Patent ID: 8458742

Claim:
A system to facilitate secure content sharing between a plurality of set-top boxes, comprising: a satellite communication system; a plurality of set-top boxes communicatively coupled to the satellite communication system, each set-top box of the plurality of set-top boxes being located at a distinct respective customer premises; and a distribution server communicatively coupled to the satellite communication system, the distribution server configured to provide access control information via the satellite communication system to a first set-top box of the plurality of set-top boxes and to at least a second set-top box, the access control information enabling the first set-top box to share content of the first set-top box with the second set-top box, wherein the first set-top box is configured to receive via the satellite communication system from the distribution server the access control information, to determine a first cryptographic key based on the access control information, to share content of the first set-top box for use by the second set-top box, and to restrict access to the shared content by encrypting at least a portion of the shared content using the first cryptographic key, such that the second set-top box has access to the shared content and other set-top boxes of the plurality of set-top boxes do not have access to the shared content; and wherein the second set-top box is configured to receive via the satellite communication system from the distribution server the access control information, to determine a second cryptographic key based on the access control information received by the second set-top box, and to access the shared content of the first set-top box by decrypting the at least a portion of the shared content using the second cryptographic key.