Electrical computers and digital processing systems: support – Data processing protection using cryptography – By stored data protection
Reexamination Certificate
1997-06-25
2001-03-27
Swann, Tod R. (Department: 2132)
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: support
Data processing protection using cryptography
By stored data protection
C713S100000, C713S152000, C713S194000, C705S051000, C705S057000, C705S058000, C380S201000, C380S202000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06209096
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to methods and devices which simultaneously store, into an electronic storage medium, main information such as tone control information (MIDI data) and supplementary or additional information associated with the main information, and reproduce the main information and additional information thus stored in the electronic storage medium. The present invention also relates to electronic storage media for storing therein such main and additional information or software programs to implement such a method. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method and device which allow main information to be stored with associated additional information incorporated therein.
In recent years, it has become possible for us to readily create music data, image data, waveform data, etc. and make various alterations to these data by use of a personal computer. Thus, using a personal computer, we can freely read out music data, image data, waveform data, etc. recorded on a commercially available storage medium, such as a FD (Floppy Disk), CD-ROM (Compact-Disk-Read-Only-Memory) and LD (Laser Disk), and also freely make various alterations to the data.
However, because the copyright on the data recorded on a commercially available CD-ROM or LD is mostly owned by the distributor or manufacturer of the storage medium, freely altering the recorded data would constitute an infringement of the copyright and hence should not be permitted.
At present, in an attempt to obviate such a copyright infringement, copyright indication data specifying who owns the copyright on main data, such as music data, image data or waveform data, recorded in a main data recording section of a CD-ROM or LD is attached, as additional information, to a header section of the storage medium, so as to identify the copyright holder. Other than such copyright indication data, the additional information sometimes include information indicative of the title of the music data, image data and waveform data, or recording-format information that indicates a particular sort of data compression technique used for compressing the data.
However, because the data can be freely rewritten or altered by use of a personal computer or otherwise, a significant problem may be encountered that any of the additional information, such as the copyright indication data, is readily deleted, altered or rewritten on purpose or by mistake. In particular, where such additional information is stored in the header section, the additional information may be deleted or altered quite easily.
Further, with the recent advancement of communication networks, there could arise another significant problem that music data, image data or waveform data with the copyright indication data deleted or alerted in an unfair manner is widely distributed via communication networks. Still another significant problem is that if the additional information on the data recording format used is deleted, the image data, waveform data or the like can not be reproduced at all.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a method and device which, even when additional information attached to main information such as music data, image data or waveform data is deleted or altered, allows the additional information to be appropriately reproduced.
In order to accomplish the above-mentioned object, the present invention provides a novel method of storing constituent data of first information along with constituent data of second information. Typically, the constituent data of first information comprises a plurality of predetermined data units. The method of the present invention comprises the steps of: dividing at least part of the constituent data of second information into a plurality of small-size data pieces; arithmetically operating respective values of particular ones of the predetermined data units of the first information in accordance with a predetermined algorithm containing a value of each of the data pieces as a parameter; and storing the data of first information including the arithmetically-operated particular data units, whereby the constituent data of first information is stored with at least part of the constituent data of second information incorporated therein.
The first information corresponds to “main information”, which may, for example, be MIDI-format musical performance information. The first information has a relatively large volume as a whole and is normally stored in a predetermined main data storage area of a memory. The second information corresponds to “additional information”, which may, for example, be copyright indication information attached to the first information or musical performance information stored in the main data storage area and typically has a smaller volume than the first information. For example, according to the present invention, the first information is stored in the main data storage area, and the second information is incorporated or mixed in constituent data of the first information and stored therewith in the main data storage area rather than in the header area. In this case, either part or the whole of the second or additional information may be incorporated in the constituent data of the first information.
In the present invention, either part or the whole of the constituent data of the second information is divided into a plurality of small-size data pieces (each of which may, for example, be of one bit or two or more bits). The constituent data of the first information comprises a plurality of predetermined data units. Because the value of one particular data unit is modulated in accordance with one of the data piece so that the value of the data piece is incorporated in the value of the particular data unit, each “data unit” of the first information is a unit in which one data piece value is to be incorporated. Therefore, the size of each “data unit” of the first information can be optionally chosen in implementing the present invention and may, for example, be one byte or two or more bytes.
The respective values of the individual data pieces are incorporated in particular ones of the data units of the first information. For example, where the second information has 16 data pieces, the respective values of these data pieces are incorporated into 16 particular data units. This data piece incorporation in the particular data units is conducted by an arithmetic operation to modulate the values of the particular data units in accordance with the values of the data piece in accordance with a predetermined algorithm (only some of the data unit values may be altered with the others left unaltered). As a result, the data pieces of the second information are dispersedly incorporated or mixed in the constituent data of the first information, and these data of the first information with the data pieces of the second information dispersedly incorporated therein are stored into a suitable memory.
In order to reproduce the second information from the constituent data of the first information, the method of the present invention may further comprise the steps of: reading out the data of the first information stored by the step of storing; and reproducing the plurality of small-size data pieces from the particular data units of the first information read out by the step of reading, wherein at least part of the constituent data of second information is reproduced by combining the data pieces reproduced by the step of reproducing. Basically, the reproduction of the data pieces of the second information from the particular data units of the first information can be effected by inversely executing the predetermined algorithm.
Because the second or additional information is mixedly hidden in the first information in the above-mentioned manner, it is difficult or impossible for malicious users to delete or alter the second information. In addition, even when the first information is copied in an unfair manner, the second information can
Callahan Paul E.
Morrison & Foerster
Swann Tod R.
Yamaha Corporation
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