US Patent 6850910 Active data hiding for secure electronic media distribution

A method is provided for distributing multimedia content in an electronic media distribution system. The method includes the steps of: (a) providing active hidden data, where the active hidden data includes a plurality of executable machine instructions; (b) embedding active hidden data into the host data stream, thereby forming an embedded data stream; (c) transmitting the embedded data stream from a content provider device to a player device; (d) extracting the active hidden data from the embedded data stream on the player device; and (e) executing the active hidden data on the player device.