Portable Device Content Blackout Enforcement via Location Entitlement

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Solution Overview

Problem

Content providers face challenges in effectively determining and enforcing user entitlement to video content across various devices, particularly due to geographical blackout restrictions, which are arbitrarily imposed and managed by content owners.

Innovation Solution

A system comprising a content delivery network, entitlement/key server, and authentication server that determines user entitlement based on location and blackout restrictions, using encryption key rotation and data structures to manage content access, allowing flexible imposition and removal of blackout restrictions.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If content providers implement blackout restrictions and subscription-based access controls, then content security and entitlement enforcement are improved, but system complexity increases due to multiple checks and data structures

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvecontent access control reliabilityVSAvoidentitlement determination system complexity

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The entitlement determination system is segmented into multiple independent checks: subscription level verification, geographical location validation, and blackout restriction evaluation. Each check operates independently and can be implemented as separate modules or data structure queries, making the complex system manageable and maintainable while ensuring comprehensive content access control.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The system performs entitlement checks before content delivery begins. By determining subscription level, location, and blackout status in advance, the system prevents unauthorized access without requiring complex real-time authentication during playback, thus improving reliability while managing system complexity through proactive rather than reactive control.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

2Measurement precision

If the system performs multiple entitlement checks (subscription level, location, blackout status), then content delivery flexibility and enforcement accuracy are improved, but processing time increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveentitlement determination accuracyVSAvoidentitlement check processing time

Core Design Contradiction:

Measurement precisionVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

Entitlement checks are performed in advance before content delivery initiates. By pre-determining subscription level, geographical eligibility, and blackout status, the system ensures accurate entitlement verification without delaying actual content playback, thus achieving high measurement precision while minimizing time loss during the critical content delivery phase.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The system performs all necessary entitlement checks (subscription verification, location validation, blackout status determination) comprehensively to ensure accurate content access control. While this may seem excessive, each check is a simple data structure query or logic evaluation that adds minimal processing time, and the collective accuracy is essential for proper content delivery flexibility and user experience.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #16Partial or excessive action

3Reliability

If the system uses encryption key rotation and multiple data structures to manage content access, then content security is improved, but device complexity and implementation difficulty increase

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvecontent securityVSAvoidsystem implementation ease

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSEase of manufacture

Solution Approach 1:

The security system is segmented into distinct functional components: subscription level data structures, geographical blackout data structures, and encryption key management. Each component handles a specific aspect of security independently, making the overall system easier to implement and maintain while ensuring comprehensive content protection through multiple layers of security checks.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The patent introduces intermediary data structures and validation layers between content requests and actual delivery. These intermediaries (entitlement determination modules, key management layers) simplify the implementation by providing standardized interfaces and abstraction, making the complex security mechanisms more manageable and easier to deploy without compromising content security.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

Data Source

PatentUS9258587B2Content blackout determinations for playback of video streams on portable devices

Publication Date: 2016.02.09 VERIZON PATENT & LICENSING INC

AI summary

Content, such as audio or video content, is streamed to portable devices based on an entitlement determination that includes determining the location of the portable device and whether the content is subject to blackout restrictions. In one implementation, requests may be received for content that is to be streamed to a portable device and a location of the portable device may be determined. Entitlements may be determined, where the entitlements define whether the content is permitted to be viewed by the portable device, where the entitlements are determined based at least on the indication of the location of the portable device and based on blackout restrictions applicable to the content. The content may be selectively streamed to the portable device based on the applicable blackout restrictions.