Data protection systems and methods

• US 7,406,603 B1
• Filed: 08/31/2000
• Issued: 07/29/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/31/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: PLS IV, LLC (Pretium Partners, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Intertrust Technologies Corporation (Fidelio Acquisition Co LLC)
• Inventors: Hunt, William, Sibert, W. Olin, Landsman, Richard A., Swenson, Eric J., MacKay, Michael K.
• Primary Examiner(s): Sheikh; Ayaz
• Assistant Examiner(s): CHEN, SHIN HON
• Application Number:
  US09/653,517
• Time in Patent Office: 2,889 Days
• Field of Search: 380/200, 380/216, 380/52, 713/200, 713/193, 713/189, 705/59, 705/51, 726/26, 726/16, 726/17, 726/21
• US Class Current: 713/193
• 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 21/1064 Restricting content processing at operating system level
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/16 Program or content traceability, e.g. by watermarking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/55 Detecting local intrusion or implementing counter-measures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/577 Assessing vulnerabilities and evaluating computer system security
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6218 to a system of files or objects, e.g. local or distributed file system or database

Abstract

Systems and methods are provided for protecting electronic content from the time it is packaged through the time it is experienced by an end user. Protection against content misuse is accomplished using a combination of encryption, watermark screening, detection of invalid content processing software and hardware, and/or detection of invalid content flows. Encryption protects the secrecy of content while it is being transferred or stored. Watermark screening protects against the unauthorized use of content. Watermark screening is provided by invoking a filter module to examine content for the presence of a watermark before the content is delivered to output hardware or software. The filter module is operable to prevent delivery of the content to the output hardware or software if it detects a predefined protection mark. Invalid content processing software is detected by a monitoring mechanism that validates the software involved in processing protected electronic content. Invalid content flows can be detected by scanning the information passed across system interfaces for the attempted transfer of bit patterns that were released from an application and/or a piece of content management software.

Claims

1. A method for protecting electronic media content from unauthorized use by a user of a computer system, the method including:

receiving a request from a user of the computer system to use a piece of electronic media content;

identifying one or more software modules responsible for processing the piece of electronic media content and enabling use of the piece of electronic media content by the user;

processing at least a portion of said piece of electronic media content using at least one of the one or more software modules;

evaluating whether the at least one of the one or more software modules process the portion of the electronic media content in an authorized manner, the evaluating including at least one action selected from the group consisting of;

evaluating whether the at least one of the one or more software modules make calls to certain system interfaces;

evaluating whether the at least one of the one or more software modules direct data to certain channels;

analyzing dynamic timing characteristics of the at least one of the one or more software modules for anomalous timing characteristics indicative of invalid or malicious activity;

denying the request to use the piece of electronic media content if the evaluation indicates that the at least one of the one or more software modules fail to satisfy a set of predefined criteria.

2. A method as in claim 1, further including:

using the predefined criteria to evaluate the at least one of the one or more software modules according to a predefined policy, and basing a decision to deny the request on the outcome of this evaluation.

3. A method as in claim 1, further comprising computing a cryptographic hash of at least one of the one or more software modules.

4. A system for protecting electronic media content and enabling use of the electronic media content by a user, the system comprising:

means for evaluating one or more predefined characteristics of one or more drivers responsible for handling the electronic media content, the means for evaluating including means for operating a protection mechanism selected from the group consisting of;

means for evaluating whether the one or more drivers make calls to certain system interfaces;

means for determining whether the one or more drivers include one or more predefined code sequences associated with undesirable behavior;

means for analyzing dynamic timing characteristics of the one or more drivers for anomalous timing characteristics indicative of invalid or malicious activity;

means for determining whether the one or more drivers are included on a list of trusted drivers;

means for determining whether the one or more drivers are included on a list of untrusted drivers; and

means for determining whether the one or more drivers have been digitally signed by a trusted party;

means for denying effective access to the electronic media content based on an output of said means for evaluating one or more predefined characteristics of the drivers responsible for handling the electronic media content;

means for generating an identifier associated with the electronic media content;

means for monitoring a predefined system interface for data to be transferred to an output device to determine if the data to be transferred to an output device contains the identifier; and

means for preventing effective access to data containing the identifier via the predefined system interface.

5. A method for protecting electronic media content from unauthorized use, the method including:

receiving a request to access a piece of electronic media content;

generating a first identifier associated with the piece of electronic media content; and

monitoring at least one system interface for electronic data to be transferred to an output device, the monitoring including;

receiving at least a portion of the electronic data to be transferred to the output device;

generating a second identifier associated with the at least a portion of the electronic data;

comparing the second identifier with the first identifier; and

taking a predefined defensive action if the second identifier is related to the first identifier in a predefined manner, wherein the predefined defensive action is selected from the group consisting of;

modifying at least a portion of the piece of electronic data, and

preventing the transfer of at least a portion of the piece of electronic data to the output device via the system interface.

6. A method as in claim 5, wherein the piece of electronic media content is encrypted, the method further including:

decrypting the piece of electronic media content.

7. A method as in claim 5, in which the first identifier comprises a hash of at least a portion of the piece of electronic media content, and in which the second identifier comprises a hash of at least the portion of the electronic data to be transferred to the output device.

8. A method as in claim 5, in which the first identifier comprises a predefined portion of the piece of electronic media content.

9. A method as in claim 5, in which the system interface comprises a file system interface to one or more device drivers.

10. A method as in claim 9, in which the one or more device drivers are selected from the group consisting of:

video display driver, sound driver, SCSI driver, IDE driver, network driver, video capture driver, floppy disk driver, and scanner driver.

11. A method as in claim 5, in which the predefined defensive action comprises modifying at least a portion of the electronic data to be transferred to the output device.

12. A method as in claim 11, in which modifying at least a portion of the electronic data to be transferred to the output device includes scrambling at least a portion of the electronic data.

13. A method as in claim 5, in which the predefined defensive action comprises adding noise to at least a portion of the electronic data to be transferred to the output device.

14. A method as in claim 5, in which the predefined defensive action comprises adding an electronic watermark or fingerprint to at least a portion of the electronic data to be transferred to the output device.

15. A method as in claim 5, in which the predefined defensive action comprises preventing the transfer of at least a portion of the electronic data to an output device via the system interface.

16. A method as in claim 5, in which the predefined relation between the first identifier and the second identifier comprises the first identifier being equal to the second identifier.

17. A method as in claim 5, in which the at least one system interface is selected using rules associated with the piece of electronic media content, the rules being operable to identify certain system interfaces to which the piece of electronic media content is not allowed to be sent.

18. A method as in claim 5, further including:

inserting a cryptographic fingerprint into the piece of electronic media content, the cryptographic fingerprint containing information relating to the request to access said piece of electronic media content.

19. A method as in claim 18, in which inserting said cryptographic fingerprint into the piece of electronic media content includes:

authenticating a fingerprinting engine using a cryptographic credential; and

using the fingerprinting engine to insert the cryptographic fingerprint into the piece of electronic media content.

20. A method as in claim 19, in which the fingerprinting engine is operable to authenticate a calling application using a cryptographic credential.