Patent ID: 8776256

Claim:
A content distribution network comprising: a first hardware controller, comprising: a memory that stores instructions; and a hardware processor that executes the instructions to perform operations comprising: selecting a multicast channel for distributing content; identifying an access zone in the content distribution network based on a community value, wherein the access zone applies a geographic restriction associated with a restricted area; determining that the content has the geographic restriction associated with the restricted area in the content distribution network; linking an exclusion policy for the content to the multicast channel while the multicast channel provides the content; and denying a request for the content from a client system within the restricted area based on the exclusion policy; and a second hardware controller in communication with the first hardware controller, wherein the second hardware controller distributes the exclusion policy to multicast enabled routers including a first router that stores the exclusion policy, wherein the second hardware controller ignores a multicast join message from the client system within the restricted area based on the exclusion policy, wherein the multicast join message is ignored from the client system if an internet protocol address of the client system matches an internet protocol prefix contained within the exclusion policy.