Network Appliance, Inc.

Kaleidescape, Inc.

Blue Coat Systems, Inc.

Cacheflow, Inc.

Kaleidescope, Inc.

Michael A Malcolm

David Hitz

James Lau

Byron Rakitzis

Stephen Watson

Daniel A Collens

Robert Zarnke

Kevin Hui

Paul James Rechsteiner

Lawrence Kesteloot

Shawn Neely

Steven Robert Kleiman

Guy Harris

Sean W O'Malley

Daniel A Collins

Ian Telford

Selection and presentation of media streams, in which presentation is not limited by order imposed by the digital content representative of those media streams, in response to bookmarks and watchpoints settable and usable by a user. Bookmarks reference a location within the media stream, not necessarily pre-selected and possibly dynamically selected, in which a presentation can be started or restarted therefrom. Watchpoints reference a location within the media stream, or a presentation state for the media stream, in which an action can be triggered thereby. Bookmarks and watchpoints provide a general technique for presenting selections from media streams in response to metadata.

Bookmarks and watchpoints for selection and presentation of media streams

Integrating a file system with a RAID array that exports precise information about the arrangement of data blocks in the RAID subsystem. The present invention uses separate current-write location (CWL) pointers for each disk in the disk array where the pointers simply advance through the disks as writes occur. The present invention writes on the disk with the lowest CWL pointer. A new disk is chosen only when the algorithm starts allocating space for a new file, or when it has allocated N blocks on the same disk for a single file. A sufficient number of blocks are defined as all the buffers in a chunk of N sequential buffers in a file. The result is that CWL pointers are never more than N blocks apart on different disks, and large files have N consecutive blocks on the same disk.

Allocating files in a file system integrated with a RAID disk sub-system

Secure presentation of media streams includes encoding the media streams into digital content, encrypting a portion of that digital content, the portion being required for presentation, in which the encrypted version is substantially unchanged in formatting parameters from the clear version of the digital content. Selecting those portions for encryption so there is no change in distribution of the media stream: packetization of the digital data, or synchronization of audio with video portions of the media stream. When encoding the media stream into MPEG-2, refraining from encrypting information by which the video block data is described, packet formatting information, and encrypting the video block data using a block-substitution cipher. A block-substitution cipher can be used to encrypt each sequence of 16 bytes of video data in each packet, possibly leaving as many as 15 bytes of video data in each packet in the clear.

Secure presentation of media streams in response to encrypted content

A method of embedding information in digital content representing media streams. The method includes (1) selecting a set of locations within that digital content representing the media stream to embed information, (2) selecting a set of possible alterations to make at those locations, and (3) making a subset of the possible alterations. The set of locations and possible alterations is herein sometimes called a 'watermark.' The subset of actual alterations that are made is herein sometimes called a 'fingerprint.' The method determines a set of locations at which there are alternative versions of digital content representing the same media stream, such as one being the original and one being an alternative version of the same digital content, herein sometimes called the &#x201c;original movie&#x201d; and the &#x201c;alt-movie,&#x201d; or herein sometimes called the &#x201c;original block&#x201d; and the &#x201c;alt-block&#x201d; for a particular block in the digital content representing the media stream.

Watermarking and fingerprinting digital content using alternative blocks to embed information

Integrating content into a storage system with substantially immediate access to that content. Providing high reliability and relatively easy operation with a storage system using redundant information for error correction. Having the storage system perform a 'virtual write,' including substantially all steps associated with writing to the media to be integrated, except for the step of actually writing data to that media, including rewriting information relating to used disk blocks, and including rewriting any redundant information maintained by the storage system. Integrating the new physical media into the storage system, including accessing content already present on that media, free space already present on that media, and reading and writing that media. Recovering from errors during integration.

Integrating content-laden storage media with storage system

Secure presentation of media streams in response to encrypted digital content

Integrating content-laden media with storage system

Distributing information, including the steps of watermarking the digital content, distributing the digital content using a multi-source system, and partially fingerprinting digital content at each stage of moving information from a point of origin to the viewer. 'Adaptation' of the digital content to the recipient includes maintaining the digital content in encrypted form at each such intermediate device, including decrypting the digital content with a key unique to both the device and the specific movie, selecting a portion of the watermark locations into which to embed information, embedding fingerprinting information into those locations sufficient to identify the recipient, and encrypting the fingerprinted digital content with a new such key.

Parallel distribution and fingerprinting of digital content

The invention provides a method and system for caching information objects transmitted using a computer network. A cache engine determines directly when and where to store those objects in a memory (such as RAM) and mass storage (such as one or more disk drives), so as to optimally write those objects to mass storage and later read them from mass storage, without having to maintain them persistently. The cache engine actively allocates those objects to memory or to disk, determines where on disk to store those objects, retrieves those objects in response to their network identifiers (such as their URLs), and determines which objects to remove from the cache so as to maintain sufficient operating space. The cache engine collects information to be written to disk in write episodes, so as to maximize efficiency when writing information to disk and so as to maximize efficiency when later reading that information from disk. The cache engine performs write episodes so as to atomically commit changes to disk during each write episode, so the cache engine does not fail in response to loss of power or storage, or other intermediate failure of portions of the cache. The cache engine also stores key system objects on each one of a plurality of disks, so as to maintain the cache holographic in the sense that loss of any subset of the disks merely decreases the amount of available cache. The cache engine also collects information to be deleted from disk in delete episodes, so as to maximize efficiency when deleting information from disk and so as to maximize efficiency when later writing to those areas having former deleted information. The cache engine responds to the addition or deletion of disks as the expansion or contraction of the amount of available cache.

Network object cache engine

Allocating files in a file system integrated with a raid disk sub-system

The invention provides a method and system for operating multiple communicating caches. Between caches, unnecessary transmission of repeated information is substantially reduced. Each cache maintains information to improve the collective operation of the system of multiple communicating caches. This can include information about the likely contents of each other cache, or about the behavior of client devices or server devices coupled to other caches in the system. Pairs of communicating caches substantially compress transmitted information. This includes both reliable compression, in which the receiving cache can reliably identify the compressed information in response to the message, and unreliable compression, in which the receiving cache will sometimes be unable to identify the compressed information. A first cache refrains from unnecessarily transmitting the same information to a second cache when each already has a copy. This includes both maintaining a record at a first cache of information likely to be stored at a second cache, and transmitting a relatively short identifier for that information in place of the information itself. A set of caches are disposed in a directed graph structure, with a set of root caches disposed for coupling to server devices and a set of leaf caches disposed for coupling to client devices. Both root caches and leaf caches maintain non-cacheable objects beyond their initial use, along with digests of the non-cacheable objects. When a server device returns identical information to a root cache, root caches can transmit only associated digests to leaf caches, avoiding re-transmitting the entire non-cacheable object.

Multiple cache communication and uncacheable objects

A method of embedding information in digital content representing media streams. The method includes (1) selecting a set of locations within that digital content reprensenting the media stream to embed information, (2) selecting a set of possible alterations to make at those locations, and (3) making a subset of the possible alterations. The set of locations and possible alterations is herein sometimes called a 'watermark.' The subset of actual alterations that are made is herein sometimes called a 'fingerprint.' The method determines a set of locations at which there are alternative versions of digital content representing the same media stream, such as one being the original and one being an alternative version of the same digital content, herein sometimes called the &#x201c;original movie&#x201d; and the &#x201c;alt-movie,&#x201d; or herein sometimes called the &#x201c;original block&#x201d; and the &#x201c;alt-block&#x201d; for a particular block in the digital content representing the media stream.

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Aspen, CO, United States of America

Michael A Malcolm