PLAYING CONTROL FILES FOR PERSONAL VIDEO RECORDERS
The certificate with specified conditions under which copyright did material can be played. Copyrighted material, such as videos are stored in a storage unit. They are stored along with a policy that indicates when the information can be played. The information can, for example be encrypted one stored, and the decryption key is available only when characteristics of the policy are met. When those characteristics are not met, the information can not be retrieved at all or only can be retrieved in some very limited format.
1 . A method, comprising:
recording a multimedia program on to a recording medium; and
encrypting only a portion of the recorded program on the recording medium in a way that less than all of the recorded program is encrypted on the recording medium and so that encrypted portions of the recorded portion are interspersed between unencrypted portions of the recorded portion.
2 . A method as in claim 1 , further comprising storing the decryption code on the recording medium.
3 . A method as in claim 2 , further comprising storing a policy on the recording medium, which policy indicates when the decryption code can be provided to a player for the recorded program.
4 . A method as in claim 3 , wherein the policy includes information about different environments within which the recorded program can be played.
5 . A method as in claim 4 , wherein the environments include an owner name representing an owner of playing modules that can play the recorded program.
6 . A method as in claim 5 , wherein the environments include network characteristics that characterize a network within which the recording program can be played.
7 . A method as in claim 6 , wherein said policy specifies that a network characteristic must match some, but not all, characteristics of a current network.
8 . A method as in claim 1 , wherein said multimedia program is a video program.
9 . A method as in claim 3 , wherein said policy uses a biometric indicative of an authorized user.
10 . A method, comprising:
Accessing stored multimedia programming and a stored policy indicating conditions under which the multimedia when the video programming can be played; and
allowing the video programming to be played by a play module based on the policy.
11 . A method as in claim 10 , wherein the multimedia programming includes a video file, and further comprising storing the policy along with the video file.
12 . A method as in claim 10 , wherein said multimedia programming is stored in a way that prevents it from being directly played and said policy provides information for allowing playing of the programming.
13 . A method as in claim 12 , wherein said changing comprises encrypting the multimedia program, and wherein the policy is associated with information for decrypting the encrypted multimedia program.
14 . A method as in claim 10 , wherein the policy specifies an owner name that represents an owner of a playing module that is authorized to play the recorded program.
15 . A method as in claim 10 , wherein the policy specifies characteristics of a network connected to a playing module that is authorized to play the recorded program.
16 . A method as in claim 15 , wherein said allowing comprises allowing the program to be played when some, but not all, of the network characteristics agree with the characteristics specified in said policy.
17 . A method as in claim 10 , wherein said policy includes specifications for a test of a play module, and said allowing comprises allowing the module to play only when the playing module passes the test.
18 . A method as in claim 10 , further comprising allowing download of updated characteristics to change the policy.
19 . A method as in claim 10 , wherein said policy stores information indicative of a biometric of an authorized player, and allows playing by the play module when an obtained biometric matches the stored biometric.
20 . A system, comprising:
A multimedia storage unit that stores multimedia information for playing, and stores policy information indicative of conditions under which the multimedia information can be played.
21 . A system as in claim 20 , wherein at least part of said multimedia information is stored in a changed format that can not be directly played without changing, and said storage unit stores change information indicative of how to play said multimedia information, and provides said change information only under conditions that are based on said policy information.
22 . A system as in claim 21 , wherein said changed format is an encrypted format.
23 . A system as in claim 20 , wherein said policy information includes conditions that are specified by a copyright holder.
24 . A system as in claim 21 , wherein only discrete parts of the multimedia information is stored in the changed format.