New pending patent applications are published on Thursdays. Both of today's Spotlight Applications concern aspects of digital rights management. Assigned to Adrea, the first application discloses an electronic book security and copyright protection system. Assigned to Microsoft, the second application discloses techniques for media decoding control with hardware-protected digital rights management.
20160070889, "Electronic book security and copyright protection system," assigned to Adrea, LLC
Abstract
The invention, electronic book security and copyright protection system, provides for secure distribution of electronic text and graphics to subscribers and secure storage. The method may be executed at a content provider's site, at an operations center, over a video distribution system or over a variety of alternative distribution systems, at a home subsystem, and at a billing and collection system. The content provider or operations center and/or other distribution points perform the functions of manipulation and secure storage of text data, security encryption and coding of text, cataloging of books, message center, and secure delivery functions. The home subsystem connects to a secure video distribution system or variety of alternative secure distribution systems, generates menus and stores text, and transacts through communicating mechanisms. A portable book-shaped viewer is used for secure viewing of the text. A billing system performs the transaction, management, authorization, collection and payments utilizing the telephone system or a variety of alternative communication systems using secure techniques.20160070887, "Media decoding control with hardware-protected digital rights management," assigned to Microsoft.
Abstract
Innovations in the area of hardware-protected digital rights management ("DRM") systems are presented. For example, a hardware-protected DRM system includes a trusted layer and untrusted layer. In the untrusted layer, a control module receives source media data that includes encrypted media data. The control module processes metadata about the media data. The metadata, possibly exposed by a module in the trusted layer, is not opaque within the untrusted layer. In the trusted layer, using key data, a module decrypts encrypted media data, which can be the encrypted media data from the source media data or a transcrypted version thereof. A module in the trusted layer decodes the decrypted media data. A host decoder in the untrusted layer uses the metadata to manage at least some aspects of the decoding, rendering and display in the trusted layer, without exposure of decrypted media data or key data within the untrusted layer.
