Patent ID: 8649519

Claim:
A method of distributing protected content from a first source device to a plurality of sink devices by an intermediate device comprising the steps of: obtaining by the intermediate device of authorization from the first source device to receive protected content from the first source device; detecting by the intermediate device of a connection of a first sink device to the intermediate device; starting authentication of the first sink device by the intermediate device by transmitting first cryptographic public key information of the intermediate device to the first sink device; receiving by the intermediate device of second cryptographic public key information of the first sink device from the first sink device; determining by the intermediate device whether the second cryptographic public key information of the first sink device is in an authorized list maintained by the intermediate device; if the second cryptographic public key information of the first sink device is in the authorized list, completing of the authentication of the first sink device by the intermediate device and providing the protected content by the intermediate device to the first sink device without requiring authentication of the first sink device by the first source device; if the second cryptographic public key information of the first sink device is not in the authorized list, ending authentication of the first sink device by the intermediate device, providing by the intermediate device of a connection between the first source device and the first sink device, passively monitoring by the intermediate device of authentication transactions between the first source device and the first sink device, and upon observing authentication of the second cryptographic public key information of the first sink device by the first source device, adding by the intermediate device of the second cryptographic public key information of the first sink device to the authorized list maintained by the intermediate device; wherein the step of adding the second cryptographic public key information of the first sink device to the authorized list maintained by the intermediate device comprises associating by the intermediate device of time information with the second cryptographic public key information of the first sink device.