Patent · US Expired

Method and system for multimedia access control enablement

US5319705A · kind A · utility

790Cited by
8References
21Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateOct 21, 1992
Grant dateJun 7, 1994
Priority date
Expiry dateOct 21, 2012

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04L2209/605
  • WIPO fieldDigital communication
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A method and system are disclosed for securely distributing a plurality of software files from a software distribution processor to a user processor, while selectively enabling the user processor to only use a subset of a lesser plurality of the software files. This is achieved by employing a customer key which includes a clear customer number and a derived portion derived from the customer number. The customer key is transformed into a second customer key which serves as a key expression for encrypting a file encryption key specifically intended for a respective one of the plurality of files. A plurality of software files can be stored together, for example on a CD-ROM, with each file encrypted under a corresponding file encryption key. The CD-ROM can be distributed to many user processors. When a specific user processor needs to run one of the software files, a request will be transmitted from the user processor to the software distribution processor. In response to that request, an encrypted file encryption key specific for the requested file, will be transmitted to the user processor. This will enable the user processor to decrypt only the requested file from the CD-ROM. All ot…

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.