Secure distribution of digital data

• US 7,783,576 B2
• Filed: 02/27/2006
• Issued: 08/24/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/14/1997
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Texas Instruments, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Texas Instruments, Inc.
• Inventors: Hewlett, Gregory J., Breedlove, Paul S., Edenson, Roy I., Elliott, Keith H., van Kessel, Peter F., Werner, William B.
• Primary Examiner(s): Hewitt, II; Calvin L
• Assistant Examiner(s): Winter; John M
• Application Number:
  US11/363,003
• Publication Number:
  US 20070185812A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,639 Days
• Field of Search: 705/51, 705/50, 705/57
• US Class Current: 705/57
• 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: H04N 21/23473 by pre-encrypting
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/41415 involving a public display, viewable by several users in a public space outside their home, e.g. movie theatre, information kiosk
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/63345 by transmitting keys key distribution for secret or secure communication H04L9/08; network support of key management H04L63/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8352 involving content or source identification data, e.g. Unique Material Identifier [UMID]
• 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

Abstract

A secure digital data distribution system (100) for preventing unauthorized access to digital data. The system utilizes an identification system module (116) embedded in a digital storage media (114) to grant authorization to media players (118). Prior to reading the digital data recorded on the media (114), an identification system interrogator (122) reads authorization data from the identification system module (116) to determine whether the media player (118) is authorized to read the media (114). If the authorization data matches the media player'"'"'s unique identifier, authorization is granted and the media player (118) commences to read the media (114).

Claims

1. A method of tracking the use of information, said method comprising:

storing said information on storage media;

reading said information;

storing usage information concerning said reading step on said storage media; and

transmitting said usage information to an information collection agency.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said storing usage information step comprises:

storing usage information concerning said reading step in an identification system module attached to said storage media.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein said transmitting said usage information step comprises:

transferring said identification system module to a distributor.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said storing said usage information step comprises storing usage information selected from the group consisting of:

the number of times said storage media has been read, when said storage media was read, what equipment read said storage media, what projector was associated with the reading of the storage media, when the content of the storage media was presented, and the number attending a presentation of the content of the storage media.