Method and system for tunable distribution of content

• US 8,706,876 B2
• Filed: 05/22/2012
• Issued: 04/22/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/01/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rovi Technologies Corporation (Adeia Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Rovi Technologies Corporation (Adeia Inc.)
• Inventors: King, Neil A., Koka, Vikram Venkata, Soong, Milton C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Shin, Kyung H
• Application Number:
  US13/477,234
• Publication Number:
  US 20120297032A1
• Time in Patent Office: 700 Days
• Field of Search: 709/218, 709/219, 348/E5.006, 705/59
• US Class Current: 709/225
• 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 method for distributing digital content files using a multipoint distribution system, the method comprising:

receiving a request from a client;

determining, by use of a processor, one or more content files related to the request from the client, where at least one of the 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;

assigning one or more seeders to start the delivery of static sectors of the one or more content files to the client, where the checksum of each static sector is predetermined and can be used to authenticate the substitution of a dynamic sector corresponding to the static sector;

assigning a publisher server to start delivery of dynamic sectors of the one or more content files to the client, where a plurality of dynamic sectors contain digital rights information, the digital rights information including information for tracking a particular content file.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

saving a user profile associated with a user using the processor; 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 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 using the processor.

4. The 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 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 method of claim 1, wherein the one or more content files are multimedia files.

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

8. The 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 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 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 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 method of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of dynamic sectors is encoded.

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

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

15. The 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 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 method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of dynamic sectors are distributed exclusively by a publisher server.

18. The 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 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 method of claim 1, wherein the shared network is a home network.

21. The 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 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 from the client, where at least one of the 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;

assigning one or more seeders to start the delivery of static sectors of the one or more content files to the client, where the checksum of each static sector is predetermined and can be used to authenticate the substitution of a dynamic sector corresponding to the static sector; and

assigning a publisher server to start delivery of dynamic sectors of the one or more content files to the client, where a plurality of dynamic sectors contain digital rights information, the digital rights information including information for tracking a particular content file.

24. A multipoint distribution system for distributing digital content files comprising:

a plurality of seeders and a publisher server coupled to a network for distributing one or more content files, at least one of the content files comprising a plurality of dynamic sectors and a plurality of static sectors, where;

each dynamic sector of the plurality of dynamic sectors corresponds to a static sector of the plurality of static sectors;

the checksum of each static sector is predetermined and can be used to authenticate the substitution of a dynamic sector corresponding to the static sector; and

at least one of the dynamic sectors contains digital rights information, the digital rights information including information for tracking a particular content file;

a management server coupled to the network, wherein the management server is configured to;

receive a request from a first client of the plurality of clients;

identify one or more content files related to the request;

assign one or more seeders of the plurality of seeders to deliver static sectors of the identified one or more content files to the client; and

assign a publisher server to start delivery of dynamic sectors of the one or more content files to the client; and

a client coupled to the network, where the client is configured to;

send a request for content to the management server;

receive static sectors from the plurality of seeders;

receive dynamic sectors from the publisher server;

assemble the static sectors and dynamic sectors into a content file;

authenticate a replacement dynamic sector; and

substitute an original dynamic sector in a content file with the replacement dynamic sector.