Abstract: A key distribution system for controlling access to content by rendering devices, comprising an epoch module to provide epochs, each epoch including service key periods, a service key module to provide a batch of service keys, a group module to provide group keys for each epoch such that each rendering device is assigned a group key grouping together the devices having the same group key, thereby defining groups, in different epochs the devices are grouped differently, an encryption module to encrypt, for each epoch, each service key in the batch of service keys, individually with each group key yielding a plurality of group-key-encrypted service keys from each service key, and a delivery module to distribute to the devices, for each one of the epochs, the group-key-encrypted service keys for the batch of service keys and the group keys of the one epoch. Related apparatus and methods are also described.

Abstract: A system and a method for providing variable security mechanisms for securing digital content, in which a single security mechanism is not used for all content. Instead, at least one characteristic or feature of the security mechanism is varied between units, instances or categories of content. Therefore, even if unauthorized access is gained to a single unit of content, the overall integrity and security of the system for content distribution is not compromised. Preferably, security is provided though a general mechanism, which is then varied in order to provide variable, dissimilar security schemes for different types of content. By “type of content”, it is meant any of a single unit of content, a single instance of content or a single category of content. For example, for a category of content, the content may be characterized according to the identity of the content itself, such as the title of a movie for example, and/or according to the owner of a particular copy of the content.

Abstract: A rights validator system for controlling access to content, the system including a query processor to receive a rights query and to provide a result to the rights query based on an estimated time, and a time-based query response module operationally connected to the query processor, the time-based query response module being operative to determine the estimated time as a function of a most recently updated time, and a plurality of indications of elapsed time since the most recently updated time, the indications of elapsed time being from a plurality of different sources of time indication. Related apparatus and methods are also included.

Abstract: A system and a method for providing variable security mechanisms for securing digital content, in which a single security mechanism is not used for all content. Instead, at least one characteristic or feature of the security mechanism is varied between units, instances or categories of content. Therefore, even if unauthorized access is gained to a single unit of content, the overall integrity and security of the system for content distribution is not compromised. Preferably, security is provided through a general mechanism, which is then varied in order to provide variable, dissimilar security schemes for different types of content. By “type of content”, it is meant any of a single unit of content, a single instance of content or a single category of content. For example, for a category of content, the content may be characterized according to the identity of the content itself, such as the title of a movie for example, and/or according to the owner of a particular copy of the content.

Abstract: A digital rights management system (FIG. 1) for a mobile telephone (10), including a controlled content disk (16) to store content in an encrypted format, and a mobile telephone processor (18) to run a plurality of mobile telephone applications (36, 38, 40) and a secure device driver (22) thereon, the mobile telephone processor (18) being operationally associated with the controlled content disk (16), the mobile telephone applications (36, 38, 40) being unable to decrypt content from the encrypted format, the secure device driver (22) having a receiving module (24) to receive a request from one of the mobile telephone applications (36, 38, 40) to access the content, a validation module (26) to validate the request, and a transport module (28) to substantially directly transfer the content to the one mobile telephone application, contingent upon a positive result of the validating of the validation module (26). Related apparatus and methods are also described.

Abstract: A multimedia content distribution method including a) storing an item of a multimedia content, b) firstly transcoding the content for playback on a first multimedia device, c) generating a content ID of the firstly transcoded content, d) storing the content ID of the firstly transcoded content in association with the stored content, e) accessing the stored content using the content ID of the firstly transcoded content, and f) secondly transcoding the stored content for playback on a second multimedia device.

Abstract: A system and a method for providing variable security mechanisms for securing digital content, in which a single security mechanism is not used for all content. Instead, at least one characteristic or feature of the security mechanism is varied between units, instances or categories of content Therefore, even if unauthorized access is gained to a single unit of content, the overall integrity and security of the system for content distribution is not compromised. Preferably, security is provided through a general mechanism, which is then varied in order to provide variable, dissimilar security schemes for different types of content. By “type of content”, it is meant any of a single unit of content, a single instance of content or a single category of content. For example, for a category of content, the content may be characterized according to the identity of the content itself, such as the title of a movie for example, and/or according to the owner of a particular copy of the content.