Detecting distribution of multimedia content

• US 8,359,609 B2
• Filed: 04/11/2011
• Issued: 01/22/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 11/15/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Li, Zhi, Ghosal, Dipak, Ou, Canhui, Savoor, Raghvendra
• Primary Examiner(s): Pendleton, Brian
• Assistant Examiner(s): Alcon, Fernando
• Application Number:
  US13/083,941
• Publication Number:
  US 20110197240A1
• Time in Patent Office: 652 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 725/9
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0896 Bandwidth or capacity management, i.e. automatically increasing or decreasing capacities flow or congestion control using dynamic resource allocation, e.g. in-call renegotiation, H04L47/76
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/00 Arrangements for monitoring or testing data switching networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/04 Processing captured monitoring data, e.g. for logfile generation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/16 Threshold monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2541 Rights Management protecting software against unauthorised usage in a vending or licensing environment G06F21/10; 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 21/835 Generation of protective data, e.g. certificates protecting software against unauthorised usage in a vending or licensing environment G06F21/10

Abstract

A system and method is disclosed for detecting distribution of multimedia content. The volume level of data traffic is monitored for a plurality of users to select any users with high-bandwidth usage. The time of day and the day of the week may be considered when determining whether a user is a high-bandwidth user. Upon selecting a user as one with high-bandwidth usage, such user may be subject to packet inspections of data traffic streams. In some embodiments, content identification parameters or watermarks are added to one or more packets in a data traffic stream carrying multimedia content.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer readable medium including program instructions for implementing a data distribution detector application, the program instructions including instructions to:

compare a volume of upstream data traffic associated with a user to a threshold volume;

when the volume of upstream data traffic reaches the threshold volume, compare an estimated volume of traffic associated with an ordering history of the user to the volume of upstream data traffic; and

when the volume of upstream data traffic exceeds the estimated volume, compare an identification parameter associated with the volume of traffic to known identification parameters.

2. The medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions to compare the identification parameter include instructions to:

access the known identification parameters from a content signature module.

3. The medium of claim 2, wherein the content signature module is configured to assign the known identification parameters, and wherein the known identification parameters include a watermark.

4. The medium of claim 1, including instructions to:

receive an indication of the volume of upstream data traffic from a residential gateway associated with the user.

5. The medium of claim 1, including instructions to:

identify the user as a redistributor of multimedia content based on output generated by instructions selected from the instructions executable to compare the estimated volume of traffic associated with the order history and the instructions executable to compare the identification parameter.

6. The medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions executable to compare the estimated volume include instructions to analyze a video-on-demand ordering history.

7. The medium of claim 1, including instructions to:

track the volume of data traffic associated with the user and track a time of day associated with data traffic.

8. The medium of claim 1, including instructions to:

track a second volume of downstream traffic received at a set-top box associated with the user.

9. A data processing system for detecting multimedia content distribution, comprising:

a processor configured to access a memory, wherein the memory includes program instructions, executable by the processor, including instructions to;

attach a content identification parameter to a portion of multimedia content sent to a plurality of users;

identify a selected user included in the plurality of users based on a high bandwidth usage, wherein high bandwidth usage is indicated by a volume of upstream data traffic for the user exceeding a predetermined threshold;

when a volume of upstream data traffic exceeds an estimated volume of traffic determined based on an ordering history of the selected user, flag the selected user as a possible redistributor of the multimedia content.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the program instructions include instructions to:

inspect the upstream traffic for the content identification parameter; and

store a portion of the upstream data traffic.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the program instructions include instructions to:

analyze the ordering history to determine a number of video-on-demand movies ordered by the selected user.

12. The data processing system of claim 9, wherein the program instructions include instructions to:

create a security identifier for placement in a packet of the multimedia content; and

include the security identifier in the content identification parameter for multimedia content sent to the selected user.

13. The data processing system of claim 9, wherein the multimedia content comprises user datagram protocol packets.

14. A computer-implemented method of detecting distribution of multimedia content, the method comprising:

monitoring, by a server, a volume of upstream data traffic for a user;

comparing an estimated volume of traffic, determined based on an ordering history associated with the user, to the volume of upstream data traffic; and

when the volume of upstream data traffic exceeds the estimated volume, comparing a content identification parameter associated with the volume of upstream data traffic with at least one known identification parameter.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

based on the comparing of the content identification parameter, flagging the user as a possible content redistributor.

16. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

assigning a video-on-demand parameter to the user, wherein the video-on-demand parameter is indicative of a quantity of video-on-demand movies ordered by the user.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein the content identification parameter includes a watermark, and wherein the comparing of the content identification parameter includes comparing the watermark with a known watermark.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein the comparing of the content identification parameter occurs contemporaneously with the upstream data traffic.

19. The method of claim 14, wherein selected packets from the volume of upstream data traffic are buffered in a memory, and wherein comparing the content identification parameter is performed in response to retrieving the selected packets from the memory.

20. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

detecting that the user has relatively high traffic volume during a particular time slot compared to other users.