Systems and methods for conditional access and digital rights management

Abstract

Conditional access (CA) and digital rights management (DRM) in digital media delivery, processing, and storage systems. Methods and apparatuses are provided for managing digital rights under the protection of multiple CA and/or DRM systems. Some embodiments provide secure and robust methods for bridging multiple DRM systems in the digital media content distribution and playback systems. The present invention simplifies content repurposing, after it has been bridged to a secondary DRM system, but still under the control of the original DRM system.

1 - 74 . (canceled) 
     
     
         75 . A non-transitory machine readable medium comprising machine executable program instructions which, when executed by a data processing system, cause the data processing system to perform a method for enabling future repurposing of a media originated from an original digital rights management system while passed through a bridge to be under the protection of a secondary digital rights management system, the method comprising:
 receiving and decrypting a media protected by the original digital rights management system and its associated license, by a client of the original digital rights management system in the bridge;   encrypting and delivering the media protected by the secondary digital rights management system, by a server of the secondary digital rights management system in the bridge;   creating and associating a secondary digital rights management license to the media protected by the secondary digital rights management system, based on the rights defined in the license of the original digital rights management system; and   generating and appending to the media, license renewal data secured by the original digital rights management system for the purpose of enabling a future upgrade of the secondary digital rights management license by an upgrade server of the secondary digital rights management system.   
     
     
         76 . The non-transitory machine readable medium of  claim 75 , wherein the bridge includes a client of the original digital rights management digital rights management system and the server of the secondary digital rights management system, and wherein the original digital rights management system comprises a conditional access system and wherein the upgrade server is different from the bridge. 
     
     
         77 . The non-transitory machine readable medium of  claim 75 , wherein a portion of the license renewal data are not decryptable by the secondary digital rights management system, and wherein some of the license renewal data comprise at least one of data identifying a location of a preferred secondary digital rights management update server for a client of the second digital rights management system to send the license upgrade request, subscriber identification data, device identification data, media identification data, targeted digital rights management client data, schedule data, or data for a digital rights management update server to retrieve a key for the media. 
     
     
         78 . The non-transitory machine readable medium of  75 , wherein upgrading the secondary digital rights management license comprises at least one of extending a lifetime of the license, enabling new rights, enabling new exports, enabling move operation or restoration operation to another machine, or any combination thereof. 
     
     
         79 . The non-transitory machine readable medium of  claim 75 , wherein a license upgrade by the secondary digital rights management system upgrade server is conditioned on an authorization from the original digital rights management system based on the appended license renewal data and a billing system that is configured to authorize the upgrading of the media access to the secondary digital rights management system. 
     
     
         80 . The non-transitory machine readable medium of  75 , wherein a location, in the license renewal data, of a preferred secondary digital rights management upgrade server for a client of the second digital rights management system to send a license upgrade request, identifies a remote upgrade server different from the bridge. 
     
     
         81 . The non-transitory machine readable medium of  75 , wherein the original digital rights management system comprises at least one of a server sending the media, and a separate billing or upgrade server of the original digital rights management system. 
     
     
         82 . A method for enabling future repurposing a media originated from an original digital rights management system while passed through a bridge to be under the protection of a secondary digital rights management system, the method comprising:
 receiving and decrypting a media protected by the original digital rights management system and its associated license, by a client of the original digital rights management system in the bridge;   encrypting and delivering the media protected by the secondary digital rights management system, by a server of the secondary digital rights management system in the bridge;   creating and associating a secondary digital rights management license to the media protected by the secondary digital rights management system, based on the rights defined in the license of the original digital rights management system; and   generating and appending to the media, license renewal data secured by the original digital rights management system for the purpose of enabling a future upgrade of the secondary digital rights management license by an upgrade server of the secondary digital rights management system.   
     
     
         83 . The method of  claim 82 , wherein the bridge includes a client of the original digital rights management digital rights management system and the server of the secondary digital rights management system, and wherein the original digital rights management system comprises a conditional access system and wherein the upgrade server is different than the bridge. 
     
     
         84 . The method of  claim 82 , wherein the license renewal data are not decryptable by the secondary digital rights management system, and wherein some of the license renewal data comprise at least one of data identifying a location of a preferred secondary digital rights management update server for a client of the second digital rights management system to send the license upgrade request, subscriber identification data, device identification data, media identification data, targeted digital rights management client data, schedule data, or data for a digital rights management update server to retrieve a key for the media. 
     
     
         85 . The method of  claim 82  wherein upgrading the secondary digital rights management license comprises at least one of extending a lifetime of the license, enabling new rights, enabling new exports, enabling move operation or restoration operation to another machine, or any combination thereof. 
     
     
         86 . The method of  claim 82 , wherein a license upgrade by the secondary digital rights management system upgrade server is conditioned on an authorization from the original digital rights management system based on the appended license renewal data and a billing system that is configured to authorize the upgrading of the media access to the secondary digital rights management system. 
     
     
         87 . The method of  claim 82 , wherein a location, in the license renewal data, of a preferred secondary digital rights management upgrade server for a client of the second digital rights management system to send a license upgrade request, identifies a remote upgrade server different from the bridge. 
     
     
         88 . The method of  claim 82  wherein the original digital rights management system for the communication comprises at least one of a server sending the media, and a separate billing or upgrade server of the original digital rights management system. 
     
     
         89 . A non-transitory machine readable medium comprising machine executable program instructions which, when executed by a data processing system, cause the data processing system to perform a method for repurposing a media originated from an original digital rights management system and passed through a bridge to be under the protection of a secondary digital rights management system, the method comprising:
 receiving a license upgrade request, by a first server of the secondary digital rights management system, with license renewal data, wherein the license renewal data have been previously created and secured, through encryption and authentication by the original digital rights management system and have been previously added to the media by the bridge at the time the media was issued to the secondary digital rights management system;   receiving, by the first server of the secondary digital rights management system, an authorization to upgrade the secondary digital rights management license, wherein the authorization is provided from the original digital rights management system based on the license renewal data; and   upgrading, by the first server of the secondary digital rights management system, the secondary digital rights management license based on the authorization to provide upgraded rights to access the media from the secondary digital rights management system.   
     
     
         90 . The non-transitory machine readable medium of  claim 89 , wherein the bridge comprises a client of the original digital rights management system and a second server of the secondary digital rights management system, and wherein the original digital rights management system comprises a conditional access system. 
     
     
         91 . The non-transitory machine readable medium of  claim 89 , wherein the license renewal data are not decryptable by the secondary digital rights management system, and wherein some of the license renewal data comprise at least one of data identifying a location of a preferred secondary digital rights management update server for a client of the second digital rights management system to send the license upgrade request, subscriber identification data, device identification data, media identification data, targeted digital rights management client data, schedule data, or data for a digital rights management update server to retrieve a key for the media. 
     
     
         92 . The non-transitory machine readable medium of  89 , wherein upgrading the secondary digital rights management license comprises at least one of extending a lifetime of the license, enabling new rights, enabling new exports, enabling move operation or restoration operation to another machine, or any combination thereof. 
     
     
         93 . The non-transitory machine readable medium of  claim 89 , wherein the authorization from the original digital rights management system is provided by a billing system that is configured to authorize the upgrading of the media for access in the secondary digital rights management system. 
     
     
         94 . The non-transitory machine readable medium of  89  further comprising instructions which cause the data processing system to perform operations comprising sending, by the first server of the secondary digital rights management system, a request for the authorization comprising the license renewal data to the original digital rights management system, wherein the first server of the secondary digital rights management system is a remote upgrade server different from the bridge. 
     
     
         95 . The non-transitory machine readable medium of  89 , wherein the original digital rights management system comprises at least one of a server sending the media, and a separate billing or upgrade server of the original digital rights management system.