Information network system and information apparatus

• US 7,814,555 B2
• Filed: 03/31/2006
• Issued: 10/12/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 04/01/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Semiconductor Solutions Co., Ltd. (Winbond Electronics Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Iwamoto, Kiyotaka, Nagata, Tomomi
• Primary Examiner(s): Cervetti; David Garcia
• Application Number:
  US11/393,667
• Publication Number:
  US 20060222177A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,656 Days
• Field of Search: 726/27, 380/200
• US Class Current: 726/27
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4135 external recorder interface circuits between an apparatus for recording television signals and a television receiver H04N5/775
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4147 PVR [Personal Video Recorder] H04N5/76 takes precedence ; arrangements for broadcast with accumulation-type receivers H04H20/40
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4334 Recording operations recording of a television signal H04N5/76; arrangements for recording or accumulating broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/27
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43622 Interfacing an external recording device
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4367 Establishing a secure communication between the client and a peripheral device or smart card
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4405 involving video stream decryption
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4408 involving video stream encryption, e.g. re-encrypting a decrypted video stream for redistribution in a home network
• 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

Abstract

Upon receiving an input of a request to move data to an external recording medium, a first information apparatus: transfers to record contents data after performing conversion under compression; encrypts the contents data and stores it in a concealment area of an internal recording medium; transfers to record the contents management information containing key information to the external recording medium; and deletes the encryption key. A second information apparatus: obtains the contents management information from the external recording medium and searches the network; obtains the encrypted contents data from the first information apparatus that holds the contents data concerned; and decrypts the encrypted contents data by using the encryption key contained in the contents management information.

Claims

1. An information network system, comprising a first information apparatus and a second information apparatus, wherein

the first information apparatus comprises:

a first internal recording medium for storing contents data;

a first interface which transfers data relating to the contents data recorded in the first internal recording medium to an external recording medium when the external recording medium is attached to the first information apparatus; and

a first transmission/reception unit for connecting the first information apparatus to a network, and

the second information apparatus comprises;

a second internal recording medium for storing contents data;

a second interface; and

a second transmission/reception unit for connecting the second information apparatus to a network, wherein;

the first internal recording medium comprises an area for storing the contents data and a secured area for storing various kinds of data with limited accessibility,

the first information apparatus is configured to;

upon receiving a request to move the contents data to the external recording medium while the external recording medium is being attached to the first information apparatus,

read out the contents data from the first internal recording medium and transfer the read contents data to the external recording medium after performing compression-conversion to the read contents data;

encrypt the contents data by using an encryption key to be stored in the secured area of the first internal recording medium;

record contents management information that contains key information relating to the encryption key in the external recording medium; and

then delete the key information relating to the encryption key, and

the second information apparatus is configured to;

when the external recording medium that holds the compression-converted contents data is attached to the second information apparatus,

obtain the contents management information from the external recording medium and search the network by using the obtained contents management information to find out the first information apparatus that holds the encrypted contents data corresponding to the contents management information;

obtain, through the network, the encrypted contents data from the found first information apparatus; and

decrypt the obtained encrypted contents data by using the encryption key contained in the contents management information.

2. The information network system according to claim 1, wherein

the first information apparatus is further configured to, upon receiving the request to move the contents data to the external recording medium, perform mutual authentication between the first information apparatus and the external recording medium, and perform the read, encrypt, record and delete operations only when the authentication succeeds.

3. The information network system according to claim 2, wherein, when the mutual authentication between the first information apparatus and the external recording medium fails, the first information apparatus is further configured to transfer to record the compression-conversion contents data the external recording medium without encrypting and storing the contents data to the secured area of the first internal recording medium.

4. The information network system according to claim 1, wherein

the second information apparatus is further configured to perform mutual authentication between the second information apparatus and the found first information apparatus;

and perform the operations of said obtaining contents management information, obtaining the encrypted contents data and decrypting the obtained encrypted contents data only when the authentication succeeds.

5. The information network system according to claim 4, wherein, when the mutual authentication between the second information apparatus and the found first information apparatus fails, the second information apparatus is further configured to read out the compression-converted contents data stored in the external recording medium and stores the read compression-converted contents data to the second internal recording medium of the second information apparatus without obtaining the encrypted contents data from the found first information apparatus.

6. The information network system according to claim 1, wherein, for encrypting the contents data, the first information apparatus is configured to generate the encryption key in advance, and encrypt the contents data by using the generated encryption key.

7. The information network system according to claim 1, wherein

the contents management information contains, in addition to the key information relating to the encryption key, title information relating to the encrypted contents data, and time information when encryption is done.

8. The information network system according to claim 1, wherein

the first information apparatus is configured to perform time-management of the encrypted contents data that are stored in the secured area, and automatically and preferentially delete encrypted contents data to which access frequency is low.

9. The information network system according to claim 1, wherein

the external recording medium comprises a protect area that is accessible only when authentication between the first information apparatus and the second information apparatus is succeeded, and

the first information apparatus is configured to record the contents management information to the protect area.

10. The information network system according to claim 1, wherein

the first information apparatus is configured not to delete the contents management information but to store to manage the contents management information in the secured area.

11. The information network system according to claim 10, wherein

the first information apparatus is configured to perform time-management of the contents management information stored in the secured area, and performs automatically and preferentially delete contents management information to which access frequency is low.

12. An information network system, comprising a first information apparatus and a second information apparatus, wherein

the first information apparatus comprises:

a first internal recording medium for storing contents data;

a first interface which is configured to transfer data relating to the contents data recorded in the first internal recording medium to an external recording medium when the external recording medium is attached to the first information apparatus; and

a first transmission/reception unit for connecting the first information apparatus to a network, and

the second information apparatus comprises;

a second internal recording medium for storing contents data;

a second interface; and

a second transmission/reception unit for connecting the second information apparatus to a network, wherein;

the first internal recording medium comprises an area for storing the contents data and a secured area for storing various kinds of data with limited accessibility,

the first information apparatus is configured to;

upon receiving, from the second information apparatus through the network, a request to move the contents data

encrypt the contents data;

generate contents management information that contains key information relating to an encryption key used for encryption;

transfers

transfer the encrypted contents data along with the contents management information to the second information apparatus through the network;

delete the key information relating to the encryption key from the contents management information after transfer; and

store the management contents information from which the key information is deleted and the encrypted contents data to the secured area, and

the second information apparatus is configured to;

after requesting, to the first information apparatus through the network, movement of the contents data and receiving the encrypted contents data along with the contents management information from the first information apparatus,

obtain the encryption key from the key information contained in the received contents management information, and

then decrypt the received encrypted contents data by using the encryption key.

13. The information network system according to claim 12, wherein:

the second information apparatus is configured to, upon receiving, from the first information apparatus through the network, a request to move the contents data which has been decrypted and stored in the second information apparatus

transmit the contents management information except the key information relating to the encryption key to the first information apparatus through the network, and transmits transmit a request at the same time to confirm whether or not the encrypted contents data exists in the secured area of the first internal recording medium of the first information apparatus;

the first information apparatus is configured to, upon receiving the contents management information and the confirmation request from the second information apparatus through the network,

check whether or not the encrypted contents data exists in the secured area of the first information apparatus by using the received contents management information and,

when the encrypted contents data exists, transmit a response indicating existence of the encrypted contents data to the second information apparatus through the network;

the second information apparatus is further configured to;

upon receiving the response indicating existence of the encrypted contents data,

transmit an instruction to decrypt the encrypted contents data to the first information apparatus through the network;

encrypt the contents data which has been decrypted in the second information apparatus by using a second encryption key;

move the encrypted contents data encrypted by the second information apparatus to the secured area of the second internal recording medium

transmit second key information relating to the second encryption key that is used for encrypting the contents data to the first information apparatus through the network;

after transmitting the second key information, delete the second key information relating to the second encryption key from the contents management information; and

store the contents management information in the secured area of the second internal recording medium; and

the first information apparatus is further configured to, upon receiving the decrypting instruction and the second key information,

read out the encrypted contents data from the secured area of the first internal recording medium according to the decrypting instruction, and

then decrypt the read encrypted contents data by using the second encryption key contained in the second key information.

14. An information apparatus, comprising:

an internal recording medium for storing contents data;

a recording and reproducing unit for recording the contents data to the internal recording medium and reproducing the content data;

an interface for transferring data relating to the contents data recorded in the internal recording medium to an external recording medium when the external recording medium is attached to the information apparatus

a transmission and reception unit for transmitting and receiving data between a network; and

a control unit, wherein;

the internal recording medium comprises an area for storing the contents data and a secured area for storing various kinds of data with limited accessibility, and

the control unit comprises;

a compressor for reading out the contents data from the internal recording medium by controlling the recording and reproducing unit, and performing compression-conversion of the contents data, responsive to a request to move the contents data to the external recording medium;

a first transfer device for transferring the compression-conversion contents data to the external recording medium trough the interface;

an encryption device for encrypting the contents data;

a storage device for storing the encrypted contents data to the secured area of the internal recording medium;

a second transfer device for transferring contents management information containing key information relating to an encryption key that is used for encrypting the contents data to the external recording medium through the interface;

a deleting device for deleting the key information after the contents management information is transferred to record to the external recording medium;

a searching device for obtaining the contents management information from the external recording medium that holds the compression-conversion contents data, and searching another information apparatus that is connected to the network through the transmission and reception unit by using the obtained contents management information;

an acquisition device for, when the another information apparatus which hold the encrypted contents data corresponding to the contents management information is found through the search of the network, obtaining the encrypted contents data from the another information apparatus through the network; and

a decryption device for decrypting the encrypted contents data obtained by the acquisition device by using the encryption key contained in the contents management information.