CONTENT PROTECTION AND DIGITAL RIGHTS MANAGEMENT (DRM)

• US 20100058485A1
• Filed: 08/26/2009
• Published: 03/04/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 08/26/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cox Communications Incorporated (Cox Enterprises Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Cox Communications Incorporated (Cox Enterprises Incorporated)
• Inventors: Gonzalez, Frank
• Granted Patent: US 8,413,256 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/27
• 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]

Abstract

An end to end content protection system that includes enhanced digital rights management (DRM). The system provides content delivery to devices over a managed multimedia home network. The system includes a domain manager for receiving content, wherein the domain manager includes a cable card, conditional access component and a MSO security application and a managed client device, coupled to and registered with the domain manager, the managed client device running a security DRM application client, the managed client device communicates with the MSO security application in the domain manager, wherein the MSO security application of the domain manager and the security DRM application client of the managed client instantiate a preferred DRM as an overlay on top of any other content protection scheme.

Claims

1. A system providing content delivery to devices over a managed multimedia home network, comprising:

a domain manager for receiving content, wherein the domain manager includes a cable card, conditional access component and a MSO security application; and

a managed client device, coupled to and registered with the domain manager, the managed client device running a security DRM application client, the managed client device communicates with the MSO security application in the domain manager;

wherein the MSO security application of the domain manager and the security DRM application client of the managed client instantiate a preferred DRM as an overlay on top of any other content protection scheme.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the domain manager further comprises a hard disk drive (HDD) for storing content therein.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the MSO security application of the domain manger includes an encryption engine and provides metadata to describe the content and a set of security rules.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the MSO security application of the domain manger is configured to provide a single managed content protection infrastructure with a common set of policies.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the domain manager and the managed client device implement an DTCP protocol for providing protection of content in a home network.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the CableCard re-encrypts and maps rights into the domain of the MSO security application.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the MSO security application protects content according to MSO usage rules provided with MSO content.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the domain manager determines whether the managed client device is a DTCP-IP enabled device and, when the managed client device is a DTCP-IP enabled device determines whether to provide content to the managed client device under control of the preferred DRM or under the control of DTCP/IP.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the domain manager verifies that the managed client device is a member of the managed domain and that the MSO usage rules allow the content to be consumed by the managed client device.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the domain manager provides a key to the managed client device for descrambling content provided to the managed client device.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the domain manager descrambles and rescrambles the content for distribution to the managed client device and provides the MSO usage rules to the managed client device when the content is acquired from the CableCard.

12. The system of claim 1 further comprising a non-managed device, the non-managed device implements DTCP but does not run a MSO security application.

13. A method for providing content delivery to devices over a managed multimedia home network, comprising:

receiving content at a domain manager, wherein the domain manager includes a cable card, conditional access component and a MSO security application;

requesting content from the domain manager by a managed client device that is coupled to and registered with the domain manager, wherein the managed client device running a security DRM application client, the managed client device communicates with the MSO security application in the domain manager; and

instantiating a preferred DRM as an overlay on top of any other content protection using the MSO security application of the domain manager and the security DRM application client of the managed client.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the receiving content at the domain manager further comprises receiving MSO content from a content provider configured with both CCI and DRM metadata.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the requesting content from the domain manager by a managed client device that is coupled to and registered with the domain manager further comprises:

negotiating between the domain manager and the managed client at the DTCP level;

authenticating between the MSO security application of the managed client and the MSO security application of the domain manger;

providing only non-MSO originated content and content based on CCI to a non-managed client device; and

providing MSO originated content to a managed client device that passes the authentication between the MSO security application of the managed client and the MSO security application of the domain manger.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein instantiating a preferred DRM as an overlay on top of any other content protection further comprises verifying that the managed client device is a member of the managed domain and that the MSO usage rules allow the content to be consumed by the managed client device.

17. A computer readable medium including executable instructions which, when executed by a processor, provides content delivery to devices over a managed multimedia home network, by:

receiving content at a domain manager, wherein the domain manager includes a cable card, conditional access component and a MSO security application;

requesting content from the domain manager by a managed client device that is coupled to and registered with the domain manager, wherein the managed client device running a security DRM application client, the managed client device communicates with the MSO security application in the domain manager; and

instantiating a preferred DRM as an overlay on top of any other content protection using the MSO security application of the domain manager and the security DRM application client of the managed client.

18. The computer readable medium of claim 17, wherein the receiving content at the domain manager further comprises receiving MSO content from a content provider configured with both CCI and DRM metadata.

19. The computer readable medium of claim 17, wherein the requesting content from the domain manager by a managed client device that is coupled to and registered with the domain manager further comprises:

negotiating between the domain manager and the managed client at the DTCP level;

authenticating between the MSO security application of the managed client and the MSO security application of the domain manger;

providing only non-MSO originated content and content based on CCI to a non-managed client device; and

providing MSO originated content to a managed client device that passes the authentication between the MSO security application of the managed client and the MSO security application of the domain manger.

20. The computer readable medium of claim 17, wherein instantiating a preferred DRM as an overlay on top of any other content protection further comprises verifying that the managed client device is a member of the managed domain and that the MSO usage rules allow the content to be consumed by the managed client device.