Home Network DRM System for Secure Content Distribution
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current home media hubs and personal networks face challenges in protecting high-value digital content from unauthorized copying due to a lack of effective copy protection and digital rights management (DRM) enforcement, especially when content is distributed within the network.
Innovation Solution
A standards-based end-to-end DRM system that employs IP-encapsulated protocols to enforce DRM and copy protection rules, allowing content owners to securely distribute content while providing consumers with seamless access controls, using a system that translates and applies DRM rules across devices within a home network, including media servers and set-top boxes.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If content is distributed within a personal network, then accessibility and ease of operation are improved, but copy protection and DRM enforcement deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a DRM system as an intermediary layer between content sources and network devices. This intermediary manages encryption keys, authentication, and rights enforcement, allowing content to be distributed seamlessly across the network while maintaining security. The intermediary handles the complexity of DRM translation and enforcement automatically.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the DRM functionality into separate components: a DRM system that manages rights, individual devices that store and play content, and a network that facilitates distribution. This segmentation allows each component to be optimized independently - the network remains open and accessible while the DRM system maintains strict protection through distributed key management.
2Reliability
If DRM rules are enforced strictly, then content protection is improved, but device complexity and system complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements self-service DRM where individual devices automatically manage their own rights and keys without requiring centralized control or complex manual configuration. Each device independently stores its decryption keys and automatically enforces DRM rules when playing content, reducing the operational complexity burden on users while maintaining strong protection.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the parameters of DRM from centralized control to distributed key management. Instead of a single complex DRM system controlling everything, multiple simpler device-level systems manage local keys and rights. This parameter change reduces individual device complexity while collectively providing robust DRM enforcement across the network.
3Reliability
If copy protection is implemented, then content security is improved, but ease of manufacture and system implementation deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a universal DRM system that can be implemented across multiple device types and network configurations using standardized protocols. The same DRM infrastructure serves content distribution, device authentication, key management, and rights enforcement, eliminating the need for separate protection mechanisms for each function and simplifying implementation.
Data Source
AI summary
The systems disclosed here provide a complete standards-based end-to-end scalable system for storage, delivery and in-home distribution of digital content over IP networks using standard protocols such as Real-time Transport Protocol (“RTP”) or IP-encapsulated MPEG-2 Transport Stream, or traditional MPEG-2 networks. Mechanisms are provided for receiving content from one security domain, re-encrypting that content uniquely for a receiving device, persistently storing that content, and playing back that content at a later time to and within another security domain. The systems also provide the ability to stream the persistently-stored content from the initial receiving device to another device that has been authenticated as part of a, e.g., home network. This allows a media server, e.g., a dual-tuner set-top box (“STB”) with hard drive, to deliver recorded content to any TV in the house by streaming to media clients such as STBs.