Patent ID: 8307212
Filing Date: 2012-11-06
Classification: G06F,G06Q,G11B,H04L,H04N

Abstract:
1. A rights management method comprising the steps of: (a) receiving an information signal at a first device over a communication channel, the information signal comprising a content portion that has been steganographically encoded with control information, the control information being intertwined with the content portion of the information signal in locations based on the available bandwidth of the communications channel, the control information comprising an indication of a number of times the content portion may be rendered by a given device, as well as an indication of whether at least part of the content portion may be copied to another device, and whether the control information must be refreshed prior to copying to another device; (b) steganographically decoding the received information signal to recover the control information; (c) using the control information to determine whether the content portion may be rendered by the first device; (d) rendering the content portion on the first device if permitted by the control information; (e) using the control information to determine whether at least part of the information signal may be copied to a second device; (f) refreshing the control information using a refresh decoder and steganographically encoding the content portion with the refreshed control information, if permitted by the control information; and (g) copying at least part of the information signal to the second device if permitted by the control information.