Detecting distribution of multimedia content

• US 8,601,503 B2
• Filed: 11/30/2012
• Issued: 12/03/2013
• 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: Ou, Canhui, Savoor, Raghvendra, Li, Zhi, Ghosal, Dipak
• Primary Examiner(s): Pendleton, Brian
• Assistant Examiner(s): Alcon, Fernando
• Application Number:
  US13/691,444
• Publication Number:
  US 20130088998A1
• Time in Patent Office: 368 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 computer readable storage device including processor executable instructions, which when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

identifying a user as a selected user based on current upstream data traffic volume of the user;

comparing a historical upstream traffic volume of the selected user and the current upstream traffic volume of the selected user; and

when the current upstream traffic exceeds the historical upstream traffic volume, comparing identification information associated with the volume of traffic to known identification information.

2. The computer readable storage device of claim 1, wherein the comparing of identification information includes:

obtaining the known identification information from a content signature module.

3. The computer readable storage device of claim 2, wherein the known identification information includes watermark information indicative of a watermark.

4. The computer readable storage device of claim 1, wherein the operations include:

receiving an upstream data traffic indication from a residential gateway associated with the user.

5. The computer readable storage device of claim 1, wherein the operations include:

identifying the user as a multimedia content redistributor based the comparing of traffic volume and the comparing of identification information.

6. The computer readable storage device of claim 1, wherein comparing the historical upstream traffic volume is based in part on video-on-demand ordering history of the user.

7. The computer readable storage device of claim 1, wherein the operations include:

monitoring upstream data traffic volume and time of day information associated with the data traffic.

8. The computer readable storage device of claim 1, wherein the operations include:

monitoring downstream traffic volume associated with the user.

9. A data processing system, comprising:

a processor;

a computer readable storage medium, accessible to the processor, including processor executable instructions, which when executed by the processor cause the processor to perform operations comprising;

attaching content identifier information to multimedia content sent to a plurality of users;

identifying a selected user based on current upstream data traffic volume;

comparing a historical upstream traffic volume of the selected user and the current upstream traffic volume of the selected user; and

when the current upstream traffic exceeds the historical upstream traffic volume and the selected user is one of the plurality of users, flagging the selected user as a content redistributor candidate.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the operations include:

inspecting the upstream data traffic volume for the content identifier information.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the operations include:

analyzing the ordering history to determine the historical upstream traffic volume.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein attaching the content identifier information includes:

placing a security identifier in a packet of the multimedia content.

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

14. A method, comprising:

identifying a user as a selected user based on current upstream data traffic volume of the user;

comparing a historical upstream traffic volume of the selected user and the current upstream traffic volume of the selected user; and

when the current upstream traffic exceeds the historical upstream traffic volume, comparing identification information associated with the volume of traffic to known identification information.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the comparing of identification information includes:

obtaining the known identification information from a content signature module.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the known identification information includes watermark information indicative of a watermark.

17. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

receiving an upstream data traffic indication from a residential gateway associated with the user.

18. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

identifying the user as a multimedia content redistributor based the comparing of traffic volume and the comparing of identification information.

19. The method of claim 14, wherein comparing the historical upstream traffic volume is based in part on video-on-demand ordering history of the user.