Methods and apparatus for determining digital copy protection levels assigned to services received at a consumer appliance

摘要

The present invention provides methods and apparatus for determining digital copy protection levels assigned to received services. A consumer terminal in accordance with the invention includes memory for storing data which defines a set of service tiers. Each service tier is associated with one of a plurality of copy protection levels. A parser is provided for parsing service information from a received service to enable determination of the service tier associated with the received service. A processor is provided for matching the service tier of the received service with its associated copy protection level. A copy protection system enables copy protection for the received service in accordance with the copy protection level associated with the received service.