Method and system for tunable distribution of content

• US 8,239,443 B2
• Filed: 09/01/2009
• Issued: 08/07/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/01/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rovi Technologies Corporation (Adeia Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Rovi Technologies Corporation (Adeia Inc.)
• Inventors: Koka, Vikram Venkata, Soong, Milton C., King, Neil A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Shin, Kyung H
• Application Number:
  US12/551,717
• Publication Number:
  US 20110055934A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,071 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709/201, 709/204, 726/28
• US Class Current: 709/201
• 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 2221/2111 Location-sensitive, e.g. geographical location, GPS
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/2541 Blu-ray discs; Blue laser DVR discs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/11 by using information not detectable on the record carrier
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/102 Entity profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/104 Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2181 comprising remotely distributed storage units, e.g. when movies are replicated over a plurality of video servers distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS], H04L67/1097
• 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 21/632 using a connection between clients on a wide area network, e.g. setting up a peer-to-peer communication via Internet for retrieving video segments from the hard-disk of other client devices broadcast-related systems characterised by transmission among terminal devices H04H60/80; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8355 involving usage data, e.g. number of copies or viewings allowed
• 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 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

A method and system for tunable distribution of content are disclosed. Preferably, the content comprises digital rights and/or watermark information. In one embodiment, a computer-implemented method comprises receiving a request from a client. One or more content files related to the request and a user profile of a user are determined. One or more seeders are assigned to start the delivery of the one or more content files. The client is allowed to obtain a plurality of pieces of the one or more content files from the one or more seeders. At least one piece of the plurality of pieces of the one or more content files contains digital rights and/or watermark information.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving a request from a client;

determining, by use of a processor, one or more content files related to the request and a user profile of a user operating the client;

assigning one or more seeders to start the delivery of the one or more content files; and

delivering a plurality of pieces of the one or more content files to the client from the one or more seeders, at least one piece of the plurality of pieces of the one or more content files having embedded therein digital rights information, the digital rights information including information enabling tracing and management of the distribution of a particular content file in which the digital rights information is embedded;

wherein the plurality of pieces of the one or more content files comprises a plurality of dynamic sectors and a plurality of static sectors and wherein each dynamic sector of the plurality of dynamic sectors corresponds to a static sector of the plurality of static sectors; and

each dynamic sector contains the URLs of the designated seeders to verify that each dynamic sector is a validated piece of the content file; and

when the corresponding dynamic sector is delivered, the checksum or the hash of the static sector is checked before substituting the dynamic sector with valid data.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:

saving the user profile; and

determining whether the user has authorization for the plurality of pieces of the one or more content files by using the user profile.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, further comprising:

analyzing one or more of the user'"'"'s interests, tendencies, preferences, favorite topics from the request; and

updating the user profile.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein each seeder comprises a content file that contains at least one of:

a dynamic sector of the plurality of the dynamic sectors and

a static sector of the plurality of static sectors.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising reconstructing

the one or more content files by using the plurality of dynamic sectors and the plurality of static sectors.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the one or more content files are multimedia files.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the one or more seeders include a peer.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1,

wherein the request is authorized by using a proof of purchase of the one or more content files,

wherein the authorization is by a management server.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, wherein the management server exclusively distributes the at least one piece of the plurality of pieces of the one or more content files.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein each dynamic sector of the plurality of dynamic sectors is filled with zero bits when delivered from an unauthorized seeder.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, wherein the dynamic sector filled with zero bits is substituted with the corresponding authorized dynamic sector, and wherein the authorized dynamic sector is delivered from an authorized seeder.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of dynamic sectors is encoded.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, further comprising decoding the plurality of dynamic sectors to reconstruct the one or more content files.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein the one or more content files contain a codec to decode the plurality of dynamic sectors.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising tracing the delivery of the plurality of pieces of the one or more content files by using a tracking server.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 15 further comprising reporting the status of the delivery of at least one piece of the plurality of pieces of the one or more content files when the delivery is commenced.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of dynamic sectors are distributed exclusively by a publisher server.

18. The computer-implemented method of claim 17, wherein the publisher server determines the size of each dynamic sector of the plurality of dynamic sectors and the size of each static sector of the plurality of static sectors prior to distributing the one or more content files.

19. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising dynamically assigning a new seeder or a peer during the delivery of the one or more content files.

20. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the shared network is a home network.

21. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the one or more content files are delivered to one of a BD-Live capable player, a computer, a smart phone, a digital set-top box, and a digital video recorder.

22. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the one or more content files comprise a BD+ format.

23. A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon a plurality of instructions, the plurality of instructions when executed by a computer, cause said computer to perform:

receiving a request from a client;

determining one or more content files related to the request and a user profile of a user;

assigning one or more seeders to start the delivery of the one or more content files; and

delivering a plurality of pieces of the one or more content files to the client from the one or more seeders, at least one piece of the plurality of pieces of the one or more content files having embedded therein digital rights information, the digital rights information including information enabling tracing and management of the distribution of a particular content file in which the digital rights information is embedded, the plurality of pieces of the one or more content files comprises a plurality of dynamic sectors and a plurality of static sectors and each dynamic sector of the plurality of dynamic sectors corresponds to a static sector of the plurality of static sectors;

wherein each dynamic sector may also contain the URLs of the designated seeders to verify that each dynamic sector is a validated piece of the content file; and

when the corresponding dynamic sector is delivered, the checksum or the hash of the static sector is checked before substituting the dynamic sector with valid data.

24. A multipoint system comprising:

a plurality of clients, each of the plurality of clients being coupled to a network;

a management server computer coupled to the network, the management server computer including a memory; and

a plurality of seeders coupled to the network for distributing a plurality of content files, each of the plurality of content files having a least one piece having embedded therein digital rights information, the digital rights information including information enabling tracing and management of the distribution of a particular content file in which the digital rights information is embedded, the management server upon receiving a request from a user operating a first client of the plurality of clients determines one or more content files of the plurality of content files related to the request, the management server uses a user profile of the user operating the first client and assigns one or more seeders of the plurality of seeders to allow the delivery of the one or more content files, the one or more content files are delivered to the first client from the one or more seeders of the plurality of seeders, the plurality of pieces of the one or more content files comprises a plurality of dynamic sectors and a plurality of static sectors and each dynamic sector of the plurality of dynamic sectors corresponds to a static sector of the plurality of static sectors; and

wherein each dynamic sector may also contain the URLs of the designated seeders to verify that each dynamic sector is a validated piece of the content file; and

when the corresponding dynamic sector is delivered, the checksum or the hash of the static sector is checked before substituting the dynamic sector with valid data.