Copy protection

• US 7,945,925 B2
• Filed: 03/23/2007
• Issued: 05/17/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/24/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: Kim, In Moon
• Primary Examiner(s): Saltarelli; Dominic D
• Application Number:
  US11/727,183
• Publication Number:
  US 20070245370A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,516 Days
• Field of Search: 725/31
• US Class Current: 725/31
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/16 on playing information
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/18 on copying information
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/23 using cryptography, e.g. encryption, authentication, key distribution
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2005/91328 the copy protection signal being a copy management signal, e.g. a copy generation management signal [CGMS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2005/91364 the video signal being scrambled
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/235 Processing of additional data, e.g. scrambling of additional data or processing content descriptors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4181 for conditional access
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/435 Processing of additional data, e.g. decrypting of additional data, reconstructing software from modules extracted from the transport stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4627 Rights management associated to the content security in data switching network management H04L41/28; security management or policies for network security H04L63/20; access security in wireless networks H04W12/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8352 involving content or source identification data, e.g. Unique Material Identifier [UMID]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8355 involving usage data, e.g. number of copies or viewings allowed
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/913 for scrambling ; for copy protection
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/163 by receiver means only

Abstract

An apparatus for copy protection in a cable broadcast receiver and method thereof, by which digital broadcast contents can be protected from being copied.

Claims

1. A method of processing copy protection in a host coupled to a cable card in a cable broadcast receiver, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving multi-streams conveying multiple simultaneous programs;

multiplexing the multi-streams by appending local stream identifiers to each stream of the received multi-streams, the local stream identifiers being generated by the host, wherein each of the local stream identifiers is a local transport stream identifier (LTSID) assigned by the host in order to identify each stream of the multiplexed multi-streams, and the LTSID is assigned to each of the multi-streams not to be duplicated;

transmitting the multiplexed multi-streams to the cable card;

receiving copy control information corresponding to the appended local stream identifiers for each stream of the transmitted multi-streams from the cable card; and

controlling copy of each stream of the multi-streams based on the copy control information corresponding to each of the local stream identifiers,

wherein the copy control information includes an encryption mode indicator indicating copy permissions for digital copy, an analog protection system indicating copy permissions for analog output, and a constrained image trigger indicating image constraint for analog component output.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating a descramble key by giving a corresponding local stream identifier of the local stream identifiers; and

descrambling a stream having the corresponding local stream identifier using the descramble key.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein in the step of controlling the copy of each of the multi-streams, the received copy control information is applied to each of multi-streams by real time.

4. A host coupled to a cable card in a cable broadcast receiver, which receives multi-streams, the host comprising:

a broadcast receiving unit configured to receive multi-streams conveying multiple simultaneous programs;

a processing unit configured to multiplex the multi-streams by appending local stream identifier to each stream of the received multi-streams, and transmit the multiplexed multi-streams to the cable card, the local stream identifiers being generated by the host, wherein each of the local stream identifiers is a local transport stream identifier (LTSID) assigned by the host in order to identify each stream of the multiplexed multi-streams, and the LTSID is assigned to each of the multi-streams not to be duplicated; and

a control unit configured to receive copy control information corresponding to each of the appended local stream identifiers for each stream of the transmitted multi-streams from the cable card and control copy of each stream of the multi-streams based on the copy control information corresponding to each of the local stream identifiers,

wherein the copy control information includes an encryption mode indicator indicating copy permissions for digital copy, an analog protection system indicating copy permissions for analog output, and a constrained image trigger indicating image constraint for analog component output.

5. The host of claim 4, further comprising a storage unit storing a table in which each of the local stream identifiers, each of the multi-streams and the copy control information are matched.

6. The host of claim 4, wherein if the value of the copy control information of the broadcast signal stream is changed, the control unit controls to store a value of most recently received copy control information matched to each of the local stream identifiers assigned to each of the multi-streams.

7. The host of claim 4, wherein the control unit controls copying of each of the multi-streams by applying the received copy control information to each of the multi-streams by real time.

8. The host of claim 4, further comprising:

a copy protection processing unit generating a descramble key by giving a corresponding stream identifier of the local stream identifiers, and descrambling a corresponding scrambled stream of the multi-streams using the descramble key.

9. A copy protection system receiving multi-streams, the copy protection system comprising:

a host configured to receive the multi-streams, the host multiplexing the multi-streams by appending local stream identifier to each stream of the received multi-streams, and transmitting the multiplexed multi-streams to a cable card, the local stream identifiers being generated by the host, wherein each of the local stream identifiers is a local transport stream identifier (LTSID) assigned by the host in order to identify each stream of the multiplexed multi-streams, and the LTSID is assigned to each of the multi-streams not to be duplicated; and

the cable card configured to receive the multi-streams from the host, processing multiple simultaneous programs of the multi-streams, assigning copy control information corresponding to the appended local stream identifiers for each stream of the received multi-streams, and sending the copy control information to the host,

wherein the host stores the copy control information and controls copy of each of the received multi-streams using the copy control information matched to each of the generated local stream identifiers,

wherein the copy control information includes an encryption mode indicator indicating copy permissions for digital copy, an analog protection system indicating copy permissions for analog output, and a constrained image trigger indicating image constraint for analog component output.

10. The copy protection system of claim 9, wherein the host generates a descramble key by giving a corresponding local stream identifier of the local stream identifiers and wherein the cable card generates a scramble key by giving the corresponding local stream identifier to the scramble key.

11. The copy protection system of claim 10, wherein the cable card scrambles a corresponding stream using the scramble key matched with the corresponding local stream identifier and wherein the host descrambles the corresponding stream using the descramble key matched with the corresponding stream identifier.

12. The copy protection system of claim 9, wherein if a value of the copy control information is changed, copying of each of the multi-streams is controlled in a manner of storing a value of most recently received copy control information matched to the local stream identifier assigned to the stream and applying the copy control information to each of the streams by real time.