Patent ID: 7434056

Claim:
A watermark-based copy management method for digital media copy protection, the method comprising: receiving an original media data set that includes a watermark, said watermark including a watermark type indicating whether said watermark is an original watermark generated by a media or content owner or is a secondary watermark generated by a media-playing device, a media owner identification information indicating a media owner and a first copy control information for managing and controlling a media data copying process, said first copy control information being set to one of “copy freely”, “copy one generation”, “copy never”, and “no more copies”; playing said original media data set only if said first copy control information is set to “copy freely” or “copy one generation”; embedding a player watermark into said played media data set if said first copy control information is set to “copy one generation”, said player watermark including a second copy control information set to “no more copies” and player identification informanon including a model number and a unique serial number, wherein the second copy control information is derived from said first copy control information; and transferring said player watermark-embedded media data set to an external device.