Rights management system for streamed multimedia content

• US 9,507,919 B2
• Filed: 04/22/2005
• Issued: 11/29/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 04/22/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Van Dyke, Clifford P., Cheng, David J., Mohan, Siva
• Primary Examiner(s): Nigh, James D
• Application Number:
  US11/113,216
• Publication Number:
  US 20060242080A1
• Time in Patent Office: 4,239 Days
• Field of Search: 705/50, 705/59, 380/255
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/00 Security arrangements for protecting computers, components thereof, programs or data against unauthorised activity
• 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: G06Q 20/1235 with control of digital rights management [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3246 of data relating to permitted access or usage, e.g. level of access or usage parameters for digital rights management [DRM] related to still images

Abstract

To communicate requirements for a digital license from a receiver of corresponding digital content to a computing device upon which the digital content is to be rendered, the receiver tunes the content and locates within the content information relating to the requirements for the license, constructs the requirements from the located information, and sends such constructed requirements to the computing device. The computing device upon receiving the sent requirements constructs the license based on such received requirements, stores such constructed license in a license store of such computing device, and thereafter renders the content only in accordance with the license. Thus, the receiver need not communicate the license itself to the computing device.

Claims

1. A method for communicating rules and requirements for a digital license of corresponding digital content from a receiver including a tuner to a computing device programmed to render the digital content, the rules and requirements specifying whether a user of the corresponding digital content has rights to render the corresponding digital content based on any of several factors, the method comprising:

the receiver receiving, from a distributor, a combined signal comprising multiple streams of digital content wherein each of the multiple streams includes digital content and information including a shortened version of rules and requirements for a digital license governing use of the digital content in the respective stream;

the receiver tuning the corresponding digital content from the combined signal;

the receiver locating within each stream the information including the shortened version of the rules and requirements for the digital license governing the use of the corresponding digital content;

the receiver constructing the rules and requirements from the located information and sending such constructed requirements to the computing device; and

the computing device receiving the constructed requirements, constructing the digital license based on such received rules and requirements, storing such constructed digital license in a license store of such computing device, and thereafter rendering the corresponding digital content only in accordance with the digital license.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

the receiver receiving the corresponding digital content form from a content distributor, wherein the digital content includes a decryption key (KD) that is encrypted using a public key of the receiver (PU-C);

the receiver decrypting the corresponding digital content using a private key (PR-C) by which PU-C(KD) may be decrypted; and

the receiver re-encrypting the decrypted corresponding digital content (CONTENT) using the decryption key (KD) obtained in the decrypting step.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the information including the shortened version of the rules and requirements for the digital license of corresponding digital content of each stream is supplied within each stream at periodic time intervals.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the receiver constructs each of one or more rules and requirements for the digital license from the located information according to a same format expected by the computing device.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the receiver constructs the rules and requirements from the located information according to a format comprising a multi-bit representation divided into a number of pre-defined fields including:

an input copy protection method field specifying a value that corresponds in a predetermined manner to a particular content protection method employed on the content;

a copy control value field representing how the content may be sub-licensed from the computing device to another computing device; and

one or more copy protection method-specific fields containing information unique to one or more specific copy protection methods.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the receiver constructs the rules and requirements from the located information to include whether the computing device can issue a sub-license to another computing device to render the corresponding digital content thereon, and if so how many times the computing device can issue such a sub-license.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the receiver sends the constructed rules and requirements to a trusted component of the computing device.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the computing device constructs the digital license based on the received rules and requirements by mapping each field of the rules and requirements to the digital license according to pre-defined mapping rules.

9. A computer-readable storage medium including hardware having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that when processed by a processor implement a method for communicating rules and requirements for a digital license of corresponding digital content from a receiver to a computing device that renders the digital content in accordance with constructed rules and requirements for the digital license received from the receiver, the rules and requirements specifying whether a user of the corresponding digital content has rights to render the corresponding digital content based on any of several factors, the method comprising:

the receiver receiving, from a distributor, a combined signal comprising multiple streams of digital content wherein each of the multiple streams includes digital content and information including a shortened version of rules and requirements for a digital license governing use of the digital content in the respective stream;

the receiver tuning the corresponding digital content from the combined signal;

the receiver locating within each stream the information including the shortened version of the rules and requirements for the digital license governing use of the corresponding digital content; and

the receiver constructing the rules and requirements from the located information and sending such constructed requirements to the computing device.

10. The medium of claim 9 wherein the method further comprises:

the receiver receiving the corresponding digital content from a content distributor, wherein the digital content includes a decryption key (KD) that is encrypted using a public key of the receiver (PU-C);

the receiver decrypting the corresponding digital content using a private key (PR-C) by which PU-C(KD) may be decrypted; and

the receiver re-encrypting the decrypted corresponding digital content (CONTENT) using the decryption key (KD) obtained in the decrypting step.

11. The medium of claim 9 wherein the information including the shortened version of the rules and requirements for the digital license of corresponding digital content of each stream is supplied within each stream at periodic time intervals and the step of locating within each stream information including the shortened version of relating to the rules and requirements for the digital license comprises checking said stream at said periodic time intervals.

12. The medium of claim 9 wherein the constructing step comprises the receiver constructing each of one or more rules and requirements for the digital license from the located information according to a same format expected by the computing device.

13. The medium of claim 12 wherein the constructing step comprises the receiver constructing the rules and requirements from the located information according to a format comprising a multi-bit representation divided into a number of pre-defined fields including:

an input copy protection method field specifying a value that corresponds in a predetermined manner to a particular content protection method employed on the content;

a copy control value field representing how the content may be sub-licensed from the computing device to another computing device; and

one or more copy protection method-specific fields containing information unique to one or more specific copy protection methods.

14. The medium of claim 9 wherein the constructing step comprises the receiver constructing the rules and requirements from the located information to include whether the computing device can issue a sub-license to another computing device to render the corresponding digital content thereon, and if so how many times the computing device can issue such a sub-license.

15. The medium of claim 9 wherein sending the constructed rules and requirements to the computing device comprises the receiver sending the constructed requirements to a trusted component of the computing device.

16. A system comprising:

a computing device including a display device that is programmed to render digital content in accordance with a corresponding digital license, wherein the digital content is extracted from a combined signal comprising a plurality of streams of digital content wherein each stream includes digital content and corresponding information including a shortened version of rules and requirements for a digital license governing use of the digital content in the respective stream; and

a receiver including a processor that executes computer-executable instructions to implement a method for;

receiving, from a distributor, the combined signal;

tuning the corresponding digital content from the combined signal;

locating within each stream the information including the shortened version of the rules and requirements for the digital license governing the use of the corresponding digital content;

constructing the rules and requirements from the located information; and

sending such constructed rules and requirements to the computing device,

wherein the computing device constructs the digital license based on the constructed rules and requirements received from the receiver, stores the constructed digital license in a license store, and thereafter renders the digital content on the display device only in accordance with the digital license.

17. The system of claim 16 wherein the receiver receives the digital content from a content distributor in an encrypted form, wherein the digital content includes a decryption key (KD) that is encrypted using a public key of the receiver (PU-C), decrypts the digital content using a private key (PR-C) by which PU-C(KD) may be decrypted, and re-encrypts the decrypted digital content (CONTENT) using the decryption key (KD) obtained by decrypting the digital content.

18. The system of claim 16 wherein the information including the shortened version of the requirements for the digital license of corresponding digital content of each stream is supplied within each stream at periodic time intervals.

19. The system of claim 16 wherein the receiver constructs each of one or more requirements corresponding to each of the plurality of streams of digital content from the located information according to a same format expected by the computing device.

20. The system of claim 16 wherein the receiver sends the constructed requirements to a trusted component of the computing device.

21. The system of claim 16 wherein the computing device constructs the digital license based on the received requirements by mapping each field of the requirements to the digital license according to pre-defined mapping rules.