Patent ID: 8751807

Claim:
A method for managing secure distribution of content, comprising: generating a series of content encryption keys and providing them serially to a packaging server for encrypting a content item, each content encryption key provided upon expiration of a period of use of a serially preceding content encryption key, the packaging server generating packaged content for delivery to client devices via a content delivery network, the packaged content including or accompanied by key expiration information usable by the client devices to identify transitions between sections of the packaged content encrypted by different ones of the content encryption keys; and providing the content encryption keys to a license server for delivery to the client devices for use in decrypting the content item, the license server being operative to establish that a requesting client device is authorized to access the content item, the license server being further operative to securely deliver the content encryption keys to a requesting client device whose authorization to access the content item has been established.