Interconnect device to enable compliance with rights management restrictions

• US 8,850,183 B1
• Filed: 01/16/2012
• Issued: 09/30/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/21/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qurio Holdings Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Qurio Holdings Incorporated
• Inventors: Evans, Gregory Morgan, Adams, Cheryl
• Primary Examiner(s): Hoffman, Brandon
• Assistant Examiner(s): Anderson, Michael D
• Application Number:
  US13/350,961
• Time in Patent Office: 988 Days
• Field of Search: 726 26- 30, 713/153, 380/201
• US Class Current: 713/153
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/00 Security arrangements for protecting computers, components thereof, programs or data against unauthorised activity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0464 using hop-by-hop encryption, i.e. wherein an intermediate entity decrypts the information and re-encrypts it before forwarding it
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

The present invention provides an interconnect device that connects a source device to a destination device, and allows the source device'"'"'s non-compliant rights management (RM) interface to deliver media content with little or no restriction to the destination device'"'"'s compliant RM interface.

Claims

1. An interconnect for connecting a source device to a destination device to facilitate delivery of media content that is associated with a rights management restriction, comprising:

a plurality of communication interfaces, at least one of which provides a connection from the interconnect to a media interface of the destination device; and

a control system associated with the plurality of communication interfaces and adapted to;

receive from the source device via one of the plurality of communication interfaces first information indicating first media content to be delivered from the source device to the destination device is associated with the rights management restriction;

in response to receiving the first information from the source device indicating that the first media content to be delivered from the source device to the destination device is associated with the rights management restriction, determine whether the media interface of the destination device is compliant with the rights management restriction associated with the first media content; and

if the media interface of the destination device is determined to be compliant with the rights management restriction associated with the first media content;

send to the source device via one of the plurality of communication interfaces second information indicating that the media interface of the destination device is compliant with the rights management restriction associated with the first media content; and

in response to sending the second information to the source device;

receive from the source device via one of the plurality of communication interfaces encrypted media content, which is the first media content encrypted based on compliance encryption information;

decrypt the encrypted media content to provide unencrypted media content;

encrypt the unencrypted media content based on rights management encryption information associated with the media interface of the destination device to provide re-encrypted media content; and

deliver the re-encrypted media content to the media interface of the destination device via one of the plurality of communication interfaces.

2. The interconnect of claim 1 wherein the control system is further adapted to retrieve the compliance encryption information directly from the source device via one of the plurality of communication interfaces.

3. The interconnect of claim 1 wherein the control system is further adapted to send the compliance encryption information for use by the source device via one of the plurality of communication interfaces.

4. The interconnect of claim 1 wherein the re-encrypted media content is not delivered to the media interface of the destination device if the media interface of the destination device is not compliant with the rights management restriction.

5. The interconnect of claim 1 wherein the control system communicates with the media interface of the destination device via the destination media interface to determine whether the media interface of the destination device is compliant with the rights management restriction.

6. The interconnect of claim 1 wherein the media interface of the destination device and one of the plurality of communication interfaces are at least one of a group consisting of a high-definition multimedia interface and a digital visual interface.

7. The interconnect of claim 1 wherein the rights management restriction is at least one restriction of a digital rights management protocol.

8. The interconnect of claim 7 wherein the digital rights management protocol is at least one of high-bandwidth digital content protection protocol and advanced access content system protocol.

9. The interconnect of claim 1 wherein the interconnect is implemented as a cable that directly couples the non-compliant rights management media interface of the source device and the media interface of the destination device.

10. The interconnect of claim 1 wherein, if the media interface of the destination device is determined to be non-compliant with the rights management restriction associated with the first media content, the control system is adapted to:

send to the source device via one of the plurality of communication interfaces third information indicating that the media interface of the destination device is non-compliant with the rights management restriction associated with the first media content; and

in response to sending the third information to the source device;

receive from the source device via the source media interface a reduced quality version of the first media content; and

deliver the reduced quality version of the first media content to the media interface of the destination device via the destination media interface.

11. The interconnect of claim 1 wherein one of the plurality of communication interfaces is one of a group consisting of a Local Area Network (LAN) interface and a wireless LAN (WLAN) interface.

12. A source device comprising:

memory;

a processor associated with the memory;

a first communication interface for connecting to a communication interface of an interconnect that couples the source device to a destination device;

a non-compliant rights management media interface for a connection to a media interface of the interconnect; and

a control system associated with the first communication interface, the non-compliant rights management media interface, and the processor and adapted to instruct the processor to;

determine whether media content to be delivered to the destination device is associated with a rights management restriction;

send via the first communication interface a first message indicating whether the media content is associated with a rights management restriction;

receive via the first communication interface a second message indicating whether the destination device has a compliant rights management media interface;

when the media content is associated with the rights management restriction and the destination device has a compliant rights management media interface, encrypt the media content based on compliance encryption information to generate encrypted media content; and

deliver the encrypted media content via the non-compliant rights management media interface to the interconnect, wherein when the media content is associated with the rights management restriction and the destination device does not have a compliant rights management media interface, the control system is further adapted to reduce a quality of the media content to provide a reduced quality version of the media content, and deliver the reduced quality version of the media content via the non-compliant rights management media interface to the interconnect.

13. The source device of claim 12 wherein the interconnect is adapted to decrypt the encrypted media content to obtain decrypted media content, re-encrypt the decrypted media content based on rights management encryption information to provide re-encrypted media content, and deliver the re-encrypted media content to the destination device.

14. The source device of claim 12 wherein when the media content is not associated with the rights management restriction, the control system is further adapted to deliver the media content via the non-compliant rights management media interface to the interconnect.

15. The source device of claim 12 wherein the first message is sent to the interconnect and the second message is received from the interconnect.

16. The source device of claim 12 wherein the control system is further adapted to retrieve the compliance encryption information via the first communication interface.

17. The source device of claim 16 wherein the compliance encryption information is received from the interconnect.

18. The source device of claim 12 wherein the control system is further adapted to send the compliance encryption information for use by the interconnect via the first communication interface.

19. The source device of claim 18 wherein the compliance encryption information is sent to the interconnect.

20. The source device of claim of 12 wherein the non-compliant rights management media interface is at least one of a group consisting of a high-definition multimedia interface and a digital visual interface.

21. The source device of claim 12 wherein the rights management restriction is at least one restriction of a digital rights management protocol.

22. The source device of claim 21 wherein the digital rights management protocol is at least one of high-bandwidth digital content protection protocol and advanced access content system protocol.

23. A method for operating an interconnect having a plurality of communication interfaces where the interconnect connects a source device to a destination device to facilitate delivery of media content that is associated with a rights management restriction, the method comprising:

receiving via one of the plurality of communication interfaces that couples the interconnect to a communication interface of the source device first information indicating first media content to be delivered from the source device to the destination device is associated with the rights management restriction;

in response to receiving the first information from the source device indicating that the first media content to be delivered from the source device to the destination device is associated with the rights management restriction, determining whether a media interface of the destination device is compliant with the rights management restriction associated with the first media content; and

if the media interface of the destination device is determined to be compliant with the rights management restriction associated with the first media content;

sending to the source device via one of the plurality of communication interfaces second information indicating that the media interface of the destination device is compliant with the rights management restriction associated with the first media content; and

in response to sending the second information to the source device;

receiving encrypted media content, which is the first media content encrypted based on compliance encryption information;

decrypting the encrypted media content to provide unencrypted media content;

encrypting the unencrypted media content based on rights management encryption information associated with a compliant rights management media interface of the destination device to provide re-encrypted media content; and

delivering the re-encrypted media content to the compliant rights management media interface of the destination device via one of the plurality of communication interfaces that provides a connection from the interconnect to the compliant rights management media interface of the destination device.

24. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing software comprising instructions for a control system of a source device to:

determine whether media content to be delivered to a destination device is associated with a rights management restriction, the destination device being connected to the source device via an interconnect;

send to the interconnect via a first communication interface of the source device that communicatively couples the source device to a communication interface of the interconnect a message indicating whether the media content is associated with the rights management restriction;

receive from the interconnect via the first communication interface a second message indicating whether the destination device has a compliant rights management media interface;

when the media content is associated with a rights management restriction and the destination device has a compliant rights management media interface, effect encryption of the media content based on compliance encryption information to generate encrypted media content;

when the media content is associated with the rights management restriction and the destination device does not have a compliant rights management media interface, reduce a quality of the media content to provide a reduced quality version of the media content, and deliver the reduced quality version of the media content via the non-compliant rights management media interface to the interconnect.