XSIDES TECHNOLOGY: RIGHTS MANAGEMENT

xSides is best described as a component of DRM and best defined as Visual Rights Management (VRM), which utilizes display system technologies to leverage a trusted parallel display environment wherein content can be delivered and consumed in a manner consistent with the rights granted by the content owners. (See the August 8, 2002 Aberdeen Group Report: "VRM: A Simple and Effective Solution for Retaining Control of High-Value Digital Assets").

VRM is both a subset and enhancement to DRM because it does not require classification of data. Rather, it allows trusted sources of data to display that data inside of the trusted environment, but does not allow the reverse: un-trusted sources cannot enter the VRM execution environment.

While xSides VRM is fairly new, it’s effectiveness as a means to provide content providers with appropriate tools to address their business challenges is significant. xSides VRM technology offers simple and cost-effective protection for the display of copyrighted content and intellectual property from unauthorized viewing, use and transmission, and theft, by disabling copying, printing, and forwarding on end-user’s devices. xSides technologies with VRM offer the following benefits:

• easy integration with other solutions including DRM
• don’t require data to be tagged or classified
• are user-friendly, appearing and functioning just as another window opened by a browser
• provide the added assurance that sensitive information will remain safe from external hacking attempts to steal content because the content is displayed in a secure environment outside of the vulnerabilities of the operating system
• enhanced viewing of copyrighted content in a dedicated, highly visible display space
  

VRM technology from xSides can be used to protect any visually formatted digital content, ensuring copyright holders a higher level of control over their assets to provide the ultimate protection from piracy by both authorized and unauthorized users.

VRM is used to protect against problems including:

• fraudulent e-commerce transactions
• unauthorized copying of copyrighted material
• theft of intellectual property
• misappropriation of sensitive information

xSides is the leading provider of VRM technology, allowing distributors of high-value content to control how the data delivered through the xSides display system is accessed, viewed, used, and shared, without disturbing the controls or functioning of the device upon which the content is being consumed. All of xSides VRM technologies are effective in hardware, software and firmware and depend upon the method of implementation required by the OEM, content owner or content supplier. The following represent just some of the Intellectual Properties and related Patents related to VRM technologies xSides has developed:

VIDEO ENCRYPTION - xSides has developed technologies and owns intellectual property related to for encrypting and decrypting graphical or video data in digital form on a general purpose or specialized computer system, or other player devices.

The desire of content providers to protect their creations from piracy and other unauthorized use is well established. The use of digital data as the media for distributing content make the need for protection even more acute, given the ease with which digital data can be duplicated and distributed. In particular, the RIAA and MPAA are very interested in protecting film and video content distributed in digital form.

Previous attempts to scramble video signals have not been entirely successful. For example, a commonly used technique involves attenuation of video sync signals, which results in an unstable video image. However, it is possible for unauthorized users to restore the sync signals and thereby stabilize the video image. Thus, the scrambling technique has not proved entirely satisfactory.

Some data encryption techniques require significant processing time and are thus not satisfactory for real-time video decryption. Therefore, it can be appreciated that there is a significant need for a system and method that will permit encryption and decryption of video signals. xSides technologies regarding video encryption provides this and other advantages.

VIDEO OBFUSCATION – For the secure display of data on a display device and other types of display storage, xSides has developed a number of technologies providing for the enhanced security of data through the implementation of obfuscation techniques. For the purposes of this description, the term “obfuscation” refers to any mechanism or technique for transforming or hiding valid data so that the valid data becomes difficult to view, intercept, process, or modify without proper authorization and thus, appears as invalid data when accessed in an unauthorized manner.

xSides obfuscation techniques include “copy-out”, “replace and restore,” and “in-place replacement.” These techniques specify where (and how) obfuscated data is de-obfuscated to generate valid data for display and where (and how) data is re-obfuscated.

Several obfuscation techniques by themselves offer varying levels of security. In certain implementations, the obfuscated data comprises, for example, an opaque color such as all black or all white, a pattern, a random bitmap, noise, masked data, an image, a company logo, or an advertisement. Other types of obfuscation, depending upon the type of data, are also possible.

Other implementations provide a plurality of obfuscation techniques and security enhancement through utilization of xSides SEDs to prohibit unauthorized receivers/viewers of the data from receiving/viewing valid data. When these obfuscation techniques are used with the SEDs, the drivers can ensure that invalid data is always received/viewed by unauthorized recipients/viewers, thus preventing unauthorized hackers with access to valid data.

Yet in other implementations, SEDs are created for input devices, such as a mouse, keyboard, or other pointing device. These SEDs operate by isolating the input data as it comes directly from the input device, transforming the data to an obfuscated form when secure input data has been requested, and forwarding the transformed data to the requesting code.

SECURE PVR/VOD – xSides has developed technologies and owns intellectual property relating to methods and systems for enhancing display functionality in a television set-top box environment and in particular, to methods and systems for the secure storage and display of digital data content.