Patent ID: 7565546

Claim:
A mating key gateway adapted to retrieve at least one mating key used to encrypt a program key that is used to scramble digital content prior to transmission to a digital device, comprising; a bus; a processor coupled to the bus; an interface coupled to the bus, the interface being adapted to receive information from (1) a sender of the digital content and (2) either a server controlled by a supplier of the digital device or a trusted third party, the information received by the interface from the sender comprises a mating key generator being a message that comprises an identifier of the supplier; and a non-volatile storage unit coupled to the bus, the non-volatile storage unit to store a mating key lookup table to identify either the server controlled by the supplier of the digital device or the trusted third party, based on the information received from the sender, from which the at least one mating key is supplied, the mating key lookup table stored by the non-volatile storage unit comprises (i) a first group of entries forming a range of mating key generators for digital devices supplied by each supplier of a plurality of suppliers including the supplier, and (ii) a second group of entries corresponding to the first group of entries, each entry of the second group of entries including at least one mating key uniquely corresponding to and formed by at least a portion of one of the mating key generators.