Tiris based bios for protection of “copyrighted” program material

• US 6,198,875 B1
• Filed: 12/19/1997
• Issued: 03/06/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 12/20/1996
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Texas Instruments, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Texas Instruments, Inc.
• Inventors: Nerlikar, Madhu, Edenson, Roy I.
• Primary Examiner(s): TRAN, THAI Q
• Application Number:
  US08/994,414
• Time in Patent Office: 1,173 Days
• Field of Search: 386/94, 380/3, 380/4, 380/49, 348/5.5, 369/58, 369/14, 360/60
• US Class Current: 386/259
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 19/02 Control of operating function, e.g. switching from recording to reproducing
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 19/12 by sensing distinguishing features of or on records, e.g. diameter end mark
• 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 20/0021 involving encryption or decryption of contents recorded on or reproduced from a record carrier
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00695 said measures preventing that data are read from the recording medium
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/0071 involving a purchase action
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00746 wherein the usage restriction can be expressed as a specific number
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00876 wherein physical copy protection means are attached to the medium, e.g. holograms, sensors, or additional semiconductor circuitry
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 23/0042 with provision for auxiliary features sensing such features G11B17/00, G11B19/02
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 23/284 on the record carrier
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 23/286 Antitheft arrangements, e.g. Electronic Article Surveillance [EAS] tags

Abstract

The invention consists of attaching or embedding a “TIRIS” transponder (or other RF or IR or barcode or other identifying device) physically into the center of the proposed DVD disk. Once a disk is input to a media player, the interrogation portion of the media player transmits an interrogation signal to the transponder located on the disk. Once empowered with the interrogation signal, the transponder accesses the predetermined address, code word, encryption algorithms, media type information, and copyright information from it'"'"'s memory. Then the transponder transmits the address, the code word, encryption algorithms, media type information and copyright information to the interrogator, located within the media player, and the interrogator sends the transponder data stream to a conditional access management processor(CAMP). Simultaneously with the processing action of the CAMP, the interrogator instructs the player to access the data_word at the predetermined address on the disk and the player accesses the data_word on the disk. The media player only plays if there is a match between the read data_word and received code word and the received algorithm correctly decrypts the content of the media prior to decoding.

Claims

1. A method of insuring only copyrighted material is playable or usable in any digital media system comprising the steps of:

integrating a radio-frequency interrogator with a media player, having I/O ports, for transmitting an interrogation signal to a transponder and for receiving a transponder response signal in response;

attaching a transponder to a predetermined media element wherein said media element has a digital media content stream and wherein said transponder transmits a transponder response signal comprising decryption algorithms in response to receipt of said interrogation signal;

receiving a transponder response signal and providing said decryption algorithms to a processor;

configuring said processor according to said decryption algorithms in order to process said digital media content stream.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein said configuring comprises the steps of:

downloading said decryption algorithms to a non-volatile memory wherein the output of said non-volatile memory is input to said processor.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein said non-volatile memory is a Flash ROM.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein said configuring comprises the steps of:

providing information to configuring the I/O ports.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein said configuring comprises the steps of:

providing information to configuring the I/O ports.

5. A method of insuring only copyrighted material is playable or usable in any digital media system comprising the steps of:

integrating a radio-frequency interrogator with a media player, having I/O ports for transmitting an interrogation signal to a transponder and for receiving a transponder response signal in response;

attaching a transponder to a predetermined media element wherein said media element has a digital media content stream and wherein said transponder transmits a transponder response signal comprising pointers for decryption algorithms in response to receiving said interrogation signal;

receiving a transponder response signal and providing said pointers for encryption algorithms at some predetermined address to said media player;

reading said encryption algorithms at said predetermined address or some predetermined location and providing them to a processor;

configuring said processor according to said decryption algorithms in order to process said digital media content stream or provide information on access to configuring the I/O ports.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein said configuring of said processor comprises the steps of:

providing instructions to a processor on how to configure itself to play or use the media element.

7. The method according to claim 5, wherein said configuring comprises the steps of:

downloading said decryption algorithms to a non-volatile memory wherein the output of said non-volatile memory is input to said processor.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein said non-volatile memory is a Flash ROM.