Relay device and communication device realizing contents protection procedure over networks

• US 7,218,643 B1
• Filed: 09/24/1999
• Issued: 05/15/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: Saito, Takeshi, Takabatake, Yoshiaki
• Primary Examiner(s): Etienne; Ario
• Assistant Examiner(s): Todd; Gregory G.
• Application Number:
  US09/404,547
• Time in Patent Office: 2,790 Days
• Field of Search: 705/57, 455/14, 370465-467, 370/315.54, 709/217, 709/218, 709/223, 709/227, 709/230, 709/238, 709/237, 709/248, 709/252, 709/253, 709/249, 713/153, 380/201, 380/270, 725/31, 725/81, 725/149
• US Class Current: 370/466
• 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 20/00173 wherein the origin of the content is checked, e.g. determining whether the content has originally been retrieved from a legal disc copy or another trusted source
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/0021 involving encryption or decryption of contents recorded on or reproduced from a record carrier
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00492 wherein content or user data is encrypted
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/02 Arrangements for relaying broadcast information
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/23 using cryptography, e.g. encryption, authentication, key distribution
• CPC Class Codes: H04K 1/00 Secret communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/60 Digital content management, e.g. content distribution
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/76 Proxy, i.e. using intermediary entity to perform cryptographic operations
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/80 Wireless
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0281 Proxies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/061 for key exchange, e.g. in peer-to-peer networks cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for key agreement H04L9/0838
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/08 for authentication of entities cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/08 Protocols for interworking; Protocol conversion
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3271 using challenge-response

Abstract

A relay device and a communication device capable of realizing the contents protection procedure between devices that are not connected to the same network are disclosed. A relay device and a communication device are so configured that between a device/service/sub-unit on the second network and a device on the first network which are a pair that is carrying out transmission or reception of contents to be protected, a device on the first network or a device/service/sub-unit on the second network can carry out the contents protection procedure while recognizing the target of the contents protection procedure as the relay device, so that there is no need for a device on the first network or a device/service/sub-unit on the second network to account for the other network that is connected via the relay device.

Claims

1. A relay device, comprising:

a first interface unit connected to a first network operated by a first protocol;

a second interface unit connected to a second network operated by a second protocol that is different from the first protocol;

a proxy configuration unit for disclosing a device/service/sub-unit on the second network as an own device/service/sub-unit provided on the relay device with respect to a first network side;

a control command reception unit for receiving control command signals destined to the own device/service/sub-unit from the first network side;

a control command transmission unit for transmitting signals corresponding to the control command signals received by the control command reception unit, to the device/service/sub-unit on the second network;

a contents protection information reception unit for receiving contents protection information destined to the own device/service/sub-unit, from a device on the first network; and

a contents protection information transfer unit for transferring the contents protection information received by the contents protection information reception unit to the device/service/sub-unit on the second network, so as to selectively relay the contents protection information transparently without making any change in the contents protection information;

wherein the contents protection information is information necessary in carrying out a contents protection procedure including at least an authentication and/or a key exchange between one device/service/sub-unit on the first network and another device/service/sub-unit on the second network.

2. A relay device, comprising:

a first interface unit connected to a first network operated by a first protocol;

a second interface unit connected to a second network operated by a second protocol that is different from the first protocol;

a proxy configuration unit for disclosing each device/service/sub-unit on the first network or the second network as an own device/service/sub-unit provided on the relay device with respect to respective another network side;

a control command reception unit for receiving control command signals destined to the own device/service/sub-unit from a side of one network to which the own device/service/sub-unit is disclosed by the proxy configuration unit;

a control command transmission unit for transmitting signals corresponding to the control command signals received by the control command reception unit, to said each device/service/sub-unit on another network different from said one network;

a contents protection information reception unit for receiving contents protection information destined to the own device/service/sub-unit from a device on the first network or the second network;

a contents protection information transfer unit for transferring the contents protection information received by the contents protection information reception unit to said each device/service/sub-unit on said another network, so as to selectively relay the contents protection information transparently without making any change in the contents protection information;

a contents reception unit for receiving contents destined to the own device/service/sub-unit and protected by a contents key obtained from the contents protection information, from a device on the first network or the second network; and

a contents transfer unit for transferring the contents received by the contents reception unit to said each device/service/sub-unit on said another network, so as to selectively relay the contents transparently without making any change in the contents;

wherein the contents protection information is information necessary in carrying out a contents protection procedure including at least an authentication and/or a key exchange between one device/service/sub-unit on the first network and another device/service/sub-unit on the second network.

3. The relay device of claim 2, further comprising:

a configuration information reception unit for receiving a configuration information from one device/service/sub-unit on the first network or the second network, the configuration information indicating at least a presence or absence of an authentication format for said one device/service/sub-unit; and

a configuration recognition unit for recognizing a configuration of said one device/service/sub-unit according to the configuration information received by the configuration information reception unit.

4. A relay device, comprising:

a first interface unit connected to a first network operated by a first protocol;

a second interface unit connected to a second network operated by a second protocol that is different from the first protocol;

a proxy configuration unit for disclosing each device/service/sub-unit on the first network or the second network as an own device/service/sub-unit provided on the relay device with respect to respective another network side;

a control command reception unit for receiving control command signals destined to the own device/service/sub-unit from a side of one network to which the own device/service/sub-unit is disclosed by the proxy configuration unit;

a control command transmission unit for transmitting signals corresponding to the control command signals received by the control command reception unit, to said each device/service/sub-unit on another network different from said one network;

a first contents protection unit for carrying out a contents protection procedure including at least an authentication and/or a key exchange, with respect to one device/service/sub-unit on the first network;

a second contents protection unit for carrying out the contents protection procedure including at least the authentication and/or the key exchange, with respect to another device/service/sub-unit on the second network, separately from the contents protection procedure carried out by the first contents protection unit;

a contents reception unit for receiving contents destined to the own device/service/sub-unit and encrypted according to one of the first and second contents protection units; and

a contents transfer unit for transferring the contents received by the contents reception unit to said each device/service/sub-unit on said another network, by encrypting the contents according to another one of the first and second contents protection units.

5. The relay device of claim 4, wherein the first contents protection unit and the second contents protection unit use different encryption schemes or identical encryption schemes based on different keys.

6. The relay device of claim 4, wherein the contents reception unit and the contents transmission unit are sealed within a single LSI.

7. The relay device of claim 4, wherein a first key information used in the contents protection procedure in the first contents protection unit and a second key information used in the contents protection procedure in the second contents protection unit are set to be identical.

8. The relay device of claim 7, wherein the contents protection procedure in said another one of the first and second contents protection units is carried out in units of contents/services/sub-units, using a prescribed key information.

9. The relay device of claim 4, further comprising:

a configuration information reception unit for receiving a configuration information from one device/service/sub-unit on the first network or the second network, the configuration information indicating at least a presence or absence of an authentication format for said one device/service/sub-unit; and

a configuration recognition unit for recognizing a configuration of said one device/service/sub-unit according to the configuration information received by the configuration information reception unit.

10. A relay device, comprising:

a first interface unit connected to a first network operated by a first protocol;

a second interface unit connected to a second network operated by a second protocol that is different from the first protocol;

a first contents protection unit for carrying out a contents protection procedure including at least an authentication and/or a key exchange, with respect to one device/service/sub-unit on the first network;

a second contents protection unit for carrying out the contents protection procedure including at least the authentication and/or the key exchange, with respect to another device/service/sub-unit on the second network, separately from the contents protection procedure carried out by the first contents protection unit;

a contents reception unit for receiving contents destined to an own device/service/sub-unit on the relay device and encrypted according to one of the first and second contents protection units, from a device on one of the first network and the second network; and

a contents transmission unit for transmitting the contents received by the contents reception unit to a device/service/sub-unit on another one of the first network and the second network, by encrypting the contents according to another one of the first and second contents protection units;

wherein a first key information used in the contents protection procedure in the first contents protection unit and a second key information used in the contents protection procedure in the second contents protection unit are set to be identical.

11. A relay device, comprising:

a first interface unit connected to a first network operated by a first protocol;

a second interface unit connected to a second network operated by a second protocol that is different from the first protocol;

a first copy protection processing unit for carrying out a prescribed contents protection procedure including at least an authentication procedure and a key exchange procedure, with respect to one device/service/sub-unit on the first network;

a second copy protection processing unit for carrying out the prescribed contents protection procedure including at least the authentication procedure and the key exchange procedure, with respect to another device/service/sub-unit on the second network, separately from the contents protection procedure carried out by the first contents protection unit;

a contents reception unit for receiving encrypted data containing specific contents from the first interface unit;

a decryption unit for decrypting the encrypted data receiving by the contents reception unit, by using a contents protection key provided by the first copy protection processing unit, to obtain decrypted data;

a conversion unit for converting the decrypted data into converted data in another coding format;

an encryption unit for encrypting the converted data, by using a contents protection key provided by the second copy protection processing unit, to obtain re-encrypted data; and

a contents transmission unit for transferring the re-encrypted data to the second interface unit.

12. The relay device of claim 11, further comprising:

a proxy configuration unit for disclosing one device/service/sub-unit on the second network as one own device/service/sub-unit provided on the relay device with respect to a first network side, and transmitting to said one device/service/sub-unit on the second network an information having a content according to information destined to said one own device/service/sub-unit that is received from a device on the first network side, while also disclosing another device/service/sub-unit on the first network as another own device/service/sub-unit provided on the relay device with respect to a second network side, and transmitting to said another device/service/sub-unit on the first network an information having a content according to information destined to said another own device/service/sub-unit that is received from a device on the second network side;

wherein when the prescribed contents protection procedure between a device on one network among the first and second networks and a device/service/sub-unit on another network among the first and second networks is to be carried out, the proxy configuration unit carries out the prescribed contents protection procedure with the device on said one network by using one of the first and second copy protection processing units, while carrying out the prescribed contents protection procedure with the device/service/sub-unit on said another network by using another one of the first and second copy protection processing units.

13. A relay device, comprising:

a first interface unit connected to a first network operated by a first protocol;

a second interface unit connected to a second network operated by a second protocol that is different from the first protocol;

a first contents protection unit for carrying out a contents protection procedure including at least an authentication procedure and a key exchange procedure, with respect to one device/service/sub-unit on the first network;

a second contents protection unit for carrying out the contents protection procedure including at least the authentication procedure and the key exchange procedure, with respect to another device/service/sub-unit on the second network, separately from the contents protection procedure carried out by the first contents protection unit;

a contents reception unit for receiving contents destined to an own device/service/sub-unit on the relay device and encrypted according to one of the first and second contents protection units, from a device on one of the first network and the second networks; and

a contents transmission unit for transmitting the contents received by the contents reception unit to a device/service/sub-unit on another one of the first network and the second network, by encrypting the contents according to another one of the first and second contents protection units;

wherein said one of the first and second contents protection units carries out the authentication and/or the key exchange with a device/service/sub-unit on said one of the first network and the second network by referring to a relationship between the contents reception unit and the contents transmission unit, when there is a request for a procedure of the authentication and/or the key exchange with respect to said another one of the first and second contents protection units.