Method and system for data delivery and reproduction

• US 7,447,907 B2
• Filed: 04/04/2001
• Issued: 11/04/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 04/04/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: SCA IPLA Holdings Incorporated (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: ECD Systems Incorporated
• Inventors: Hart, III, John J., LeVine, Richard B., Lee, Andrew R., Howard, Daniel G.
• Primary Examiner(s): Moise, Emmanuel L
• Assistant Examiner(s): PYZOCHA, MICHAEL J
• Application Number:
  US09/826,157
• Publication Number:
  US 20010037465A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,771 Days
• Field of Search: 713/201, 713/176, 726/30, 726/31
• US Class Current: 713/176
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• 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: G06T 1/0021 Image watermarking
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/218 Write-once discs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/2529 Mini-discs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/2545 CDs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/2562 DVDs [digital versatile discs]; Digital video discs; MMCDs; HDCDs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/41 Flat as opposed to hierarchical combination, e.g. library of tapes or discs, CD changer, or groups of record carriers that together store one title
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/031 Electronic editing of digitised analogue information signals, e.g. audio or video signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2225 Local VOD servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23106 involving caching operations prefetching while addressing of a memory level in which the access to the desired data or data block requires associative addressing means within memory systems or architectures G06F12/0862; caching at an intermediate stage in a data network H04L67/568
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23439 for generating different versions
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2347 involving video stream encryption
• 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 21/25883 being end-user demographical data, e.g. age, family status or address arrangements for identifying locations of users in broadcast systems H04H60/52
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25891 being end-user preferences retrieval of video data in a video database based on user preferences G06F16/739; arrangements for recognizing users' preferences H04H60/46; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/26241 involving the time of distribution, e.g. the best time of the day for inserting an advertisement or airing a children program
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4622 Retrieving content or additional data from different sources, e.g. from a broadcast channel and the Internet web site content organization and management for information retrieval from the Internet G06F16/958; transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82; stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services including data channel over packet-switching network H04L12/1859
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47202 for requesting content on demand, e.g. video on demand
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/816 involving special video data, e.g 3D video
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8358 : involving watermark protecting executable software by watermarking G06F21/16; image watermarking in general G06T1/0021; watermarks inserted in still images for transmission purposes H04N1/32144; inserting watermarks during video coding H04N19/467
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/165 : Centralised control of user terminal subsequent to an upstream request signal H04N7/17345; Registering at central by two-way working H04N7/17309
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17336 : Handling of requests in head-ends

Abstract

A system and method for distributing title data, such as songs, videos or computer games. The title data is provided from a central location to a customer who may purchase or rent a copy of the title data. The title data is made available on a computer readable media, which may be physical media, such as a CD or DVD, or virtual media, such as a computer network. Before distribution, the title data is watermarked with information to identify the customer to whom the title data was distributed. The watermark may be created using identifying information to modulate the title data using a randomly selected modulation scheme at multiple randomly selected locations. The system stores an indication of the locations and frequency modulation scheme, allowing the identifying information to be recovered from the watermarked copy of the title data.

Claims

1. A method of watermarking title data with identification data, the method comprising the steps of:

identifying a plurality of possible placement locations in the title data based on characteristics of the title data;

selecting a plurality of placement locations from the plurality of possible placement locations;

randomly selecting a plurality of number to frequency modulation relationships; and

frequency modulating at least a portion of the title data at each of the plurality of selected placement locations with the identification data using one of the selected plurality of number to frequency modulation relationships.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

generating a watermarking key that is a combination of the customer identification data and an identifier of the randomly selected plurality of number to frequency modulation relationships; and

storing the watermarking key in a secure database.

3. The method as claimed in claim 2, wherein the step of generating the watermarking key includes generating a unique watermark key for each watermarked title data.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the title data is audio title data.

5. The method as claimed in claim 4, further comprising the step of decoding at least a portion of the audio title data.

6. The method as claimed in claim 5, further comprising the step of combining the frequency modulated audio title data with corresponding video title data to provide watermarked title data.

7. The method as claimed in claim 4, wherein the step of identifying a plurality of possible placement locations includes scanning the audio title data to determine a plurality of locations where a frequency deviation between channels of the audio title data is less than a predetermined frequency deviation or the frequency modulation of the audio title data is not discernible to a human ear.

8. The method as claimed in claim 7, wherein the step of scanning includes selecting a channel of the audio title data as a reference channel, and selecting another channel of the audio title data to be frequency modulated as a watermarked channel.

9. The method as claimed in claim 8, wherein the reference channel and the watermarked channel are randomly changed.

10. The method as claimed in claim 7, further comprising the step of receiving an decryption key and decrypting encrypted title data to provide the title data.

11. The method as claimed in claim 4, further comprising the step of encoding the audio title data after the step of frequency modulating.

12. The method as claimed in claim 11, further comprising the step of combining the frequency modulated audio title data with a remainder of the audio title data to provide watermarked audio title data.

13. The method as claimed in claim 4, further comprising the step of receiving an decryption key and decrypting encrypted title data to provide the title data.

14. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein:

the frequency modulated title data is provided as watermarked title data; and

the method further comprises the step of storing reference title data for use when decoding the watermarked title data.

15. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein:

the frequency modulated title data is provided as watermarked title data; and

the method further comprises the step of burning a selected medium with the watermarked title data.

16. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein:

the frequency modulated title data is provided as watermarked title data; and

the method further comprises transmitting the watermarked title data to a customer.

17. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising the step of receiving an decryption key and decrypting encrypted title data to provide the title data.

18. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising the step of decoding encoded title data to provide the title data.

19. The method of watermarking title data of claim 1, wherein randomly selecting a plurality of number to frequency modulation relationships comprises selecting an entry of a set of encoding relationships, the entry including random information specifying a selection of placement locations from the plurality of placement locations.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein each of the encoding relationships comprises the plurality of number to frequency modulation relationships.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein selecting a plurality of placement locations comprises selecting a plurality of placement locations using information stored in the selected entry of the set of encoding relationships.

22. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the step of identifying a plurality of possible placement locations includes scanning the title data to identify locations based on a frequency deviation.

23. The method as claimed in claim 22, wherein selecting a plurality of placement locations comprises randomly selecting a subset of the plurality of possible placement locations.

24. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein selecting a plurality of placement locations comprises randomly selecting a subset of the plurality of possible placement locations.

25. A method of watermarking title data with identification data, the method comprising:

identifying a plurality of locations in the title data based on properties of the title data;

randomly selecting a subset of placement locations from the plurality of identified locations;

for each placement location in the subset;

(i) randomly selecting one of a plurality of number to frequency modulation relationships;

(ii) modulating the title data at the placement location with the identification data based on the selected number to frequency modulation relationship; and

storing an indication of the randomly selected subset of placement locations and randomly selected number to frequency modulation relationships.

26. The method as claimed in claim 25, further comprising the step of receiving an decryption key and decrypting encrypted title data to provide the title data.