Self-protecting digital content

US7984511B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• Rovi Solutions Corporation · US

Inventors

• Paul C. Kocher · Menlo Park, US
• Joshua M. Jaffe · San Francisco, US
• Benjamin Che-Ming Jun · Oakland, US
• Carter C. Laren · San Leandro, US
• Peter Pearson · Capitola, US
• Nathaniel J. Lawson · Oakland, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Oct 31, 2007
• Grant date: Jul 19, 2011
• Expiry date: Jun 26, 2028

Classification

• Technology area (CPC H): Electricity
• CPC primary: H04N2005/91342
• WIPO field: Audio-visual technology
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

Technologies are disclosed to transfer responsibility and control over security from player makers to content authors by enabling integration of security logic and content. An exemplary optical disc carries an encrypted digital video title combined with data processing operations that implement the title's security policies and decryption processes. Player devices include a processing environment (e.g., a real-time virtual machine), which plays content by interpreting its processing operations. Players also provide procedure calls to enable content code to load data from media, perform network communications, determine playback environment configurations, access secure nonvolatile storage, submit data to CODECs for output, and/or perform cryptographic operations. Content can insert forensic watermarks in decoded output for tracing pirate copies. If pirates compromise a player or title, future content can be mastered with security features that, for example, block the attack, revoke pirated media, or use native code to correct player vulnerabilities.