Secure content enabled drive system and method

• US 8,402,283 B1
• Filed: 08/02/2004
• Issued: 03/19/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 08/02/2004
• Status: Expired

• Current Assignee: NVIDIA Corporation
• Original Assignee: NVIDIA Corporation
• Inventors: Diamond, Michael B., White, Jonathan B., Daniell, Piers J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Shaw, Yin-Chen
• Assistant Examiner(s): TURCHEN, JAMES R
• Application Number:
  US10/910,001
• Time in Patent Office: 3,151 Days
• Field of Search: 713/193, 713/192
• US Class Current: 713/193
• 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]

Abstract

The present invention facilitates convenient and secure distribution of proprietary content. A present secure content enabled drive system and method permits flexible use of storage medium for both protected distribution of information and user definable storage use. In one embodiment, a computer readable storage medium includes an unprotected information portion, a protected information portion and a protection interface. The unprotected portion stores unprotected information. The protected content portion stores protected information. The protection interface protects information in the protected content portion from unauthorized access.

Claims

1. A reprogrammable non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising:

an unprotected portion for storage of unprotected information;

a protected information portion for storing protected information, wherein said protected information portion resides on a host protection area which is restricted to access by a trusted device, wherein said computer readable storage medium is an Advanced Technology Attachment-5 (ATA-5) hard disk drive and each file on said protected information portion of said ATA-5 hard disk drive is encrypted in a special a two pass encryption comprising;

a first pass encryption using a real-time decryptable algorithm so content can be played back in real time; and

a second pass encryption which locks files while access is unauthorized; and

a protection interface for protecting information in said protected information portion, wherein said protection interface engages in a trusted device verification protocol that verifies identification information is associated with said trusted device and marks unlocked protected information to prevent access by an untrusted machine, wherein said mark is forwarded with said unlocked protected information to said trusted device.

2. A computer readable storage medium of claim 1 wherein said protection interface permits seamless and intuitive interaction between said authorized information in said protected content and said unprotected information.

3. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1 wherein said protection interface is a micro kernel and participates in a process to unlock said protected information.

4. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1 wherein said protection interface includes instructions that direct a unified look and feel graphical user interface with content indicators corresponding to permissible content stored in said protected content portion.

5. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1 wherein said protection interface includes a digital rights registry key that is utilized to track digital rights to said protected content.

6. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1 wherein said protection portion includes its own partition and encrypted file system.

7. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1 wherein protection interface includes instructions for participating in trusted device verification protocol.

8. A content protected storage medium method comprising:

partitioning a reprogrammable non-transitory storage medium into a protected portion and an unprotected portion;

storing content in said protected portion wherein said protected portion resides on a host protection area which is restricted to access by a trusted device, wherein said computer readable storage medium is an Advanced Technology Attachment-5 (ATA-5) hard disk drive and each file on said protected portion of said ATA-5 hard disk drive is encrypted in a special a two pass encryption comprising;

a first pass encryption using a real-time decryptable algorithm so content can be played back in real time; and

a second pass encryption which locks files while access is unauthorized; and

loading a protection interface onto said storage medium, wherein said protection interface prevents unauthorized access to said content stored in said protected portion and marks an unlocked file with an indicator to prevent access by an untrusted machine, wherein said indicator is forwarded with said unlocked protected information to said trusted device.

9. A content protected storage medium method of claim 8 further comprising encrypting said content in said protected portion.

10. A content protected storage medium method of claim 8 further comprising decrypting said content in said protected portion.

11. A content protected storage medium method of claim 8 wherein said protection interface provides operating system functions including memory management functions, hardware interaction functions, and user interface functions.

12. A content protected storage medium method of claim 8 wherein said protection interface includes instructions for unlocking and decrypting said content in said protected portion.

13. A content protected storage medium method of claim 8 wherein said protected portion interface includes instructions that direct a unified look and feel graphical user interface with content indicators corresponding to permissible content stored in said protected content portion.

14. A secure content enabled disk access system comprising:

a secure content enabled disk, wherein said secure content enabled disk is partitioned into a protected portion and unprotected portion and said secure content enabled disk includes a protection interface for limiting access to proprietary content stored in said protected portion, wherein said secure content enabled disk is an Advanced Technology Attachment-5 (ATA-5) hard disk drive, wherein said protected portion stores secure content including protected information, wherein said protected portion resides on a host protection area which is restricted to access by a trusted device, wherein each file on a protected portion of said secure content enabled disk drive is encrypted in a special a two pass encryption comprising;

a first pass encryption using a real-time decryptable algorithm so content can be played back in real time; and

a second pass encryption which locks files while access is unauthorized,

wherein said protection interface permits authorized access to said protected content via a unified look and feel graphical user interface with content indicators corresponding to permissible content stored in said protected content portion; and

a processor for executing instructions, including instructions associated with interacting with said protection interface and accessing said proprietary content.

15. A secure content enabled disk access system of claim 14 wherein access to said protected content is limited to a trusted device.

16. A secure content enabled disk access system of claim 14 wherein said protected protection interface includes instructions for performing operating system functions, including memory management functions, hardware interaction functions, and user interface functions.

17. A secure content enabled disk access system of claim 14 wherein said processor is graphics processing unit.