Deferred billing, broadcast, electronic document distribution system and method

• US 6,728,878 B2
• Filed: 08/06/2001
• Issued: 04/27/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 11/14/1994
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Hughes Electronics Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hughes Electronics Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Dillon, Douglas M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Morse, Gregory
• Assistant Examiner(s): Callahan, Paul E.
• Application Number:
  US09/922,875
• Publication Number:
  US 20020001387A1
• Time in Patent Office: 995 Days
• Field of Search: 380/262, 380/279, 380/281, 380/283, 380/284, 705/52, 705/77, 713/160, 713/163
• US Class Current: 713/160
• 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 2211/007 Encryption, En-/decode, En-/decipher, En-/decypher, Scramble, (De-)compress
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2135 Metering
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/085 involving remote charge determination or related payment systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/0855 involving a third party
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0633 Lists, e.g. purchase orders, compilation or processing
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2543 Billing , e.g. for subscription services payment schemes, architectures or protocols G06Q20/00; e-commerce G06Q30/00; arrangements for billing for the use of broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/21
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/278 Content descriptor database or directory service for end-user access details of content or meta data based information retrieval of video data in video databases G06F16/739
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4345 Extraction or processing of SI, e.g. extracting service information from an MPEG stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6581 Reference data, e.g. a movie identifier for ordering a movie or a product identifier in a home shopping application
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17327 with deferred transmission or handling of upstream communications

Abstract

An electronic document delivery system and method in which a broadcast center periodically sends a “catalog” of available documents to a receiving computer, thereby allowing a user to browse through the available documents without having to access the broadcast center. The documents are transmitted as packets, and the packets are decrypted as soon as they are received, eliminating the need to store both an encrypted and an decrypted version of the documents at the receiving computer. The receiving computer periodically receives information allowing it to decrypt received documents and to encrypt billing information for the receiving computer. The invention is not limited to text-only documents and can receive all types of documents, such as software, images, text, and full-motion video.

Claims

1. A receiving apparatus in a communication system having a broadcast center that sends a file as a plurality of packets, said receiving apparatus comprising:

a memory; and

a broadcast receiver for, on a packet-by-packet basis, both receiving and decrypting each packet as it is received and storing the decrypted packet in said memory,

wherein said broadcast receiver stores the decrypted packets in said memory so as to reassemble the file in order,

wherein the broadcast center repeatedly sends the entire file, and

wherein in response to an encrypted packet not being received by said broadcast receiver from a first sending by the broadcast center of the entire file, which results in a gap in the reassembled file, said broadcast receiver (i) keeps track of the gap in the reassembled file and (ii) receives the packet from a subsequent sending by the broadcast center of the entire file and decrypts the packet so as to fill in the gap in the reassembled file.

2. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the broadcast center sends the file via multicast.

3. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the file is selected from the group consisting of software, image, text, and video.

4. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the broadcast center sends the file to said broadcast receiver via satellite.

5. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said broadcast receiver stores in memory a gap record identifying the gap in the reassembled file.

6. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of packets includes information that identifies the file to which the packet belongs.

7. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of packets is encrypted using a symmetrical encryption algorithm.

8. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of packets is in accordance with the IEEE 802.2 data communication standard.

9. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the broadcast center sends the file using multicast addressing, and wherein prior to sending the file, the broadcast center multicasts a message comprising information identifying the file.

10. An apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the message further comprises information identifying a key seed needed to decrypt the file.

11. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said memory comprises a hard disk, which stores the decrypted packets.

12. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the file is software.

13. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the file comprises text.

14. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the file is an image file.

15. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the file is a video file.

16. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the broadcast center sends a plurality of different files, and each of the plurality of different files is to be decrypted using a different key.

17. A receiving apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said broadcast receiver keeps track of the gap in the reassembled file by storing in said memory a record of the gap.

18. A receiving apparatus in a communication system having a broadcast center that sends a file as a plurality of encrypted packets over a communication link, said receiving apparatus comprising:

a broadcast receiver for receiving the encrypted packets without storing the entire file in encrypted form; and

a memory wherein said broadcast receiver, on a packet-by-packet basis, decrypts each packet as it is received and stores the decrypted packets in said memory,

wherein key seed information is used to generate a key used by said broadcast receiver to decrypt the received packets,

wherein said broadcast receiver stores the decrypted packets in said memory so as to reassemble the file in order, and

wherein in response to an encrypted packet not being received by said broadcast receiver from a sending by the broadcast center of the file, which results in a gap in the reassembled file, said broadcast receiver (i) keeps track of the gap in the reassembled file and (ii) requests retransmission of the packet so as to fill in the gap in the reassembled file.

19. An apparatus according to claim 18, wherein said broadcast center sends the file via multicast.

20. An apparatus according to claim 18, wherein the file is selected from the group consisting of software, image, text, and video.

21. An apparatus according to claim 18, wherein the broadcast center sends the file to said broadcast receiver via satellite.

22. An apparatus according to claim 18, wherein said broadcast receiver keeps track of the gap in the reassembled file by storing in said memory a record of the gap.

23. An apparatus according to claim 18, wherein each of the plurality of encrypted packets includes information that identifies the file to which the packet belongs.

24. An apparatus according to claim 18, wherein each of the plurality of encrypted packets is encrypted using a symmetrical encryption algorithm.

25. An apparatus according to claim 18, wherein each of the plurality of encrypted packets is in accordance with the IEEE 802.2 data communication standard.

26. An apparatus according to claim 18, wherein the broadcast center sends the file using multicast addressing, and wherein prior to sending the file, the broadcast center multicasts a message comprising information identifying the file.

27. An apparatus according to claim 26, wherein the message further comprises information identifying a key seed needed to decrypt the file.

28. An apparatus according to claim 18, wherein said memory comprises a hard disk, which stores the decrypted packets.

29. An apparatus according to claim 18, wherein the file is software.

30. An apparatus according to claim 18, wherein the file comprises text.

31. An apparatus according to claim 18, wherein the file is an image file.

32. An apparatus according to claim 18, wherein the file is a video file.

33. An apparatus comprising:

a file ID receiving unit that is configured to receive via multicast information identifying a file to be multicast;

a key generating unit that is configured to generate a key in accordance with the information identifying the file to be multicast and one of a plurality of key seeds; and

a file receiving unit that is configured to (a) receive via multicast the file in the form of encrypted packets, (b) decrypt the encrypted packets into decrypted packets using the key generated by said key generating unit, and (c) reassemble the decrypted packets in order so as to obtain the file,

wherein said apparatus receives the multicasting via satellite.

34. An apparatus according to claim 33, wherein the information identifying the file to be multicast comprises an identification number.

35. An apparatus according to claim 33, wherein said apparatus receives the key seeds in encrypted form.

36. An apparatus according to claim 33, further comprising a billing information unit that is configured to send via a network billing information comprising information identifying the file received via multicast by said file receiving unit.

37. An apparatus according to claim 36, wherein the billing information further comprises information identifying when the file was received.

38. An apparatus according to claim 36, wherein the billing information is encrypted.

39. An apparatus according to claim 36, wherein said billing information unit sends the billing information on a periodic basis.

40. An apparatus according to claim 36, wherein said billing information unit sends the billing information in accordance with a credit limit.

41. An apparatus according to claim 36, wherein said billing information unit sends the billing information in accordance with a memory capacity.

42. An apparatus according to claim 33, wherein when an encrypted packet is not received by said file receiving unit from a sending of the file, said file receiving unit receives the packet from a subsequent sending of the file.

43. An apparatus according to claim 33, wherein each packet contains information identifying the file that is being multicast.

44. An apparatus according to claim 33, wherein said file receiving unit decrypts the encrypted packets as received on a packet-by-packet basis.

45. An apparatus according to claim 33, wherein said key generating unit generates the key in accordance with the information identifying the file to be multicast and the one of a plurality of key seeds using a one way hash function.

46. An apparatus according to claim 45, wherein the one way hash function is a MAC function.

47. An apparatus according to claim 36, wherein said key generating unit generates the key in accordance with the information identifying the file to be multicast and the one of a plurality of key seeds using a one way hash function, and wherein the one way hash function is used by said billing information unit to prepare the billing information.

48. An apparatus according to claim 33, wherein said apparatus is a computer.

49. An apparatus according to claim 33, wherein said apparatus receives the multicasting via a TCP/IP network.

50. An apparatus according to claim 33, wherein said apparatus receives the multicasting via cable television.

51. An apparatus according to claim 33, further comprising a catalog receiving unit that is configured to receive via multicast a catalog listing files to be multicast.

52. An apparatus according to claim 33, wherein the key seeds are periodically changed.

53. An apparatus according to claim 33, wherein the file is selected from the group consisting of software, image, text, and video.

54. An apparatus according to claim 33, wherein said key generating unit generates the key for the file in response to selection of the file by the user of the apparatus.

55. A receiving apparatus in a communication system having a broadcast center that sends a file as a plurality of encrypted packets over a communication link, said receiving apparatus comprising:

a broadcast receiver for receiving the encrypted packets without storing the entire file in encrypted form; and

a memory wherein said broadcast receiver, on a packet-by-packet basis, decrypts each packet as it is received and stores the decrypted packets in said memory,

wherein each different file sent by the broadcast center is to be decrypted using a different key,

wherein said broadcast receiver stores the decrypted packets in said memory so as to reassemble the file in order, and

wherein in response to an encrypted packet not being received by said broadcast receiver from a sending by the broadcast center of the file, which results in a gap in the reassembled file, said broadcast receiver (i) keeps track of the gap in the reassembled file and (ii) requests retransmission of the packet so as to fill in the gap in the reassembled file.

56. A receiving apparatus according to claim 55, wherein said broadcast receiver keeps track of the gap in the reassembled file by storing in said memory a record of the gap.