Dynamic information storage or retrieval – Duplication or copying
Reexamination Certificate
1999-06-07
2003-01-21
Edun, Muhammad (Department: 2653)
Dynamic information storage or retrieval
Duplication or copying
C369S053210
Reexamination Certificate
active
06510118
ABSTRACT:
This application is based on an application No. 10-164705 filed in Japan, the content of which is hereby incorporated by reference.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
(1) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method and an apparatus for copying data from an optical recording medium to another recording medium, and relates to the optical recording medium, and specifically, relates to a technique for restricting the number of such copy operations and restricting objects to which data is copied.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
Recently, as personal computers have become widespread, optical recording media (hereinafter referred to as optical discs) have come into wide use as mass-storage recording media. In optical discs, data is recorded on their data recording region by using optical characteristics.
Since the data recorded on optical discs is digital data, the data copied from an optical disc to another medium maintains the same quality as the original.
Accordingly, the sales of optical discs storing original data will decrease if media storing an unauthorized copy of the original data penetrate the market. The sales of optical discs will similarly decrease if unauthorized copying of the original data spreads among users.
A variety of techniques have been proposed to prevent such unauthorized copying of the original data from optical discs.
One of such techniques is encryption in which an encryption key is set in advance so that the use of the target data is permitted only when the encryption key is used. However, unauthorized use or copy of the target data cannot be prevented with this technique when the encryption key itself is reused.
Another technique has been proposed in which the history of the use of an optical disc is recorded on the optical disc itself. It is possible with this technique to prohibit unauthorized copying by judging whether the disc stores the original data or copied data by referring to the history, or prevent unauthorized installment of the disc by judging whether the disc has once been installed. However, these functions are only available for rewritable optical discs, not for read-only optical discs which are less expensive than rewritable optical discs.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 8-106720 entitled “METHOD FOR PROHIBITING COPY OF RECORDING MEDIUM AND REPRODUCTION APPARATUS” discloses a technique for preventing read-only optical discs from being copied. This technique utilizes a characteristic that data cannot be deleted from read-only optical discs storing original data and that data can be deleted from rewritable optical discs storing copies of the original data. According to the technique a program for executing the target data deletes the copied data only when a rewritable optical disc storing the data is loaded.
However, it is desired that this technical field is further improved since the above-introduced technique cannot be applied to all types of media to prevent unauthorized use or copy of data.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a copy restriction method and apparatus which can impose a restriction on copying of data from an optical disc to another medium, and also to provide an optical disc whose data is imposed a restriction in terms of copying.
(A) The above object is fulfilled by a copy restriction method for imposing a restriction on copying data from a data recording region of an optical recording medium to another medium, where a member removable by a user is attached to the data recording region of the optical recording medium, and the copying is performed by an apparatus which comprises a storage unit which stores information indicating a position where the member should be attached on the data recording region, the copy restriction method comprising: a detecting step for detecting a position where the member is attached to the data recording region and outputting information indicating the detected position; a judging step for judging whether the information output in the detecting step and the information stored in the storage unit indicate a same position; an instructing step for instructing the user to detach the member from the data recording region when it is judged in the judging step that the information output in the detecting step and the information stored in the storage unit indicate the same position; a checking step for checking whether the member is detached after the user is instructed to detach in the instructing step; and an executing step for executing copying of the data from the data recording region of the optical recording medium to the other medium only when it is confirmed in the checking step that the member is detached.
With the above-stated construction, the user removes the member from the optical recording medium when the data is copied from the optical recording medium to another medium. Once this happens, the data on the optical recording medium is prevented from being copied. This enables the present method to impose a restriction on copying data from an optical recording medium to another recording medium.
(B) The above object is also fulfilled by a copy restriction method for imposing a restriction on copying data from a data recording region of an optical recording medium to another medium, where one or more members removable by a user are attached to different positions on the data recording region of the optical recording medium, and the copying is performed by an apparatus which comprises a storage unit which stores information indicating a plurality of positions where members should be attached on the data recording region, the copy restriction method comprising: a detecting step for detecting one or more positions where the one or more members are attached to the data recording region and outputting information indicating the detected one or more positions; a judging step for judging whether the one or more positions indicated by the information output in the detecting step are included in the plurality of positions indicated by the information stored in the storage unit; an instructing step for instructing the user to detach one out of the one or more members from the data recording region when it is judged in the judging step that the one or more positions indicated by the information output in the detecting step are included in the plurality of positions indicated by the information stored in the storage unit; a checking step for checking whether the one out of the one or more members is detached after the user is instructed to detach in the instructing step; and an executing step for executing copying of the data from the data recording region of the optical recording medium to the other medium only when it is confirmed in the checking step that the member is detached.
With the above-stated construction, the user detaches one member from the optical recording medium each time data is copied from the optical recording medium to another recording medium. That is to say, it is possible to copy data as many times as the number of members. As a result, it is possible for this method to limit the number of times data is copied from an optical recording medium to another recording medium.
(C) In the above copy restriction method, the storage unit may further store information indicating operations which each correspond to one of the plurality of positions where members should be attached, and in the checking step, when it is confirmed that the member is detached, the member is identified, and in the executing step, an operation corresponding to the member identified in the detecting step is selected from the operations indicated by the information stored in the storage unit and the selected operation is executed only when the member is identified in the checking step.
With the above-stated construction, when one of the plurality of members is detached by the user, a corresponding operation is executed. As a result, a plurality of operations can be set.
(D) In the copy restriction method, the storage unit may further store
Chu Kim-Kwok
Edun Muhammad
Matsushita Electric - Industrial Co., Ltd.
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