Method of distributing a decryption key in fixed-content data

Abstract

Secondary content in encrypted for distribution to client terminals by selecting at least a portion of raw encrypted audio-video data (REAVD) that is provided on a media article as an encryption key, encrypting secondary content using the encryption key, and storing encrypted secondary content at a remotely located host. The media article can then be used for providing access to the encrypted secondary content to client terminals by receiving encrypted secondary content at a client terminal, extracting a decryption key from a media article encoded with REAVD, the decryption key being determined by at least a portion of the REAVD, using the decryption key to decrypt the secondary content, and outputting the decrypted secondary content from the client terminal.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method comprising:
 sending encrypted content to a client terminal, wherein the encrypted content comprises at least one live audio-video data stream;   keying the encrypted content to a decryption key, wherein the decryption key is configured to be encoded on and extracted from a media article distinct from the encrypted content; and   wherein the client terminal is configured to read the decryption key from the media article and decrypt the encrypted content sent according to a defined algorithm using the decryption key.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the encrypted content comprises multiple live audio-video streams keyed to multiple encryption keys. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein each of the multiple encryption keys are configured to be encoded on separate media articles. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the multiple encryption keys are configured to be encoded on differing segments of the same media article. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the decryption key is configured to comprise only a small portion of the media article. 
     
     
         6 . An system comprising:
 a processor operably coupled to a media reader, the processor configured to:
 receive encrypted content comprising live audio-video data; 
 extract a decryption key from a media article distinct from the encrypted content; and 
 decrypt, according to a defined decryption algorithm, the encrypted content using the decryption key. 
   
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 6 , wherein the encrypted content comprises multiple live audio-video streams keyed to multiple encryption keys. 
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 7 , wherein each of the multiple encryption keys are encoded on separate media articles. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein the multiple encryption keys are encoded on differing segments of the same media article 
     
     
         10 . The apparatus of  claim 6 , wherein the encrypted content is received from a remote host. 
     
     
         11 . A method comprising:
 sending encrypted content to a client terminal, wherein the encrypted content comprises multiple live audio-video data streams;   keying the encrypted content to multiple decryption keys, wherein each of the decryption keys are configured to be encoded on and extracted from differing segments of a media article, and wherein the client terminal is configured to decrypt, according to a defined algorithm, at least a portion of the encrypted content based on one or more of the decryption keys.   
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein the encrypted content is further configured to be downloaded by the client terminal and viewed at a time after the live audio-video streams are sent.