Patent ID: 8130952

Claim:
A method of rendering a protected digital bit stream including content information that is compressed and at least in part encrypted, the method comprising: receiving the protected digital bit stream; receiving one or more rules for controlling access to and use of said content information in which the one or more rules specify one or more authorized uses of the content information; passing the protected digital bit stream to a media player, the media player reading first header information included in the protected digital bit stream and identifying from the first header information a first plugin required to process the protected digital bit stream; the media player calling the first plugin; the media player passing the protected digital bit stream to the first plugin; the first plugin applying the one or more rules to selectively determine whether to proceed with a decrypting step and comparing a system identifier included in at least one rule of the one or more rules with an identifier associated with the media player; the first plugin decrypting, using a key, at least a portion of the protected digital bit stream when allowed by the one or more rules; the first plugin reading second header information and identifying from the second header information a second plugin required to process the decrypted digital bit stream; the first plugin calling the second plugin; the first plugin passing the decrypted digital bit stream to the second plugin, the second plugin processing the decrypted digital bit stream, the processing including decompressing at least a portion of the decrypted digital bit stream; and the second plugin passing the decrypted and processed digital bit stream to the media player; and the media player rendering the decrypted and processed digital bit stream.