Registers – Records – Conductive
Reexamination Certificate
2002-11-07
2004-12-21
Frech, Karl D. (Department: 2876)
Registers
Records
Conductive
C235S379000, C235S380000, C361S736000, C361S737000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06832731
ABSTRACT:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from the prior Japanese Patent Application No. 2001-342819, filed Nov. 8, 2001, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a contents distributing system and method for a memory card on which contents such as music data are recorded, and in particular, to a memory card having a security function and a contents distributing system and method.
2. Description of the Related Art
The use of a memory card for enjoying digital contents such as music or games has been started as a purchasing method called a “reproduction limited” service in which the period or number of possible reproductions is limited to reduce set prices. Thus, manufacture costs and thus contents prices have decreased compared to package media such as CDs (Compact Discs), which are purchased and owned by users so that the contents can be reproduced at any time and any number of times.
However, to further reduce the contents prices, efforts must be made to limit the period of time over which contents can be reproduced for enjoyment or the number of reproductions. With the current memory card, a user obtains data on the number of times of use upon purchasing contents so that the number of times of use can be counted at the start or end of reproduction. However, the length of reproduction time may vary with the content or reproduction may be stopped before the content ends. Consequently, the count may be unfair, and thus this method was difficult to facilitate. That is, it is difficult to determine when to count the number of reproductions. For example, if this number is counted at the start of each song, a counting operation may be performed during a head search. Further, if the number is counted at the end of each song, the user may stop reproduction before the song ends and then listen to it from the beginning again. This enables the user to avoid being counted up. Furthermore, even if the number is counted in the middle of each song, the user can similarly avoid being counted up by stopping reproduction immediately before the count-up operation. To prevent this situation to achieve fairness, the amount of data reproduced must be counted. However, it was technically difficult to carry out this counting with the current memory card. That is, the memory card could not be provided with a function of keeping up with a reproduction speed to count the amount of data reproduced.
That is, the counting operation cannot be attained without relying on a count processing function of external equipment. Accordingly, such external equipment may modified to cheat at the count. Further, the memory card can be incorporated into various types of reproducing equipment so as to reproduce contents. To allow the amount of data reproduced to be counted, all of the various pieces of external equipment must be provided with a function of counting this amount. This is cumbersome, and particularly in the case of portable equipment, may impair its characteristics of being compact and portable. Further, if only some pieces of external equipment have a count function, data is reproduced from the memory card using only these pieces of equipment. Consequently, reproduction means for the memory card is limited.
SD (Security Digital) cards and other memory cards having security functions store encrypted contents data and decryption key data used to decrypt the contents data, and use both data to reproduce the contents while decrypting the data. A serial number specific to each memory card is checked, and on the basis of this serial number, a decryption key is made and transmitted. Accordingly, even if all of the contents data and decryption key are copied to another memory card, the data cannot be decrypted. The contents data can be copied to another memory card, but if they are actually copied, information is recorded in the decryption key of the source memory card, indicating that the contents data has been copied to the different memory card. Thus, reproduction cannot be achieved using this memory card. That is, although the contents can be moved from one memory medium to another, they can be used by only one memory medium which has been purchased by the user. Further, if the contents are reproduced, the type of reproducing equipment is checked so that the data is sent out only to equipment having a registered security function. This prevents the contents from being illegally copied. Memory cards having such security functions constitute systems that can prevent the contents from being illegally copied.
Now, with reference to
FIG. 16
, description will be given of a process of writing contents to a conventional SD card. A SD card
200
is connected to a contents vending machine
201
. The SD card
200
has a card interface controller
202
, a memory core
203
, a protect memory core
204
, and a key information recording section
205
. The contents vending machine
201
has a contents recording section
206
and an encrypting section
207
. Then, a user inputs a content write request
208
to the contents vending machine
201
. In response to the content write request
208
, the contents vending machine
201
outputs a key request to the card interface controller
202
of the memory card
200
. Then, upon receiving the key request, the card interface controller
202
outputs a request to the key information recording section
205
. Then, the key information recording section
205
outputs key information to the card interface controller
202
. Subsequently, the card interface controller
202
outputs the key information to the encrypting section
207
.
Next, the encrypting section
207
outputs a corresponding decryption key and encrypted content to the card interface controller
202
. Then, the card interface controller
202
outputs the decryption key to the protect memory core
204
and the encrypted content to the memory core
203
. The content is then written to the SD memory card
200
.
In this case, the decryption key data is organized as shown in
FIG. 17. A
content name
209
specifying decryption data
210
is recorded as a part of the decryption key data. Furthermore, copy status data
211
is recorded as a part of the decryption key data. The copy status data is recorded as “1” if, for example, the content specified by the content name has already been copied to another SD card. In this case, this SD card is set so that this content cannot be reproduced. This is to prevent unlimited illegal copying. On the other hand, “0” is recorded if the content has not been copied to any other SD cards. Thus, the SD card is set so that this content can be reproduced providing that the other conditions are met. Furthermore, count data
217
of possible reproductions remaining is recorded in the decrypting data.
Now, with reference to
FIG. 18
, description will be given of a conventional counting method used to reproduce data. In
FIG. 18
, the SD card is assumed to store encrypted data, decryption key data used to decrypt the encrypted data, and count data accompanying the decryption key data and indicating the counted number of reproductions remaining. The encrypted data contains, for each of the contents, a file name and a pair of decryption key data and count data on the number of reproductions remaining. That is, the SD card stores as many these sets of data as the contents. The encrypted data, decryption key, and remaining reproduction number count data are stored in a nonvolatile memory. An SD memory reproducing device
212
has a decrypting section
213
and a content output section
214
. The SD memory reproducing device
212
further comprises a counter
216
. The counter
216
receives the count data of the number of reproductions remaining attached to the decryption key through the decryption to make an initial setting of the number of reproductions remaining, count the number of plays such as music plays and inform an
Frech Karl D.
Frommer & Lawrence & Haug LLP
Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
Kim Ahshik
LandOfFree
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