Reprogrammable security for controlling piracy and enabling interactive content

US8055910B2 · 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: Jul 7, 2004
• Grant date: Nov 8, 2011
• Expiry date: Dec 24, 2024

Classification

• Technology area (CPC H): Electricity
• CPC primary: H04N2005/91364
• WIPO field: Audio-visual technology
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

Technologies to transfer responsibility and control over security from player makers to content authors by enabling integration of security logic and content. An exemplary optical disk (200) 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 (225), access secure non-volatile storage, submit data to CODECs for output (250), 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.