Selective encryption of media data

• US 7,320,069 B1
• Filed: 02/14/2003
• Issued: 01/15/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 02/14/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Novell Incorporated (Open Text Corporation)
• Inventors: Sundharraj, Gobikrishnan, Madhavi, Jamshid
• Primary Examiner(s): Zand; Kambiz
• Assistant Examiner(s): Simitoski; Michael J
• Application Number:
  US10/367,477
• Time in Patent Office: 1,796 Days
• Field of Search: 726/26, 713/153, 380/200, 380/201, 380/210, 725/31
• US Class Current: 713/153
• 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: H04L 63/0428 wherein the data content is protected, e.g. by encrypting or encapsulating the payload
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23476 by partially encrypting, e.g. encrypting the ending portion of a movie
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23895 involving multiplex stream encryption
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23897 by partially encrypting, e.g. encrypting only the ending portion of a movie
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43856 by partial decryption, e.g. decrypting a multiplex stream that has been partially encrypted
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/631 Multimode Transmission, e.g. transmitting basic layers and enhancement layers of the content over different transmission paths or transmitting with different error corrections, different keys or with different transmission protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/1675 Providing digital key or authorisation information for generation or regeneration of the scrambling sequence pseudo-random number generators in general G06F7/58
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

Methods, systems, and data structures are provided selectively encrypting portions of media data that are streamed over a network. Media data is identified and a portion of the data is selectively encrypted. The media data is then streamed over a network to one or more recipients for consumption. The intended recipients cannot consume the media data until the encrypted portion is properly decrypted.

Claims

1. A method to selectively encrypt streaming media data, comprising:

selectively encrypting a portion of media data, wherein the media data includes video and audio data, and wherein an encryption technique being used and the portion of the media data being encrypted are represented as encryption settings that are received from a content provider associated with the media data encrypted, wherein the media data is divided into a configurable number of byte chunks of a configurable size, and wherein the non-contiguous pieces include a configurable number of bytes within each chunk; and

streaming the portion of media data encrypted and the media data to one or more recipients located over a network, and wherein to use any portion of the media data the one or more recipients have to decrypt the portion that is encrypted.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein in selectively encrypting, the portion includes a predefined percentage of the media data.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein in selectively encrypting, the predefined percentage is configurable.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein in selectively encrypting, the portion includes non-contiguous pieces of data included within the media data.