CONTROLLING DISTRIBUTION OF DIGITAL CONTENT

• US 20090199305A1
• Filed: 08/16/2007
• Published: 08/06/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 08/21/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Irdeto B.V. (MultiChoice Group Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: Michiels, Wilhelmus Petrus Adrianus Johannus, Gorissen, Paulus Mathias Hubertus Mechtildis Antonius
• Granted Patent: US 9,213,808 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/30
• 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: G06F 21/125 by manipulating the program code, e.g. source code, compiled code, interpreted code, machine code
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2137 Time limited access, e.g. to a computer or data

Abstract

A method of controlling distribution of digital content (116) is presented. A version (106) of a program (100) is needed to use the content. A plurality of versions of the program (100) is generated, each version being unique with respect to incorporated code fragments and/or associated locations thereof. The plurality of respective code fragments (118) each cause a processor to perform a respective test regarding a data characteristic on content to be processed by the program for restricting the processing of content for which the permission has not been granted. The respective code fragments (118) are incorporated at respective locations in the program (100) to obtain the version (106) of the program (100).

Claims

1. A method of controlling distribution of digital content (116), where a version (106) of a program (100) is needed to use the content, comprising generating a plurality of versions of the program (100), each version being unique with respect to incorporated code fragments and/or associated locations thereof, by for each version (106)

identifying one or more data characteristics of a content item for which a permission has been granted;

determining a plurality of respective code fragments (118) each causing a processor to perform a respective test regarding at least one of the data characteristics on content to be processed by the program for restricting the processing of content for which the permission has not been granted;

associating each respective code fragment (118) with a respective location in the program; and

incorporating the respective code fragments (118) into the program (100) at the respective associated locations to obtain the version (106) of the program (100).

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising, upon the permission being granted for a further content item, generating an upgrade for applying a change to at least one code fragment of the plurality of code fragments and/or its associated location, to avoid the processing of the further content item to be restricted.

3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising, upon the permission being withdrawn for a particular content item, generating an upgrade for applying a change to at least one code fragment of the plurality of code fragments and/or its associated location, to cause the processing of the particular content item to be restricted.

4. The method according to claim 1, further comprising

identifying one or more data characteristics of a particular content item for which a partial permission has been granted;

and

determining the plurality of respective code fragments (118) such that the processing of the particular content item is restricted according to the partial permission.

5. The method according to claim 4, further comprising, upon the partial permission being changed, generating an upgrade for applying a change to at least one code fragment of the plurality of code fragments and/or its associated location, to cause the restriction on the processing of the particular content item to be changed according to the change in the permission.

6. The method according to claim 1, further comprising for the version (106) of the program (100)

granting the permission to a user associated with the version;

and

providing the version of the program only to the user associated with the version.

7. The method according to claim 1, further comprising for the version (106) of the program (100)

granting the permission to a user associated with the version;

and

providing the content item for which a permission has been granted to the user.

8. The method according to claim 2, further comprising including in the upgrade instructions for providing additional functionality or for fixing a bug in the program.

9. The method according to claim 1, further comprising

arranging the version of the program to have an input for reading a reference value;

and

arranging at least one code fragment of the plurality of code fragments for causing a processor to compare a value derived from the content to the reference value as part of the test.

10. The method according to claim 9, further comprising, upon the user being granted permission for a further content item,

identifying a further reference value in dependence on the further content item;

and

providing the further reference value to the input, thereby causing the processor to compare the value derived from the content to the further reference value as part of the test.

11. A system for controlling distribution of digital content (116), where a version (106) of a program (100) is needed to use the content, comprising means (202) for generating a plurality of versions of the program (100), each version being unique with respect to incorporated code fragments and/or associated locations thereof;

the means for generating comprising;

means (204) for identifying one or more data characteristics of a content item for which a permission has been granted;

means (206) for determining a plurality of respective code fragments (118) each causing a processor to perform a respective test regarding at least one of the data characteristics on content to be processed by the program for restricting the processing of content for which the permission has not been granted;

means (208) for associating each respective code fragment (118) with a respective location in the program; and

means (210) for incorporating the respective code fragments (118) into the program (100) at the respective associated locations to obtain the version (106) of the program (100).

12. A version (106) of a program (100) needed to use content, the version being unique among a plurality of versions of the program (100) with respect to incorporated code fragments and/or associated locations thereof, comprising a plurality of respective code fragments (118) incorporated into the program (100) at respective associated locations, each causing a processor to perform a respective test regarding a respective data characteristic on content to be processed by the program for restricting the processing of content for which a permission has not been granted.