CONTROLLING ACCESS TO COPIES OF MEDIA CONTENT BY A CLIENT DEVICE

• US 20110058675A1
• Filed: 09/04/2009
• Published: 03/10/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/04/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dish Technologies LLC (Dish Network Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Echostar Technologies LLC (Echostar Corporation)
• Inventors: Bye, Justyn T., Brueck, David F.
• Granted Patent: US 9,203,816 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 380/277
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/60 Digital content management, e.g. content distribution
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/062 for key distribution, e.g. centrally by trusted party cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for key distribution involving a central third party H04L9/0819
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1045 Proxies, e.g. for session initiation protocol [SIP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/762 at the source reformatting of additional data in video distribution servers H04N21/2355
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/083 involving central third party, e.g. key distribution center [KDC] or trusted third party [TTP]
• 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 21/8355 involving usage data, e.g. number of copies or viewings allowed

Abstract

A key server for controlling access of a client device to a subset of different quality copies of media content to be delivered over a network to the client device. In one embodiment, a key server receives a request for playback permission of media content by a client device, and applies a set of one or more business rules to determine which copies of the media content, if any, can be played by the client device, and allows access to a subset of the copies that can be played back by the client device and restricts access to the copies that are not part of the subset.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving at a server a request for playback permission of media content by a client device, wherein the media content is stored on a content server as a plurality of copies that are encrypted and encoded according to a plurality of different quality levels;

using information of the request, performing a set of one or more business rules by the server to determine which of the plurality of copies, if any, can be played back on the client device; and

based on said performing, controlling access to a subset of the plurality of copies that can be played back by the client device including restricting access to the copies of the plurality of copies that are not part of the subset, wherein the subset is less than all of the plurality of copies of the media content.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said controlling access comprise sending from the server to the client device access information to allow playback of the subset of the plurality of copies on the client device and to prevent playback of the copies that are not part of the subset on the client device.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the access information comprises an encryption key for each of the copies of the subset to allow playback of the subset of copies on the client device.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the plurality of encryption keys are encrypted.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the access information comprises:

a plurality of encryption keys to allow playback of the plurality of copies on the client device, wherein each of the plurality of copies is encoded using one of the plurality of encryption keys; and

instructions that prevent playback on the client device the copies that are not part of the subset.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein the access information controls the type of media content that can be played back on the client device.

7. The method of claim 2, wherein the access information comprises:

a single encryption key that allows playback of all of the plurality of copies on the client device, wherein all of the plurality of copies are encoded using the single encryption key; and

instructions that prevent playback on the client device the copies that are not part of the subset.

8. The method of claims 7, wherein the instructions comprise at least one of the following:

instructions that specify which of the plurality of copies, if any, can be played back on the client device;

instructions that specify a minimum or maximum criterion to prevent playback of copies of the plurality of copies that do not meet the minimum or maximum criterion; and

instructions that specify a maximum duration of permitted playback of one or more of the plurality of copies.

9. The method of claim 3, wherein the request for playback permission comprises a key request for a key file identified by an identifier of the media content, and wherein the access information comprises a key file containing the encryption key for each of the copies of the subset.

10. The method of claim 5, wherein the request for playback permission comprises a key request for a key file identified by an identifier of the media content, and wherein the access information comprises a key file containing the plurality of encryption keys.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the subset does not include one or more copies of the plurality of copies that have been encoded according to a higher quality level than the copies of the subset.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the subset does not include one or more copies of the plurality of copies that have been encoded according to a lower quality level than the copies of the subset.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the request for playback permission comprises a unique identifier, and wherein the method further comprises extracting a network address of the client device from the request, and wherein said performing the set of business rules comprises performing at least one business rule to determine if the network address is located in an approved geographic area.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of copies of the media content are encoded at the plurality of different quality levels according to a plurality of quality profiles, and wherein said performing the set of business rules comprises determining which of the plurality of quality profiles meets a maximum or minimum criterion for a parameter of the quality profile.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the maximum or minimum criterion is at least one of the following:

a maximum or minimum bit rate;

a maximum or minimum frame rate;

a maximum or minimum frame size;

a maximum or minimum image size; and

a maximum or minimum staging size.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein said performing the set of business rules comprises determining a subscription level for the client device using an identifier for the client device, wherein the subscription level specifies which of the plurality of copies, if any, can be played back on the client device.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein said determining comprises:

requesting the subscription level from a remote server; and

receiving the subscription level from the remote server at the server.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein said receiving comprises receiving a token key from the client device, and wherein said performing comprises validating the token, wherein the token specifies which of the plurality of copies, if any can be played back on the client device.

19. A server, comprising:

a computing device including,

a set of one or more network connections coupled to a public or private network; and

a rules engine coupled to receive a request over the set of network connections for playback permission of media content by a client device, wherein the media content is stored on a content server as a plurality of copies that are encrypted and encoded according to a plurality of different quality levels, wherein the media content is available for delivery over the network to the client device, and wherein the rules engine is configured to;

perform a set of one or more business rules using information of the request to determine which of the plurality of copies, if any, can be played back on the client device; and

based on results of the set of business rules, allow access to a subset of the plurality of copies that can be played back by the client device and restrict access to the copies of the plurality of copies that are not part of the subset, wherein the subset is less than all of the plurality of copies of the media content.

20. The server of claim 19, wherein the rules engine allows access by sending access information to the client device to allow playback of the subset of the plurality of copies on the client device and to prevent playback of the copies that are not part of the subset on the client device.

21. The server of claim 20, wherein the rules engine is coupled to a key data store that stores one or more encryption keys for the plurality of copies, and wherein the access information comprises an encryption key for each of the copies of the subset.

22. The server of claim 19, wherein the access information comprises:

a plurality of encryption keys to allow playback of the plurality of copies on the client device, wherein each of the plurality of copies is encoded using one of the plurality of encryption keys; and

instructions that prevent playback on the client device the copies that are not part of the subset.

23. The server of claim 19, wherein the access information controls the type of media content that can be played back on the client device

24. The server of claim 19, wherein the access information comprises:

a single encryption key that allows playback of all of the plurality of copies on the client device, wherein all of the plurality of copies are encoded using the single encryption key; and

instructions that prevent playback on the client device the copies that are not part of the subset.

25. The server of claim 24, wherein the wherein the instructions comprise at least one of the following:

instructions that specify which of the plurality of copies, if any, can be played back on the client device;

instructions that specify a minimum or maximum criterion that prevents playback of copies of the plurality of copies that do not meet the minimum or maximum criterion; and

instructions that specify a maximum duration of permitted playback of one or more of the plurality of copies.

26. The server of claim 19, wherein the request for playback permission comprises a key request for a key file identified by an identifier of the media content.

27. The server of claim 19, wherein the subset does not include one or more copies of the plurality of copies that have been encoded according to a higher quality level than the copies of the subset.

28. A machine-readable storage medium storing instruction thereon when executed by a computing device cause the computing device to perform a method, comprising:

receiving at the computing device a request for playback permission of media content by a client device, wherein the media content is stored on a content server as a plurality of copies that are encrypted and encoded according to a plurality of different quality levels;

using information of the request, performing a set of one or more business rules to determine which of the plurality of copies, if any, can be played back on the client device; and

based on said performing, controlling access to a subset of the plurality of copies that can be played back by the client device including restricting access to the copies of the plurality of copies that are not part of the subset, wherein the subset is less than all of the plurality of copies of the media content.

29. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 28, wherein said controlling access comprise sending from the server to the client device access information to allow playback of the subset of the plurality of copies on the client device and to prevent playback of the copies that are not part of the subset on the client device.

30. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 29, wherein the access information comprises an encryption key for each of the copies of the subset to allow playback of the subset of copies on the client device.

31. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 29, wherein the access information comprises:

a single encryption key that allows playback of all of the plurality of copies on the client device, wherein all of the plurality of copies are encoded using the single encryption key; and

instructions that prevent playback on the client device the copies that are not part of the subset.

32. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 31, wherein the instructions comprise at least one of the following:

instructions that specify which of the plurality of copies, if any, can be played back on the client device;

instructions that specify a minimum or maximum criterion that prevents playback of copies of the plurality of copies that do not meet the minimum or maximum criterion; and

instructions that specify a maximum duration of permitted playback of one or more of the plurality of copies.