Watermark extraction and content screening in a networked environment

摘要

Methods, devices, and computer program products facilitate the application of a content use policy based on watermarks that are embedded in a content. Watermark extraction and content screening operations, which can include the application of content usage enforcement actions, may be organized such that some or all of the operations can be conducted at different times by different devices. The watermark extraction results can be stored in a secure location and accessed by other devices at different times. These operations can be conducted by one or more trusted devices that reside in a home network. The home network can also include a gateway device that can coordinate the operations of the various network devices and/or delegate the various watermark extraction and content screening operations.

主权项

1. A method for conducting cooperative content management operations using two or more devices in a networked environment, the method comprising:
receiving a request for access to a content at a first device from a second device, the first device, the second device, and at least one of a trusted delegated device or a trusted slave device residing in the networked environment; performing device authentication to ascertain a trusted status associated with one or both of the first and second devices; ascertaining capabilities of the second device to conduct one or both of watermark extraction or content screening operations; and based on at least the ascertained capabilities of the second device and trusted status of the first or the second devices, determining an operational configuration for conducting cooperative content management operations by designating one of the first device, the second device, the trusted delegated device or the trusted slave device to conduct watermark extraction operations and designating one of the first device, the second device or the trusted delegated device to conduct content screening operations, wherein: the watermark extraction operations exclude the content screening operations and include examination of the content to determine a presence or a value of a watermark embedded in the content, the content screening operations exclude the watermark extraction operations and include determining, based at least on a result of the watermark extraction operations, whether or not the request to access the content conforms to a content use policy prior to allowing or denying access to the content, the trusted delegated device is a device in the networked environment that is invoked by a delegating device within the networked environment and is capable of conducting one or both of the watermark screening or the content screening operations and deciding whether or not to present the content to another device in the networked environment based at least on a result of the content screening operations, and the trusted slave device is a device in the networked environment that is invoked by a master device within the networked environment to conduct the watermark extraction operations and provide a result of the watermark extraction operations to the master device.