Video data delivery protection

1. A method comprising:

obtaining a master playlist document comprising references to sub-playlist documents that reference video documents of different video quality for use in a video streaming on demand system, wherein each of the sub-playlist documents includes sub-playlist references to encrypted video fragments and a decryption key;

parsing, at a computer system, the master playlist document to extract the references to the sub-playlist documents, wherein the references to the sub-playlist documents and the sub-playlist references to encrypted video fragments are Universal Resource Locators (URLs); obtaining the sub-playlist documents;

for each of the sub-playlist documents, parsing the sub-playlist document to extract the sub-playlist references;

digitally signing the references to the sub-playlist documents and the sub-playlist references, which comprises digitally signing the URLs such that they expire within a specified time frame;

generating a protected master playlist document from the digitally signed references to the sub-playlist documents; and

providing the protected master playlist document for use in the video streaming on demand system.

2. The method of claim 1 , comprising repeating the digitally signing periodically using different private encryption keys.

3. A method comprising:

requesting video in a content delivery system;

receiving, at a device, a master playlist document for the requested video, the master playlist document comprising digitally signed references to sub-playlist documents that reference video documents;

selecting a digitally signed reference from the master playlist document;

performing authentication with a server computer using the selected digitally signed reference;

accessing a sub-playlist document corresponding to the selected digitally signed reference after the authentication; and

playing the video using the sub-playlist document;

wherein the sub-playlist document comprises digitally signed sub-playlist references to encrypted video fragments, and playing the video using the sub-playlist document comprises, for each of the digitally signed sub-playlist references selected during the playing:

performing authentication using the selected digitally signed sub-playlist reference;

retrieving an encrypted video fragment corresponding to the selected digitally signed sub-playlist reference after the authentication for the digitally signed sub-playlist reference;

decrypting the encrypted video fragment; and

displaying the decrypted video fragment;

wherein the digitally signed references to the sub-playlist documents and the digitally signed sub-playlist references are digitally signed Universal Resource Locators (URLs) set to expire after a specified time frame.

4. The method of claims 3 , wherein the master playlist document is dynamically generated, and the method comprises:

receiving a digitally signed Universal Resource Locator (URL) to the master playlist document; and

requesting the master playlist document using the digitally signed URL before receipt of the master playlist document.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the digitally signed URL to the master playlist document is encoded using an identifier of the device and is set to expire after a specified time frame.

6. A system comprising:

a server environment configured to provide video streaming on demand over a content distribution network, wherein the server environment comprises a storage device and a processor programmed to obtain a master playlist document comprising references to sub-playlist documents that reference video documents, parse the master playlist document to extract the references, digitally sign the references, generate a protected master playlist document from the digitally signed references, and store the protected master playlist document in the storage device; and

a computing device configured to request video from the server environment via the content distribution network, receive the protected master playlist document in response to the request, select a digitally signed reference from the protected master playlist document, perform authentication using the selected digitally signed reference, access a sub-playlist document corresponding to the selected digitally signed reference after the authentication, and play the video using the sub-playlist document;

wherein each of the sub-playlist documents includes sub-playlist references to encrypted video fragments, and the processor is programmed to obtain the sub-playlist documents, and for each of the sub-playlist documents, parse the sub-playlist document to extract the sub-playlist references and digitally signing the sub-playlist references;

wherein the references to the sub-playlist documents and the sub-playlist references to encrypted video fragments are Universal Resource Locators (URLs); and

wherein the processor is programmed to digitally sign the URLs using an identifier of the computing device and such that they expire within a specified time frame.

7. The system of claim 6 , wherein the computing device is configured to play the video using the sub-playlist document by performing operations comprising, for each of the digitally signed sub-playlist references selected from the sub-playlist document:

performing authentication using the selected digitally signed sub-playlist reference;

retrieving an encrypted video fragment corresponding to the selected digitally signed sub-playlist reference after the authentication for the selected digitally signed sub-playlist reference;

decrypting the encrypted video fragment; and

displaying the decrypted video fragment.

8. The system of claim 6 , wherein the processor is programmed to digitally re-sign the references to the sub-playlist documents and the sub-playlist references periodically.

9. The system of claim 6 , wherein the processor is programmed to generate the protected master playlist dynamically in response to the request, and the computing device is configured to perform operations comprising:

receiving a digitally signed Universal Resource Locator (URL) to the protected master playlist document; and

requesting the protected master playlist document using the digitally signed URL before receipt of the protected master playlist document.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein the digitally signed URL to the protected master playlist document is encoded using an identifier of the computing device and is set to expire after a specified time frame.

11. The system of claim 6 , wherein the content distribution network comprises a mobile device network, and the computing device comprises a mobile communication device.

12. The system of claim 6 , wherein the master playlist document and the sub-playlist documents are records in a database implemented by the processor using the storage device.