Protecting content-stream portions from modification or removal

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10701040-B2
Application number	US-201615162423-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 23, 2016
Priority date	May 23, 2016
Publication date	Jun 30, 2020
Grant date	Jun 30, 2020

Abstract

Systems and methods are described to enable delivery of streaming content while inhibiting or preventing removal, blocking, or skipping of portions within that streaming content. A content delivery system can generate a manifest indicating content portions that form the streaming content. Each content portion can be identified in the manifest using a concealed identifier, which conceals the actual identifier of the content portion from the client to inhibit or prevent the client from automatically removing or modifying the content portion. On receiving a request for a content portion, the content delivery system can convert the concealed identifier into the actual identifier, and return the appropriate content portion to the client. In some instances, the specific identifiers included within a concealed manifest may be modified or adapted based on monitoring information of the client device, to ensure clients view given portions of streaming content.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system for providing streaming content in a manner that prevents portions of the streaming content from being blocked or removed, the system comprising:
a data store including:
a first set of content portions corresponding to a main content, the first set of content portions identified with files names according to a first naming scheme; and
a second set of content portions corresponding to an additional content, the second set of content portions identified with file names according to a second naming scheme; and

one or more computing devices configured with computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the computing devices to:
obtain a request from a client computing device to provide streaming content including the main content;
determine that the additional content is to be included in the streaming content;
generate a concealed manifest for the streaming content, wherein the concealed manifest identifies a plurality of content portions that form the streaming content, the plurality of content portions identified with an encrypted naming scheme, and wherein generating the concealed manifest includes:
encrypting the file names of the first set of content to result in a first set of encrypted file names;
encrypting the file names of the second set of content to result in a second set of encrypted file names; and
including the first and second set of encrypted file names in the concealed manifest, wherein the encrypted file names, as included within the concealed manifest in their encrypted forms and independently of encryption information used to generate the encrypted filed names, indicate an order of output of the first and second sets of content to form the streaming content;
transmit the concealed manifest to the client computing device, wherein the client computing device is configured to output the streaming content by retrieving and outputting content portions identified within the concealed manifest;
receive, from the client computing device, a request for a content portion identified according to an encrypted file name;
decrypt the encrypted file name to result in a decrypted file name;
determine that the decrypted file name identifies a content portion from the first set of content portions; and
transmit the content portion to the client computing device in response to the request.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the main content is at least one of audio, video, or textual content.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the additional content is at least one of a disclaimer, a warning, credits, a dedication, or an advertisement.

4. A computer-implemented method comprising:
receiving a request from a client computing device to provide streaming content;
determining a plurality of content portions to be included in the streaming content, wherein the plurality of content portions includes both a first set of content portions utilizing a first identification scheme and a second set of content portions utilizing a second identification scheme;
generating a concealed manifest for the streaming content, wherein generating the concealed manifest comprises:
generating concealed identifiers for the plurality of content portions, the concealed identifiers utilizing a common identification scheme that conceals identifiers of the first set of content portions and the second set of content portions; and
including the concealed identifiers within the concealed manifest, the concealed identifiers, as included in the concealed manifest in their concealed forms and independently of concealment information used to generate the concealed identifiers, indicating an order of output of the plurality of content portions to form the streaming content;
transmitting the concealed manifest to the client computing device to facilitate output of the streaming content by retrieval and output, at the client computing device, of the plurality of content portions identified within the concealed manifest; and
receiving, from the client computing device, a request for a content portion identified according to a concealed identifier;
converting the concealed identifier to an identifier of the first identification scheme;
determining a content portion of the first set of content portions corresponding to the identifier of the first identification scheme; and
transmitting the content portion to the client computing device in response to the request.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4 , wherein generating concealed identifiers for the plurality of content portions comprises encrypting identifiers of the first and second sets of content portions to result in the concealed identifiers for the plurality of content portions.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 4 , wherein generating concealed identifiers for the plurality of content portions comprises generating a mapping between identifiers of the first and second sets of content portions and concealed identifiers for the plurality of content portions included within the concealed manifest.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6 further comprising randomly generating the concealed identifiers for the plurality of content portions included within the concealed manifest.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 4 further comprising at least one of:
determining that the content portion corresponding to the identifier of the first identification scheme exists within a local cache and retrieving the content portion from the local cache; or
determining that the content portion corresponding to the identifier of the first identification scheme does not exist within a local cache and retrieving the content portion from a remote data store.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 4 further comprising:
receiving monitoring information regarding output of the streaming content on the client computing device;
determining a second plurality of content portions to be included in the streaming content based at least in part on the monitoring information;
generating an additional section of the concealed manifest at least partly by generating concealed identifiers for the second plurality of content portions utilizing the common identification scheme; and
transmitting the additional section of the concealed manifest to the client computing device.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 9 , wherein the second plurality of content portions correspond to a main content, and wherein determining a second plurality of content portions to be included in the streaming content based at least in part on the monitoring information comprises determining that the monitoring information indicates that the client computing device has output at least one advertisement formed by the second set of content portions.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 9 , wherein the second plurality of content portions and the second set of content portions are the same, and wherein determining a second plurality of content portions to be included in the streaming content based at least in part on the monitoring information comprises determining that the monitoring information indicates that the client computing device has not output at least one advertisement formed by the second set of content portions.

12. A system comprising:
a data store including a plurality of content portions, wherein the plurality of content portions are identified by identifiers according to at least two identification schemes; and
one or more computing devices configured with computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the computing devices to:
obtain a request from a client computing dev

Assignees

• Amazon Tech Inc

Inventors

• Watson Ryan F
• Howard Craig Wesley
• Truax Gregory Kenneth
• Zhang Alex Xiaoye

Classifications

• H04L65/762

  at the source  (reformatting of additional data in video distribution servers H04N21/2355) · CPC title

• H04L65/612

  for unicast · CPC title

• H04N21/4825

  using a list of items to be played back in a given order, e.g. playlists · CPC title

• G06F2221/2107

  File encryption · CPC title

• H04N21/26258

  for generating a list of items to be played back in a given order, e.g. playlist, or scheduling item distribution according to such list (retrieval of multimedia data based on playlists G06F16/40) · CPC title