Economically secure digital mass media systems

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9305148-B2
Application number	US-201414193968-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 28, 2014
Priority date	Jun 3, 2004
Publication date	Apr 5, 2016
Grant date	Apr 5, 2016

Abstract

Content is encoded with a watermark that associates it with a particular consumer. When presented for playback, the rendering equipment examines the watermark to confirm that the consumer with whom the content is associated, is also the consumer with whom the equipment is associated. If there is no watermark—or if the watermark is associated with a different consumer, then playback is refused. The equipment also desirably checks whether the content has a second watermark (or even a very feeble remnant thereof), indicating that the content has been derived from content earlier provided to a different consumer. If so, playback is again refused. Thus, this embodiment will refuse to play if there is no watermark; if there is one watermark not associated with the proprietor of the equipment; or if there are two or more watermarks.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A system that determines whether electronic content should be disqualified for rendering, the system including a processor configured by instructions in memory, said instructions configuring the system to perform actions including:
decoding a first plural-bit digital watermark payload from the content, and determining that the first payload is consistent with reference data associated with an authorized consumer of the content;
decoding a second plural-bit digital watermark payload from the content; and
disqualifying the content for rendering, based on said decoding of the second plural-bit digital watermark payload from the content;
wherein said disqualifying occurs without regard to the payload of the second digital watermark, provided it is different than the payload of the first digital watermark.

2. The system of claim 1 in which the second plural-bit digital watermark has an energy less than that of the first plural-bit digital-bit watermark.

3. The system of claim 1 in which the second plural-bit digital watermark has an energy less than 0.01 times that of the first plural-bit digital-bit watermark.

4. The system of claim 1 in which the content is disqualified for rendering by a consumer's rendering device alone, without reference to a remote data source.

5. A non-transitory computer readable medium containing instructions for causing a processor-controlled system configured thereby to perform actions including:
decoding a first plural-bit digital watermark payload from electronic content, and determining that the first payload is consistent with reference data associated with an authorized consumer of the content;
decoding a second plural-bit digital watermark payload from the content; and
disqualifying the content for rendering, based on said decoding of the second plural-bit digital watermark payload from the content;
wherein said disqualifying occurs without regard to the payload of the second digital watermark, provided it is different than the payload of the first digital watermark.

6. The medium of claim 5 in which the second plural-bit digital watermark has an energy less than that of the first plural-bit digital-bit watermark.

7. The medium of claim 5 in which the second plural-bit digital watermark has an energy less than 0.01 times that of the first plural-bit digital-bit watermark.

8. The medium of claim 5 in which the content is disqualified for rendering by a consumer's rendering device alone, without reference to a remote data source.

9. A computer readable medium containing entertainment content data that has been encoded with first and second steganographic signals, a ratio of energy between the two steganographic signals being 100:1, or greater, at least one of said steganographic signals serving to impart a control functionality when employed in a device capable of acting on said signal.

10. The medium of claim 9 in which at least one of said steganographic signals acts to disable playback of the entertainment content data by said device.

11. The medium of claim 9 in which at least one of said steganographic signals is encoded in said entertainment content data by an asymmetric watermarking technique.

12. The medium of claim 9 in which said first and second steganographic signals collectively serve to impart a control functionality when employed in a device capable of acting on said signals.

13. The medium of claim 12 in which said first and second steganographic signals act to disable playback of the entertainment content data by said device.

Assignees

• Digimarc Corp

Inventors

• Rhoads Geoffrey B

Classifications

• G11B20/00086 Primary

  Circuits for prevention of unauthorised reproduction or copying, e.g. piracy (indicating unauthorised use of record carriers in general G11B23/28; scrambling for television signal recording H04N5/913; network architectures or network protocols for network security H04L63/00; cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for secret or secure communication H04L9/00) · CPC title

• G11B20/18

  Error detection or correction; Testing {, e.g. of drop-outs} · CPC title

• G06F21/16 Primary

  Program or content traceability, e.g. by watermarking · CPC title