DESC:DIGITAL RIGHTS MANAGEMENT IN MEDIA SHARING AND DISTRIBUTION
Technical Field

The present invention is directed to a method and apparatus for securely distributing media content among a plurality of devices and more particularly to share said media content in an off line mode.

Background

Online streaming of media is rising in popularity as media on the go is an upcoming consumer trend. But not all consumers are inclined to use online streaming as a means to view media online. This has given a boost to copyright infringement and piracy concerns as consumers tend to share illegally downloaded media among a set of users.

Currently, most applications essentially require network connectivity to watch media online. Also, the current applications require high data usage owing to quality or streaming requirements of the respective applications. These are significant deterrents for consumers and therefore, it pushes them to violate copyright(s) and encourage piracy.

The existing solutions Shareit, Xender work by making mobile phones as a master and create a hotspot with another phone (the client). During such a Hotspot, all other data connections on both devices are OFF and hence both phones lose external connectivity. Further most of such apps such as Xender, while creating such a Hotspot connection are unable to restore the phones previous Wifi connections as they are disabled.

Further, none of the solutions provide any encryption or application of rights of use around the content being shared. Thus leading to content theft and piracy without any means to check the same.

Thus, there is a strong felt need for a secure mechanism to transfer data in an offline mode.

Summary

The present disclosure is intended to provide solutions to avoid said copyright violation and allowing consumers to watch media online without the essential requirement of network connectivity. The invention disclosed helps consumers share and receive full length movies offline to watch, while ensuring that only valid/authenticated users can share and access these movies.

Sharing of content is typically done on non-encrypted content thus leading to multiple pirated versions/ copies however, according to embodiments of the present disclosure, only encrypted content is shared which only valid users may view.

Further, as per conventional art, time of sharing and mode of sharing is inconsistent. However, in an embodiment of the present disclosure, it takes on average less than 10 seconds to share a movie of 200MB without the need of external hardware dependencies such as SD cards and memory chips.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, sharing is done vide any wireless technology or application such as WiFi Direct or Bluetooth.

Owing to implementation of embodiments of the disclosure, digital-rights-management (DRM) is effected to ensure restricted access and privacy/security to copyrighted material.

In an embodiment of the present invention a method and apparatus for securely distributing media content is provided by downloading, via a first platform, a media content by A FIRST DEVICE operated by at least ONE FIRST user from a PLURALITY of USERS OPERATED BY PLUARLITY OF USERS; triggering a capability in said FIRST DEVICE ALLOWING THE FIRST USER to distribute said media content SELECTIVELY TO SAID PLURALITY OF USERS; sharing said media content by said first user to at least one second user operated by a second device ,out of said PLURALITY OF USERS wherein said capability to distribute is triggered for such PLURALITY of USERS that have a similar platform to that of FIRST USER.

Brief Description of Drawing(s)

FIGURE 1 illustrates an exemplary architecture of the present invention.
Detailed Description

The following discussion provides a detailed description of a suitable computing environment in which various embodiments of the present disclosure can be implemented. The aspects and embodiments are described in the general context of computer executable mechanisms such as routines executed by a handheld device e.g. a mobile phone, a personalized digital assistant, a cellular device, a tablet et al. The embodiments described herein can be practiced with other system configurations, including Internet appliances, hand held devices, multi-processor systems, microprocessor based or programmable consumer electronics, network PCs, mini computers, mainframe computers and the like. The embodiments can be embodied in a special purpose computer or data processor that is specifically programmed configured or constructed to perform one or more of the computer executable mechanisms explained in detail below.
The disclosure may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey its scope to those skilled in the art.
The specification may refer to “an”, “one” or “some” embodiment(s) in several locations. This does not necessarily imply that each such reference is to the same embodiment(s), or that the feature only applies to a single embodiment. Single features of different embodiments may also be combined to provide other embodiments.
As used herein, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless expressly stated otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “includes”, “comprises”, “including” and/or “comprising” when used in this specification, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof. It will be understood that when an element is referred to as being “connected” or “coupled” to another element, it can be directly connected or coupled to the other element or intervening elements may be present. Furthermore, “connected” or “coupled” as used herein may include wirelessly connected or coupled. As used herein, the term “and/or” includes any and all combinations and arrangements of one or more of the associated listed items.
Unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientific terms) used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this disclosure pertains. It will be further understood that terms, such as those defined in commonly used dictionaries, should be interpreted as having a meaning that is consistent with their meaning in the context of the relevant art and will not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unless expressly so defined herein.
The connections shown are logical connections; the actual physical connections may be different. It is apparent to a person skilled in the art that the structure may also comprise other functions and structures. It should be appreciated that the functions, structures, elements and the protocols used in communication are irrelevant to the present disclosure. Therefore, they need not be discussed in more detail here.
A person skilled in the art would note that the embodiments described herein can be implemented in hardware, firmware, middleware, microcode, or any combination thereof. For a hardware implementation, the processing units can be implemented within one or more application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), digital signal processors (DSPs), digital signal processing devices (DSPDs), programmable logic devices (PLDs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), processors, controllers, micro-controllers, microprocessors, other electronic units designed to perform the functions described herein, or a combination thereof.
The present invention, unlike in the prior art, proposes both encryption and License key management on the content being shared.
In the existing art if CONTENT is shared with a wrong device then such shared content is prone to data theft and breach of security including enhancement in privacy.
The present invention proposes to encrypt all content via a 256 bit license key thus essentially locking all shared content.
The present invention also makes sure that on receipt of content on a receiver’s phone, a REQUEST is sent to SERVERS TO unlock the content and only if the request comes from a valid user/subscriber that a KEY is sent to unlock the encryption lock.
Embodiments of the present disclosure are directed to a method and apparatus for management of digital rights comprising the step of providing a specific platform for viewing and distributing protected media. Distributing protected media comprises the step of sharing protected media content by a first consumer with a second consumer vide remote sharing platforms wherein the media is protected vide encryption and only a consumer with pertinent decryption key may be allowed to view the media content accordingly.

According to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, a first user downloads movies using the specific platform. This triggers the capability of distribution with other consumers using the specific platform. The first consumer then shares the protected media content with a second consumer vide remote sharing platforms such as WiFi Direct, Bluetooth and NFC. Each consumer associated with the specific platform is uniquely identified by the specific platform using parameters such as device identification, type and IP address.

Upon confirmation of sharing between two consumers, specifics of the media content being shared are communicated to the second consumer to highlight parameters such as file size to ensure that no media file being shared is missed or not shared fully. According to embodiments of the present disclosure, each media file being distributed is encrypted using a global key to ensure secure transfer. The global key is generated using a server driving the specific platform. Once, the shared media content is available with the second consumer, he may begin access only once a consumer key is generated and provided to the second device. The consumer key is generated based on the global key received at their device, specifics of the device of the second consumer. The global key is then stored within the device of the second consumer and this key cannot be used by any other device or consumer to watch the media content.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, once the global key is stored within the device of the second consumer, no further downloads of keys would be required as the key is required only in the first instance. However, this key is specific only to the pairing between the first and second consumer. Therefore, the consumers would not require network connectivity at all instances of distribution and sharing and therefore, consumers who are offline may also be allowed to access media content once the first global key is shared.

An exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure illustrates a method for digital rights management where a first user has media such as movies already download on the specific platform. The first user triggers the sharing functionality to find other users using the specific platform. The first user then selects a second user it wishes to share the movie with identifiable by parameters such as mobile number and device type. The second user gets a pop-up and is asked to confirm that it wants to receive a movie. Upon confirmation, the first user automatically starts transferring the movie using Wifi direct to the second user. The device of the first user communicates with device of the second user regarding the number of files (video, images, manifests) that it will send to device of the second user. Each file size is shared between both sender(first user) and receiver (second user) and transfer of each file begins, ensuring no file is missed or not fully transferred. The media being shared is encrypted using a server generated ‘global’ key to ensure secure transfer. The device of the second user has received the movie, but still is unable to watch the movie as the key required for unlocking movie has to be fetched. If the second user is offline, he will be given an immediate prompt to fetch and generate a key in order to open the content. This access is to get the consumer key which is only given to the subscriber if he/she is an authenticated and valid user. The device of the second user then fetches the required consumer key from the server associated with the specific platform. The consumer key is generated by combining the information unique to the second device along with the server global key used to encrypt the content earlier. Using the consumer key, the second consumer is able to view the shared media content. No other device can use the same key to watch the content. The consumer key is then stored locally within the app in an encrypted manner, such the movie can also be played when the second consumer has no network connectivity or is offline.

The present invention as described doesn’t treat the mobile devices as a master and client and both are able to broadcast and receive content from each other. In line with the implementation of the present invention the mobile devices continue to retain external mobile data connection, thus NOT rendering data services off during this time, but keeping them active. This is of particular importance and benefit during sharing of large files which may take several minutes to share.

The present invention requires data connection for sharing of keys and for registration of devices but not for transfer of media content. Therefore one of the technical effect of the present invention is to allow transfer of large amount of media content with requiring any data connection therefore saving on network resources.
An additional technical effect achieved by the present invention is that during transfer in offline mode data connection for other services is still available.
As will be appreciated by one of skill in the art, the present disclosure may be embodied as a method, system, or computer program product. Accordingly, the present disclosure may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, a software embodiment or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects all generally referred to herein as a "circuit" or "module." Furthermore, the present disclosure may take the form of a computer program product on a computer-usable storage medium having computer-usable program code embodied in the medium.
Instructions may also be stored in a computer- readable memory that can direct a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readable memory produce an article of manufacture including instruction means which implement the function/act specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.
Instructions may also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus like a scanner/check scanner to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmable apparatus to produce a computer implemented process such that the instructions which execute on the computer or other programmable apparatus provide steps for implementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks. ,CLAIMS:We Claim:

1. A method for securely distributing media content , comprising
- downloading, via a first platform, a media content by A FIRST DEVICE operated by at least ONE FIRST user from a PLURALITY of DEVICES OPERATED BY PLUARLITY OF USERS;
- triggering a capability in said FIRST DEVICE ALLOWING THE FIRST USER to distribute said media content SELECTIVELY TO SAID PLURALITY OF USERS;
- sharing said media content by said first user to at least one second user operated by a second device ,out of said PLURALITY OF USERS
wherein said capability to distribute is triggered for such PLURALITY of DEVICES that have a similar platform to that of FIRST DEVICE.

2. A method for securely distributing media content as claimed in claim 1 wherein platform comprises WiFi Direct, Bluetooth and NFC.

3. A method for securely distributing media content as claimed in claim 1 wherein each device associated with a platform is uniquely identified with DEVICE TYPE, IP ADDRESS etc.

4. A method for securely distributing media content as claimed in claim 1 wherein predefined parameters are shared by FIRST USER with SECOND USERS to ensure consistent sharing of MEDIA said parameters comprising FILE SIZE OF MEDIA content, count of files.

5. A method for securely distributing media content as claimed in claim 1 wherein each shared MEDIA content is encrypted using a global key generated by a SERVER.

6. A method for securely distributing media content as claimed in claim 1 wherein the user of a SECOND DEVICE, IN REPSONSE TO SAID SHARING OF MEDIA CONTENT is configured to fetch a consumer key from the SERVER said CONSUMER KEY ALLOWING USER OF SECOND DEVICE TO ACCESS SAID SHARED MEDIA CONTENT PROVIDED SAID SECOND USER IS REGISTERED.

7. A method for securely distributing media content as claimed in claim 6, wherein generation of CONSUMER KEY comprises:
- Combining information unique to the second device with said GLOBAL KEY generated by SERVER.

8. A method for securely distributing media content as claimed in claim 1, wherein multiple users operating multiple devices can simultaneously share MEDIA CONTENT with multiple devices.

9. A method for securely distributing media content as claimed in claim 1, wherein the sharing of MEDIA CONTENT comprises sharing multiple files with a single user operated by a single DEVICE.

10. A method for securely distributing media content as claimed in claim 1, wherein THE STEP OF SHARING COMPRISES ESTABLISHING A TWO WAY PARALLEL CONNECTION between a FIRST DEVICE AND A SECOND DEVICE.

11. An apparatus for securely distributing media content , comprising

- A first device for downloading, via a first platform, a media , THE FIRST DEVICE operated by at least ONE FIRST user from a PLURALITY of DEVICES OPERATED BY PLUARLITY OF USERS; and triggering a capability in said FIRST DEVICE ALLOWING THE FIRST USER to distribute said media content SELECTIVELY TO SAID PLURALITY OF USERS;
- at least one second DEVICE operated by a second user for receiving said media content from said first user said second user selected out of said PLURALITY OF USERS;
wherein said capability to distribute is triggered for such PLURALITY of USERS that have a similar platform to that of FIRST DEVICE.

12. An apparatus for securely distributing media content as claimed in Claim 11 and configured to perform the steps as claimed in claims 1 to 10.

Dated this 17th day of May 2016

Of Anand and Anand Advocates
Agent for the Applicant