Techniques for watermarking and distributing content

Abstract

Techniques for watermarking and distributing are provided. Content is broken into frames, each frame includes a watermark. Resources request the content and each frame of each resource's acquired version of the content includes a watermark. The frames of each resource's acquired version of the content form unique watermark sequences or unique keys. Each watermark sequence or key is uniquely associated with a particular resource. Each resource is also provided one or more delivery plans for acquiring that resource's uniquely watermark and sequenced version of the content over the network.

1 . A computer-implemented system, comprising:
 a content delivery service implemented in a non-transitory computer-readable medium and to execute on a machine; and   a service for keying implemented in a non-transitory computer-readable medium and to execute on the machine;   wherein the service for keying is to generate a unique key for a receiving resource of content, the unique key includes portions customized for the receiving resource, each portion of the key in the unique key assigned to a particular frame of the content that includes multiple frames, the content delivery service to provide a delivery plan to the receiving resource and to provide the unique key to the receiving resource over a network, the delivery plan includes a path for the receiving resource to acquire particular frames of the content from multiple different resources in order to reconstruct the unique key.   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the receiving resource is to acquire the particular frames via peer-to-peer connections with each of the multiple different resources. 
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the service for keying is to generate the unique key and each portion of the unique key. 
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the unique key includes a particular order for each portion of the unique key. 
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 4 , wherein the path reflects the particular order. 
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein content delivery service provides an alternative path for the path to the receiving resource. 
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein each portion of the key is represented as an undetectable signal in a particular frame of the content. 
     
     
         8 . A computer-implemented method that executes on a server, the method comprising:
 generating, by the server, a unique key customized for content that is to be retrieved by a resource, the unique key includes unique portions that when ordered and assembled form the unique key and each unique portion associated with a different frame of the content;   providing, by the server, a delivery plan for the resource to acquire the content, the delivery plan providing a network path for the resource to reconstruct the unique key in an ordered sequence by contacting different resources to obtain different ones of the frames for the content; and   sending, by the server, the unique key and the delivery plan to the resource.   
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8  further comprising, customizing, by the server, a length of the unique key based on a license for the content possessed by the resource. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 8  further comprising, providing, by the server, one or more alternative delivery plans to the resource, the one or more alternative delivery plans define other network paths that use other resources for the resource to contact when the different resources are unresponsive to the resource. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 8  further comprising, managing the content as: multimedia, streams of live media, graphics, images, presentations, video conferencing data, audio, and/or video. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein generating further includes generating each portion as one or more of the following: a hidden audio signal in the content, a hidden image in the content, alternative punctuation in the content, and/or alternative stegenographic images in the content. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 8  further comprising, auditing, by the server, usage of the content by inspecting versions of the content for the unique key when mined from the network. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 8  further comprising, receiving, by the server, a report to confirm that the resource complied with a license. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 14  further comprising, communicating, by the server, the report to a licensor or distributor of the content. 
     
     
         16 . A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium encoded with instructions thereon, the instructions capable of being executed by a computer to perform the method of:
 breaking content into a plurality of frames;   uniquely assigning a portion of a key to each frame;   assembling a unique key via an ordered sequence of the frames for a particular resource; and   associating the unique key with a particular version of the content and with the particular resource.   
     
     
         17 . The computer-readable storage medium of  claim 16  further comprising instructions for providing a network path for the particular resource to acquire the particular version of the content having the ordered sequence for the unique key. 
     
     
         18 . The computer-readable storage medium of  claim 17  further comprising instructions for providing one or more alternative paths for the particular resource to acquire the particular version of the content having the ordered sequence for the unique key when the network path fails. 
     
     
         19 . The computer-readable storage medium of  claim 16 , wherein uniquely assigning further includes representing each portion of the unique key as a undetectable code and non-displayable code in the particular version of the content. 
     
     
         20 . The computer-readable storage medium of  claim 16  further comprising instructions for auditing a license possessed by the particular resource for the content.