Method of provisioning persistent household keys for in-home media content distribution

1. A method of providing a household key to a client device, comprising:

receiving a key request at an update server from a client device, said key request including a subscriber identifier;

determining at said update server whether said subscriber identifier has previously been associated with a household key, said household key being an encryption key configured to be used by said client device to encrypt recordings of media content it makes and/or decrypt recordings of media content it previously made or that it receives from another client device that encrypted the recording using said household key, wherein the household key is limited for use to encrypt and decrypt content stored on recording devices located within a household;

when said subscriber identifier has previously been associated with a particular household key:

retrieving the particular household key previously associated with said subscriber identifier from a database; and

sending the particular household key to said client device from said update server in response to said key request;

when said subscriber identifier has not previously been associated with any household key:

retrieving a new household key from a pool of unassociated household keys previously generated by an external key manager and loaded onto said update server;

associating said new household key with said subscriber identifier in said database such that in the future it will be determined to be the particular household key associated with said subscriber identifier; and

sending said new household key to said client device from said update server in response to said key request,

wherein each household key in said pool of unassociated household keys was encrypted by said external key manager with a global hardware key also known to said client device, and

wherein the global hardware key is provisioned into devices during manufacturing and associated with a chip within the client device.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein said particular household key or said new household key is encrypted by said update server using a session key derived from a communications session between said update server and said client device when it is sent from said update server to said client device.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein said new household key was encrypted with a first level of encryption using said global hardware key by said external key manager and is also encrypted by said update server with a second level of encryption using a session key derived from a communications session between said update server and said client device when said new household key is sent from said update server to said client device.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

sending a verification request from said update server to a subscriber authorization system, said verification request comprising said subscriber identifier and a subscriber credential received as a part of said key request;

receiving a verification confirmation message at said update server from said subscriber authorization system if said subscriber authorization system verifies said subscriber identifier and said subscriber credential.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein said client device is a digital video recorder.

6. The method of claim 1 ,

wherein said household key is provided for encryption and decryption of content recorded on the client device which comprises a first digital video recording device located in a household, and said household key is further provided for encryption and decryption of content to a second digital recording device located in the same household.

7. The method of claim 1 ,

wherein the recording devices located within the same household have a common subscriber account.