Patent ID: 7508942

Claim:
A descrambler integrated circuit (IC) adapted to receive scrambled digital content, a message and an encrypted descrambling key, comprising: a local memory to store a unique key; a first process block to encrypt the message using the unique key to produce a key, the key being formed from a mating key generator being the message that comprises an identifier of a manufacturer of a digital device including the descrambler IC, a mating key sequence number, and an identifier of a supplier of the scrambled digital content, the supplier being one of a cable provider, a satellite-based provider, a terrestrial-based provider, and an Internet service provider; a second process block using the key to decrypt the encrypted descrambling key and to recover a descrambling key; and a descrambler using the descrambling key to descramble the scrambled digital content and to produce digital content in a clear format.