a content part selecting unit configured to allow a user to specify a replacement source content part as a content part that should be replaced among content parts in the digital content including some content parts in the content storage, and a replacement target content part as a content part for adding to the digital content for replacing the replacement source content part,

a verifying unit configured to verify whether license conditions of content parts in the digital content and the replacement target content part would be satisfied when replacing the replacement source content part by the replacement target content part,

a content generation unit configured to generate new digital content by replacing the replacement source content part by the replacement target content part when determined as being satisfied by the verifying unit; and

a content playback unit configured to play back the generated new digital content.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein license conditions of the content parts in the content storage include a automatic replacement permission condition specifying whether to allow replacement of the content part without an instruction by user, and

the content part selecting unit presents content parts whose replacement permission condition is replaceable and whose automatic replacement permission condition is impermissible as candidates for the replacement source content part among content parts in the digital content and content parts specified by replacement target specification conditions of the candidates for the replacement source content part as candidates for the replacement target content part, to the user.

3. The apparatus according to claim 2, wherein when replacing the replacement source content part by the replacement target content part, if a content part specified by the complementary relationship condition of certain content part in digital content after the replacing is not contained in the digital content after the replacing, the verifying unit verifies whether there exists in the digital content a content part whose replacement target specification condition specifies the content part specified by the complementary relationship condition of the content part violating complementary relationship condition and whose automatic replacement permission condition is permissible and if such a content part exists, decides to replace the content part by the content part specified by the complementary relationship condition.

4. A digital content playback method which generates new digital content by replacing one or more content parts included in digital content by one or more other content parts, comprising:

providing a content storage configured to store a plurality of content parts, and

a license information storage configured to store license information describing license conditions defined for the content parts, each of which includes at least a replacement permission condition and a replacement target specification condition among

the replacement permission condition defining whether the content part is replaceable by an other content part,

the replacement target specification condition specifying content parts being candidates of replacement target when the replacement permission condition is replaceable and

a complementary relationship condition specifying an other content part that must be contained in digital content when using the content part,

specifying by user a replacement source content part as a content part that should be replaced among content parts in the digital content including some content parts in the content storage, and a replacement target content part as a content part for adding to the digital content for replacing the replacement source content part,

verifying whether license conditions of content parts in the digital content and the replacement target content part would be satisfied when replacing the replacement source content part by the replacement target content part,

generating new digital content by replacing the replacement source content part by the replacement target content part when determined as being satisfied as a result of the verifying; and

playing back the generated new digital content.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein license conditions of the content parts in the content storage include a automatic replacement permission condition specifying whether to allow replacement of the content part without an instruction by user, and

the specifying includes presenting content parts whose replacement permission condition is replaceable and whose automatic replacement permission condition is impermissible as candidates for the replacement source content part among content parts in the digital content and content parts specified by in replacement target specification conditions of the candidates for the replacement source content part as candidates for the replacement target content part, to the user.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein when replacing the replacement source content part by the replacement target content part, if a content part specified by the complementary relationship condition of certain content part in digital content after the replacing is not contained in the digital content after the replacing, the verifying includes verifying whether there exists in the content storage a content part whose replacement target specification condition specifies the content part specified by the complementary relationship condition of the content part violating complementary relationship condition part and whose automatic replacement permission condition is permissible and if such a content part exists, deciding to replace the content part by the content part specified by the complementary relationship condition.

7. A digital content playback apparatus which plays back a first digital content by playing back content parts recorded in an optical disk based on a playback control sequence for controlling playback of the content parts and a first license file including a plurality of license information pieces describing license conditions defined for the content parts, comprising:

a reading unit configured to read the playback control sequence, the first license file, identification information of the first digital content, information on a place to obtain a playback control sequence to be edited, and the content parts from the optical disk;

an editing unit configured to

access the place shown in the information,

obtain the playback control sequence to be edited and a second license file including one or more the license information pieces describing the license conditions for one or more content parts among the content parts, based on identification information of the playback control sequence and the identification information of the first digital content,

select content parts which have license information pieces describing a permission of enlisting a link and a condition to permit the link among the content parts, and

enlist links to the selected content parts to the playback control sequence to be edited such that the conditions to permit the links described in the license information pieces of the selected content parts are satisfied;

a storage configured to store the playback control sequence edited by the editing unit and the second license file; and

a playback unit configured to play back a second digital content by playing back content parts based on the playback control sequence edited by the editing unit and the second license file.

8. The apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the conditions to permit the enlisting links described in the license information pieces of the selected content parts include addresses on the optical disk where the selected content parts exist, and

the editing unit enlists links to the addresses on the optical disk to the playback control sequence to be edited as the links to the selected content parts.

9. The apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the condition to permit the enlisting a link described in the license information piece of the selected content parts include a condition of adding simultaneously an enlisting a link to an other content parts. other than the selected content parts and an address of the other content parts,

when the license information piece of the other content parts describes a permission of enlisting a link and a condition to permit the enlisting the link, the editing unit enlists a link to the address of the other content parts to the playback control sequence to be edited such that the condition to permit the enlisting described in the license information piece of the other parts is satisfied.

10. The apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the address of the other content part is an address on the optical disk, an address on any recording media or an address of an external server.

11. The apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the condition to permit the enlisting the link described in the license information piece of the selected content part includes an address on any recording media or an external server as an address of the other content part and further includes an address indicating a storage location where the other content part are to be stored, and

the editing unit

accesses the recording media or the external server based on the address of the recording media or the external server to download the other content part and license information piece of the other content part, and

when the downloaded license information piece includes a permission of a enlisting a link and a condition to permit an enlisting, enlist a link to the address indicating the storage location to the playback control sequence to be edited such that the condition to permit the enlisting the link described in the license information piece of the other part satisfied and adds the downloaded license information piece to the second license file.

12. The apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the condition to permit the enlisting the link described in the license information piece of the selected content par specifies an order of playing back the selected content part and the other content part, and

the editing unit adds links to the selected content part and the other content part to the playback control sequence to be edited such that the order of playback is satisfied.

13. The apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the editing unit selects content parts which have license information pieces describing a permission of delisting a link and a condition to permit the delisting of the link among content parts for which links are enlisted in the playback control sequence edited by the editing unit and delists links to the selected content parts from the playback control sequence edited by the editing unit such that the conditions to permit the delisting of links described in the license information pieces of the selected content parts are satisfied.

14. The apparatus according to claim 13 wherein the condition to permit the enlisting the link or the condition to permit delisting of the link specifies identifiers of one or more playback control sequence to be edited for which enlisting or delisting of a link is permitted, and

the editing unit makes the enlisting or delisting of a link only when an identifier of the playback control sequence to be edited or the playback control sequence edited by the editing unit is specified by the condition to permit the enlisting the link or the condition to permit delisting of the link.

15. The apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the condition to permit delisting the link includes a condition of enlisting an other link and information on an other content parts to which the other link is to be enlisted, and

when the license information piece on the other content part to which the other link is to be enlisted includes a permission of a link and a condition to permit the link, the editing unit delists a link to the selected content part from the playback control sequence edited by the editing unit and enlisting a link to the other content part to the playback control sequence edited by the editing unit such that the condition to permit the link described in the license information piece of the other content part is satisfied.