METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR STORING AND RETRIEVING ENCRYPTED PROGRAMMING CONTENT ACCESSIBLE TO AUTHORIZED USERS

摘要

A set top box (104) is provided that includes a receiver/tuner for receiving programming content over a broadband communications network, an encrypter/decrypter for encrypting and decrypting the programming content, and a secure memory configured to store at least a first cryptography key to be used by the encrypter/decrypter to encrypt and decrypt the programming content. The set top box (104) also includes a digital storage medium (106) for storing encrypted programming content, a multimedia processor operationally associated with the receiver/tuner, the decrypter, and the digital storage medium, and a user interface operationally associated with the multimedia processor. The multimedia processor is configured to: encrypt decoded programming content using the first cryptography key (108) stored in the secure memory and uniquely associated with the set top box; store the encrypted content on the digital storage medium (106); encrypt the first cryptography key using a second cryptography key (110) to form an encrypted first cryptography key; and store the encrypted first cryptography key on the digital storage medium (106).