Managing Rights Management

NXM Labs and CenturyLink Blockchain and DRM Patent Applications

New pending patent applications are published by the USPTO on Thursdays. Today's Spotlight Applications continue the theme of blockchain (distributed ledger, smart contracts) and digital rights management broadly construed. Assigned to NXM Labs, the first application discloses techniques for utilizing connected devices to enable secure and anonymous electronic interaction in a decentralized manner. Assigned to CenturyLink, the second application discloses techniques for implementing scaling and distribution of blockchains without ledger limitations.

BofA and Amazon Blockchain and DRM Patents

New patents are issued by the USPTO on Tuesday's. This week's Spotlight Patents continue the theme of blockchain (distributed ledger, smart contracts) and digital rights management broadly construed. Assigned to BofA, the first patent addresses techniques for for establishing secure access for users in a process data network. Assigned to Amazon, the second patent addresses techniques for signature delegation.

Xerox and Forcepoint Blockchain and DRM Patents

New patents are issued by the USPO on Tuesdays. Both of today's Spotlight Patents concern aspects of blockchain(distributed ledger, smart contracts) and digital rights management broadly construed. Assigned to Xerox, today's first patent addresses techniques for a secure revisioning auditing system for electronic document files. Assigned to Forcepoint, the second patent addresses techniques for managing blockchain access to user profile information.

Papirys and Verizon Blockchain and DRM Patents

New patents are issued by the USPTO on Tuesdays. Both of today's Spotlight Patents continue the theme of blockchain (distributed ledger, smart contracts) and digital rights management broadly construed. Assigned to Papirys, the first patent addresses techniques for an ultra-secure blockchain-based electronic information transfer system. Assigned to Verizon, the second patent addresses techniques for using virtual subscriber identity modules (vSIMs) for client devices.

Walmart and Seqster PDM Blockchain and DRM Patent Applications

New pending patent applications are published on Thursdays. Both of today's Spotlight Applications continue the theme of blockchain (distributed ledger, smart contracts) and digital rights management broadly construed.

FutureLab Consulting and Northern Trust Blockchain and DRM Patent Applications

New pending patent applications are published on Thursdays. We continue the theme of blockchain (distributed ledger, smart contracts) and digital rights management broadly construed. The first of this week's Spotlight Applications is assigned to FutureLab Consulting and discloses techniques for managing intellectual property using a blockchain which may include one or more elements which forms a comprehensive foundation for an eco-system for innovation and intellectual property management. Assigned to Northern Trust, the second application discloses techniques for digital identity management and permission controls within distributed network node.

Fidelity and Black Gold Coin Blockchain and DRM Patent Applications

New pending patent applications are published on Thursdays. Both of today's Spotlight Applications concern aspects of blockchain (distributed ledger, smart contracts) and digital rights management broadly construed. Assigned to Fidelity (FMR), the first application discloses techniques for a secure firmware transaction signing platform. Assigned to Black Gold Coin, Inc., the second application discloses techniques for providing block chain or distributed ledger-based entity identity and relationship verification.

Two Intertrust Technologies DRM Patents

Both of this week's Spotlight Patents concern aspects of digital rights management and both are assigned to Intertrust Technologies. The first patent addresses software self-checking mechanisms for improving software tamper resistance and/or reliability. The second patent addresses techniques for managing and protecting electronic content and applications.

Madisetti et al and Ripple Blockchain and DRM Patents

New patents are are issued by the USPTO on Tuesdays. This week we continue the theme of blockchain (distributed ledger, smart contracts) and digital rights management broadly construed. The first of this week's Spotlight Patents is apparently assigned to the inventors (there seems to be a strong Georgia Tech connection) and addresses techniques for operating secure digital management aware applications. Assigned to Ripple (Luxembourg), the second patent addresses techniques for determining that results produced from executions of software have not been altered or falsified.

IBM and Forcepoint Blockchain and DRM Patents

For this week's Spotlight Patents, continue with the theme of blockchain (distributed ledger) and digital rights management, broadly construed. Assigned to IBM, the first of this week's patents addresses techniques for a drone used for authentication and authorization for restricted access via an electronic lock. Assigned to Forcepoint, the second patent addresses techniques for generating a cyber behavior profile.

Moog and Electric Motor Werks Blockchain and DRM Patent Applications

New pending patent applications are published by the USPTO on Thursdays. We continue with the theme of blockchain (distributed ledger) and digital rights management broadly construed. Assigned to Moog, Inc., the first of today's Spotlight Applications discloses techniques for the verification and authentication of additive manufactured product. Assigned to Electric Motor Werks, the second application discloses techniques for enabling automatic management of power loads and power generation based on user-specified set of rules

Two Intertrust DRM Patents

New patents are issued by the USPTO on Tuesdays. Both of today's Spotlight Patents concern aspects of digital rights management and both are assigned to Intertrust Technologies. The first patent addresses techniques for vehicle policy enforcement. The second patent addresses techniques that use tag authentication and presence verification techniques in connection with a variety of transactions.

Samsung and Kaspersky DRM Patents

New patents are issued by the USPTO on Tuesdays including holidays such as the 4th of July. Both of this week's Spotlight Patents concern aspects of digital rights management. Assigned to Samsung, the first patent addresses techniques for transmitting and receiving message for downloadable CAS [Conditional Access System] or DRM in MMT. Assigned to Kaspersky Labs (RU), the second patent addresses techniques for controlling opening of files by vulnerable applications.

Intel and Microsoft DRM Patents

New patents are issued by the USPTO on Tuesdays. Both of today's Spotlight Patents concern aspects of digital rights management. Assigned to Intel, the first patent addresses techniques for platform-hardened digital rights management key provisioning. Assigned to Microsoft, the second patent addresses techniques for media decoding control with hardware-protected digital rights management.

BofA and Microsoft Digital Fingerprinting Patents

New patents are issued on Tuesdays by the USPTO. Both of today's Spotlight Patents concern aspects of digital fingerprinting. Assigned to Bank of America, the first patent addresses techniques for secure data containers. Assigned to Microsoft, the second patents addresses techniques for automated multimedia content recognition.

Intertrust and Toshiba DRM Patents

New patents are issued by the USPTO on Tuesdays. Both of today's Spotlight Patents concern aspects of digital rights management. Assigned to Intertrust, the first patent addresses techniques using cryptography to protect secure computing environments. Assigned to Toshiba, the second patent addresses techniques for transmitting content items.

Geenee and BofA digital Fingerprinting Patents

New patents are issued by the PTO on Tuesdays. Both of today's Spotlight Patents concern aspects of digital fingerprinting. Assigned to Geenee UG (DE), the first patent addresses techniques for image-feature-based recognition. Assigned to BofA, the second patent addresses techniques for device registration using device fingerprints.

Two Intertrust Digital Watermarking Patent Applications

New pending patent applications are published by the PTO on Thursdays. Both of today's Spotlight Applications concern aspects of digital watermarking and both are assigned to Intertrust Technologies. The first application discloses ways of encoding and protecting data using digital signature and watermarking techniques. The second application discloses software self-checking systems and methods.

Intel and Cisco DRM Patent Applications

Thursdays the PTO publishes new pending patent applications. Both of today's Spotlight Applications concern aspects of digital rights management. Assigned to Intel, the first application discloses a digital rights management (DRM) locker. Assigned to Cisco, the second application discloses techniques for plaintext injection attack protection.

SRI and Microsoft Digital Fingerprinting Patents

The PTO issues new patents on Tuedays. This week's Spotlight Patents concern aspects of digital fingerprinting. Assigned to SRI International, the first patent addresses techniques for content-based matching of videos using local spatio-temporal fingerprints. Assigned to Microsoft, the second patent addresses techniques for security mechanism for developmental operating systems.

Intertrust and Philips DRM Patents

Tuesday the PTO issues new patents. Both of today's Spotlight Patents concerns aspects of digital rights management. Assigned to Intertrust Technologies, the first patent addresses an integrated, modular array of administrative and support services for electronic commerce and electronic rights and transaction management. Assigned to Philips (NL), the second patent addresses techniques for digital rights management, in which access to a piece of content is granted in accordance with a license owned by a license owner to a client who is a member of a domain.

IBM and ATT Digital Watermarking Patents

Tuesdays the Patent Office issues new patents. Both of today's Spotlight Patents concern aspects of digital watermarking. Assigned to IBM, the first patent addresses techniques for virtual world embedded security watermarking. Assigned to AT&T, the second patent addresses techniques for using third-party watermarks.

Intertrust and Verance Watermarking Patent Applications

Thursdays the Patent Office publishes new pending patent applications. Both of today's Spotlight Applications concern aspects of digital watermarking. Assigned to Intertrust, the first application discloses techniques for software self-checking. Assigned to Verance, the second application discloses techniques for the extraction of embedded watermarks from a host content based on extrapolation techniques.

DigitalQuick

I've started using DigitalQuick from Fasoo (a spinout from Samsung). Very smart guys. App addresses a problem that's kept me off the cloud.

Two Apple Security-Related Patent Applications

On Thursdays the USPTO publishes new pending patent applications. Both of today's Spotlight Applications concern aspects of security and encryption and both are assigned to Apple. The first application discloses techniques for counteracting memory tracing on computing systems by code obfuscation. The second application discloses techniques for implementing block cipher algorithms on attacker-controlled systems.

Amazon and HP DRM Patents

On Tuesdays the UPSTO issues new patents. Both of today's Spotlight Patents concern aspects of digital rights management.  Assigned to Amazon, the first patent addresses techniques for controlling use of computing-related resources by multiple independent parties. Assigned to HP, the second patent addresses techniques for secure loading, integrity checking of the runtime image and control over the runtime execution of applications.

Affine Systems and Navy Fingerprinting Patent Applications

On Thursdays the USPTO publishes new pending patent applications. Both of today's Spotlight Applications concern aspects of digital fingerprinting. Assigned to Affine Systems, the first application discloses techniques for matching an advertisement to a video. Assigned to the Secretary of the Navy, the second application discloses for radio-frequency fingerprinting as a security layer in RFID devices.

Apple and McAfee Software Obfuscation-related Patent Applications

On Thursdays the USPTO publishes new pending patent applications. Both of todays Spotlight Applications concern aspects of software obsfucation as a security technique. Assigned to Apple, the first application discloses techniques for software data reference obfuscation. Assigned to McAfee, the second application discloses techniques for obfuscated malware detection.

Intertrust and Nokia DRM Patents

On Tuesdays the USPTO publishes new patents. Both of today's Spotlight Patents address aspects of DRM and information security. Assigned to Intertrust, the first patent concerns techniques that use cryptography to protect secure and insecure computing environments. Assigned to Nokia, the second patent concerns techniques for sharing of content protected by digital rights management.

Three DRM-Related Patents From InterTrust Technologies

Tuesdays the USPTO issues new patents. Three InterTrust DRM-related patents issued today, and rather than choosing two of them, today's Spotlight Patents note all three. The first concerns techniques for software self-checking. The second concerns techniques for using cryptography to protect secure computing environments. The third concerns techniques for managing the distribution of electronic content.

Vanishing Act

The NYTimes article on reports on the work of University of Washington computer scientists on "self-destructing messages."

Vanish uses a key-based encryption system in a different way, making it possible for a decrypted message to be automatically re-encrypted at a specified point in the future without fear that a third party will be able to gain access to the key needed to read the message.

The pieces of the key, small numbers, tend to “erode” over time as they gradually fall out of use. To make keys erode, or timeout, Vanish takes advantage of the structure of a peer-to-peer file system. Such networks are based on millions of personal computers whose Internet addresses change as they come and go from the network. This would make it exceedingly difficult for an eavesdropper or spy to reassemble the pieces of the key because the key is never held in a single location. The Vanish technology is applicable to more than just e-mail or other electronic messages. Tadayoshi Kohno, a University of Washington assistant professor who is one of Vanish’s designers, said Vanish makes it possible to control the “lifetime” of any type of data stored in the cloud, including information on Facebook, Google documents or blogs. In addition to Mr. Kohno, the authors of the paper, "Vanish: Increasing Data Privacy with Self-Destructing Data," include Roxana Geambasu, Amit A. Levy and Henry M. Levy.

In a posting on Dave Farber's Interesting Persons list, Ed Garek observes:

Congratulations on the NYT article. However, the significant point of using a trust model that does not depend on the integrity of third parties is not new, while relying on a peer-to-peer network for "key hiding" is by itself an unsolved problem today (both technically and commercially). The free "Zmail Basic" listed in "Ten Free Services To Send Self-Destructing Emails Which Expire/Disappear Automatically After Specified Time Interval" ... also uses a trust model that does not depend on the integrity of third parties but the novelty there is that keys are not stored anywhere (each dialogue party holds a part of it), and uses a system of "minority control" to allow independent destruction of the capability to reassemble the entire key.

The BD+ Cat and Mouse Game: Advantage BD+

The programmable security technology used by Fox and more recently Paramount to protect theatrically released films on Blu-ray discs represents an important step forward over previous security technologies, such as the quickly broken CSS for DVDs and AACS encryption key management used on the now dead HD-DVD and on Blu-ray. Although no security technology is perfect, BD+ is an important advance because the programming can be modified in response to successfull cracks. 

There has always been a cat and mouse game between security technologies of all kinds and those who seek to break them. Each side learns from the others successes and failures and improves their defense and offense accordingly. Postings on Slashdot  and the Slysoft website report that there are now at least 19 Blu-ray releases that have not yet been broken.

It appears that the least powerful forms of BD+ were used first in order to determine how crackers / hackers would attack the security system. Having been through several iterations, it seems that the level of security has been upgraded on the newer offerings.

AACS-LA Changes Licensing Terms

As noted earlier, the International Digital Media Alliance (nee the DVD Association)  have been lobbying the AACS licensing authority to reduce fees to accommodate smaller companies. Now the H-Security site reports that AACSLA has reduced fees.

 The Advanced Access Content System Licensing Administrator (AACS LA) has reduced the licence fees for its mandatory AACS copy protection for Blu-ray Discs. The new scale of charges is primarily intended to benefit small studios and pressing companies that have yet to release any Blu-ray versions of their films due to the high cost.

Licensees no longer need to make a one-off payment of $3,000 for a Provider Agreement. Instead they pay $500 annually and can terminate their contract with the AACS LA at any time. The licence fee for a glass master used for producing a film disc has also been reduced from $1,300 to $500.

AACS Interim License Agreement Expiring?

Tyler Pruitt points out that the AACS-LA interim licensing agreement expires on February 27th. AACS is one of the security standards used in Blu-ray discs and players (and in the now defunct HD-DVD format).

The thing that makes this important is the much lauded “Managed Copy” technology specifications are set to be finalized in the AACS Final Licensing Agreement. Managed Copy on Blu-ray will enable users to keep a HD quality copy of their movies on a central home server type device. This feature could be a killer app for the Windows Home Server market.

So will the market demand "Managed Copy"? Will the MPAA studios insistent on "Managed Copy"?

Stay tuned.

Macrovision (MSVN), Blu-ray, and BD+

Macrovision held it's quarterly earnings call for analysts and investors on Tuesday. Here are a few selected excerpts from different parts of the transcript that deal with BD+ security for Blu-ray discs and players and the uptake of Blu-ray players in the marketplace.

In other category, while we expect to see fairly linear growth, we do expect the fourth quarter will be the strongest, assuming we are successful at broadening our licensing of BD Plus to the MPA studios. Adding it all up, we expect approximately 53% to 55% of our 2009 annual revenue coming in the second half, similar to our adjusted pro forma revenue weightings in 2007 and 2008....

BD+ Broken Yet Again

As many news outlets (e.g., CDRInfo, ) have noted, the latest version of BD+, the virtual machine based software that protects movies and games on Blu-ray discs.  The cat and mouse game continues.

Blu-ray BD+ Resealed, At Least For A While

Slashdot, Engadget, and others are reporting that there are now at least 16 Blu-ray titles that cannot be cracked by SlySoft because of updated / upgraded BD+ programming on the optical disc. The Engadget article also presents a useful BD+ architecture drawing.

As I've noted earlier, the BD+ VM-based programmable security technology can be adapted to particular attacks. I would not surprise me if the weakest implementation was put out there originally as a kind of "honey pot" to see the kinds of attacks pirates used. Having done that, it's not surprising that BD+ has been resealed. This "cat and mouse game" will go on indefinetely.

Blu-ray Piracy

The WSJ is reporting (subscription require) that pirates in Asia are providing high-quality copies of films released on Blu-ray discs.

Pirates are taking advantage of the fact that many viewers can't tell the difference
between Hollywood's new high-definition, higher-priced Blu-ray movie format
and a bootleg format -- called AVCHD -- that's a grade lower: AVCHD uses 720
horizontal lines of resolution instead of Blu-ray's 1,080, but still offers a sharper
picture than an ordinary DVD on high-definition television sets.

What Does AACS Teach Us About the DMCA?

My Google Alerts filter found a blogicle on the DMCA penned by Zach Powell, a third year law student at the University of Richmond (VA) School of Law (posted semi-anonymously, I have his permission to use his name).  Written for Prof. Chris Cotropia's copyright law class blog, Powell posted a longish note regarding the AACS encryption scheme for Blu-ray discs (and previously for HD-DVD before its demise).

After providing a decent review of the brief history of AACS and the DMCA, including takedown notices under the latter, Powell concludes as follows:

BD+ Broken Again

CDRInfo and numerous other sites are reporting that the programmable security component of Blu-ray, BD+, has been broken again. In addition to software company Slysoft, a group of independent hackers have claimed success:

Slysoft is not the only company famous for its copy protection circumventions. According to some threads in forums like Doom9, there ios also another tool that bypasses the BD+ protection. A Doom9 member named 'Oopho2ei' discovered the way to bypass the BD+ code while it is running in a Java-VM. "I am glad to announce the first successful restoration of the BD+ protected movie "The Day After Tomorrow" in linux," the user wrote in a forum thread. "It was done using a Blu-ray drive with patched firmware (to get the volume id), DumpHD to decrypt the contents according to the AACS specification and the BDVM debugger from this thread to generate the conversion table. The conversion table is the key information to successfully repair all the broken parts in m2ts files to restore the original video content," the used added.

On Tuesdays the USPTO issues new patents. Today's Spotlight Patents concern rights management. Assigned to Sony, the first patent concerns techniques for encoding copyright management on a CD-ROM. Assigned to Intarsia Software, the second patent concerns techniques for controlling database copyrights.

ATI and Samsung Copy Protection Issued Patents

On Tuesdays the USPTO issues new patents. Today's Spotlight Patents deal with aspects of video copy protection in analog and analog/digital video. Assigned to ATI Technologies, the first patent concerns the detection of copy protection indicators or redistribution control indicators in an analog video signal. Assigned to Samsung, the second patent concerns A/D conversion without eliminating copy protection signals.

Intel Added to List of Blu-ray BD+ Developers

The Blu-ray BD+ licensing authority maintains a list of BD+ adopters. BD+ is the virtual machine-based programmable security component of the Blu-ray security architecture.

Since I last checked, four companies have been added to the list of adopters: Intel, Lite-On IT Corp., MIT Technology, and Quatius Ltd. have been added to the list of BD+ adopters. One company has apparently been deleted: Cheertek Inc.

Fox remains the only studio publicly listed as a content participant.

The Ins and Outs of Blu-ray Disc Replication and Licensing

eMediaLive has another great posting on the economics of Blu-ray licensing fees, this time written by Hugh Bennett. The topics covered include manufacturing costs and licensing fees for the two security and copy protection technologies: AACS renewable encryption and the BD+ programmable security, which is summarized in Bennett's table:

 

Two Issued Patents From Intertrust

On Tuesdays the USPTO issues new patents. Both of today's Spotlight Patents are assigned to Intertrust and address various aspects of security. The first patent concerns software self-defense systems and methods. The inventors include computer science stars such as Bob Tarjan. The second patent concerns a hardware secure processing unit (SPU).

Macrovision Conference Call: BD+ Security

Macrovision's quarterly earnings call was held last Thursday afternoon. In the Q/A following the standard presentation of results and management's comments, Sasa Zorovic, who covers Macrovision for Goldman Sachs, asked about BD+ security for Blu-ray.

Here's a rough transcript of that portion of the call. "2C" refers to the BD+ licensing authority, BDPlusLLC. ECD refers to an "Elgible Code Developer" license (tracked most recently here).

Q (from Sasa Zorovic, Goldman): …and could you give us an update regarding BD+ and what your expectations are as we’re going into the 4th quarter with it?

A (CEO Fred Amoroso): Sure. So, BD+, or SPDC, there’s a couple of nuances, and I’ll apologize now if I get a little more detailed than maybe you’ve asked for, Sasha, but let me describe it. We’re seeing increasing progress on the ability to have Blu-ray adopted as a DVD medium Hi-Def. Secondly, we’re seeing signs that there will be lower cost Blu-ray players in the market by the Christmas shopping season, so that will improve consumer take-up. If you look at NetFlix, for example, while Netflix has over 100,000 DVDs, they’ve increased fairly substantially—still small numbers—but increased fairly substantially the percentage of Blu-ray DVDs that they have. I think they have over 700 now. So we’re generally seeing positive industry trends on a macro level.

What's Up With CH DVD, Blu-Ray, BD+

Writing on FormatWarCentral, Mehar Gill has a useful article on the Chinese DVD format, CH DVD and a potential battle with Blu-ray. Drawing in part on a ZDNET China article, Gill says:

[The ZDNet article takes] the opportunity to talk about Blu-ray and BD+ by stating it may slow down the physical portion of piracy but not the online portion. If history “repeats” itself I guess pirates will start downloading Blu-ray/HD DVD/CBHD rips and burn them to said discs. CBHD corporation is also giving people the ability to download and burn the discs themselves, they do this buying ordering the copy of the movie through a special “line” and burning the file to a CBHD.

Backdooring Skype

[tip o' the hat to Dave Farber's IP list] Speculation abounds that Skype has incorporated backdoors so that national security agencies can listen in on Skype calls. So much for privacy.

An article posted by Daniel AJ Sokolov on the heise security site says in part:

At a meeting with representatives of ISPs and the Austrian regulator on lawful interception of IP based services held on 25th June, high-ranking officials at the Austrian interior ministry revealed that it is not a problem for them to listen in on Skype conversations.

Another Layer of Security for Blu-ray?

AfterDawn has noticed a June 9th announcement on the site of the DVD Association regarding another layer of security for Blu-ray discs from German DRM firm X-PROTECT. Augmenting AACS renewable encryption and BD+ programmable security,

X-PROTECT blueTM is of no impact to the end- consumer and works on both HDMV and BD-J Blu-ray Discs. One of the key advantages is the high flexibility of the solution, as it can be easily and frequently updated to stop new piracy attacks in its tracks. It supports all Blu-ray profiles, as well all existing and future stand-alone Blu-ray players, PC players and Playstation 3, securing the quality of the material and compatibility.

Since it's unlikely that hardware manufacturers would agree to support a third party security layer if modifications to player firmware were required, it would seem that X-PROTECT blue is leveraging the player's Java interpreter to accomplish its goals. As of a few minutes ago, there is no mention of x-protect on either the  Blu-ray or BD+ sites.

Nate Lawson (BD+, CRI) Interview On Reverse Engineers

SecurityFocus has a good interview with Root Labs' Nate Lawson, who worked on BD+ while at CRI and who was quoted in these pages back in April of this year. Commenting on Blu-ray BD+ programmable security, Lawson says:

When we designed BD+, our goal was to let studios spend the money developing the security on a per-disc basis. All the player manufacturers had to do was provide a simple, compatible VM environment. That way if a studio cares more about protecting a particular title, they can put more effort behind its software protection. They are in the best position to measure if the DRM impacts their sales and decide how much to spend on it in the future.

That's the exciting thing for me about BD+. It's really the first time these principles have been brought into play in the mass market. It's an opportunity to prove if common memes about DRM are true or not. How much more money does a title make if it's not available on pirate networks for a few months after release? That's a question you can't ask with DVD since there is no example to use.

This year should be very interesting.