IDENTITY MANAGEMENT FOR TRANSACTIONAL CONTENT

• US 20110119738A1
• Filed: 11/13/2009
• Published: 05/19/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/13/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Chow, Lee M., Piepenbrink, David J., Sofos, James T.
• Granted Patent: US 9,325,502 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/4
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/56 Financial cryptography, e.g. electronic payment or e-cash
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/60 Digital content management, e.g. content distribution
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/60 Network streaming of media packets
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3226 using a predetermined code, e.g. password, passphrase or PIN network architectures or network communication protocols for supporting authentication of entities using passwords in a packet data network H04L63/083
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3263 involving certificates, e.g. public key certificate [PKC] or attribute certificate [AC]; Public key infrastructure [PKI] arrangements network architectures or network communication protocols for supporting authentication of entities using certificates in a packet data network H04L63/0823
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/042 Public Land Mobile systems, e.g. cellular systems

Abstract

A method and system for managing access to transactional multimedia content based on hardware identification codes can include determining whether a user is entitled to a first service level or to a second service level and directing requests for transactional multimedia content to an appropriate server. The user of a client device can be authenticated by a certificate sent by the client device and received by a service provider. The certificate includes an indication of a unique hardware identifier for the client device. Access to the transactional content may occur over a public Internet protocol network if the client device is not directly connected to the service provider'"'"'s private network and if the hardware identifier indicates the client device is authorized.

Claims

1. An apparatus for accessing specified content, the apparatus comprising:

a first network interface for communicating with a multimedia content provider over an Internet protocol (IP) network; and

a computer readable medium including embedded instructions for;

communicating from the first network interface a certificate over the IP network to a network server to verify that the apparatus is authorized to access the specified content, wherein the certificate includes an indication of a hardware identification code;

communicating to the network server a request to access the specified content;

receiving the specified content over the IP network; and

processing the specified content for presentation to a display device.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first network interface is enabled for radio communication.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the IP network is a private network.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the IP network includes a public Internet.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said receiving the specified content includes receiving the specified content through streaming.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the specified content is on-demand content.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said receiving includes downloading the specified content for play.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the hardware identification code is uniquely indicative of the apparatus.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the apparatus is customer premises equipment.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the computer readable medium includes:

non-volatile storage that is substantially irreplaceably embedded with the hardware identification code.

11. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the certificate is an X.509 certificate.

12. A method for providing managed access to transactional multimedia content and live multimedia content, the method comprising:

determining whether a client device is associated with a first service level or a second service level;

if the client device is associated with the second service level;

directing the client device to a transactional multimedia content server;

receiving a hardware identification code from the client device;

comparing the hardware identification code to a plurality of authorized codes; and

receiving a request for specified transactional content from the client device; and

granting the client device access to the specified transactional multimedia content responsive to the hardware identification code corresponding to one or more of the plurality of authorized codes, wherein said access is over an IP network.

if the client device is associated with the first service level;

directing the client device to a live multimedia content server.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein said granting access includes enabling the client device to download the specified transactional multimedia content.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein said granting access includes enabling the client device to receive the specified transactional content as streaming content.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein said receiving the hardware identification code is by a bootstrap server.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein said receiving the hardware identification code is from an IP network.

17. The method of claim 12, wherein said receiving the hardware identification code is from a private network.

18. The method of claim 12, wherein said determining is based at least in part on a quality of a communication path between the client device and a portion of a multimedia content distribution network, the method further comprising:

determining the quality of the communication path.

19. A computer-readable memory media, including instructions for implementing a multimedia content distribution network, said instructions executable to:

receive a hardware identification code associated with a client customer premises equipment (CPE) device; and

determine whether the received hardware identification code is an authorized hardware code;

if the received hardware identification code is an authorized hardware code, determine an access level for the client CPE device; and

provide access to transactional content and live content according to the access level.

20. The computer-readable memory media of claim 19, wherein the hardware identification code is received over a public network.

21. The computer-readable memory media of claim 20, wherein the transactional content is provided to the client CPE device over the public network.

22. The computer-readable memory media of claim 20, wherein the public network includes the public Internet.