AU2006200902A1 - Recording medium with copy protection indicating information and apparatus and methods for forming, recording, reproducing and restricting reproduction of the recording medium - Google Patents

Description

P/00/011 Regulation 3.2

AUSTRALIA

Patents Act 1990 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION STANDARD PATENT Invention Title: Recording medium with copy protection indicating information and apparatus and methods for forming, recording, reproducing and restricting reproduction of the recording medium The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it known to us: RECORDING MEDIUM WITH COPY PROTECTION INDICATING INFORMATION AND APPARATUS AND METHODS FOR FORMING, RECORDING, REPRODUCING AND RESTRICTING REPRODUCTION OF THE RECORDING MEDIUM 1. TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a recording medium such as BD-ROM (Blu-ray Disc ROM), which includes copy protection indicating information and an apparatus and methods for forming, recording, reproducing, and restricting reproduction of illegally duplicated recording media.

2. BACKGROUND ART Recently, standardization of a new high-density optical disc, a rewritable Blu-ray disc (BD-RE: Blu-ray Disc- Rewritable), have been under development where large quantities of high quality video and audio data can be recorded. Once the standard of a BD-RE has been established, products adopting the new optical discs are expected to be commercially available in the near future.

As illustrated in FIG. 1, a BD-RE has an inner hole, clamping area, transition area, BCA (Burst Cutting Area) area, and lead-in area, located in sequential order along radial direction. A data area and lead-out area reside in the center and outermost annulus of the disc, respectively.

The lead-in area is partitioned into a first guard (Guard 1) area, PIC (Permanent Information Control data) area, a second guard (Guard 2) area, Info 2 area, OPC (Optimum Power Calibration) area, etc. The first guard area and PIC area are 1 A pre-recorded areas, whereas the remaining lead-in areas, data area, and lead-out area correspond to rewritable areas which can be overwritten with new data.

General information of a disc which needs to be permanently preserved may be recorded in the PIC area, which can be encoded in wobbled grooves of a track by HFM (High Frequency Modulation) method. HFM Grooves are modulated in the radial direction with a rather high bandwidth.signal, to create a data channel for replicated information with sufficient capacity and data rate. As shown in FIG. 2, encoding data into wobbled groove can be performed by bi-phase modulation and thus recording.

In this modulation method a bit with value 0 is represented by a transition at the start of the bit cell and a bit with value 1 is represented by a transition at the start and in the middle of the bit cell. The modulated bits are recorded on the disc by a deviation of the groove from its average centerline as indicated in the FIG.2. The length of each bit cell shall be 36T, where T corresponds to the length of a channel bit in the Rewritable data areas.

Along with the development of a BD-RE, has been the development of a corresponding read-only disc, a.read-only Blu-ray disc (hereinafter, referred to as 'BD-ROM'). As shown in FIG. 3, the BD-ROM disc may include an inner area, clamping area, transition area, information area, and rim area.

The main data of an audio/video stream recorded in a data zone within an information area can be recorded with encryption with copy protection information (CPI) to prevent unauthorized copy.

Various disc information (DI) about the disc,.such as the type of a disc, may be recorded in the PIC area within the information area. When encrypted main data are recorded in the data zone, copy protection information (CPI) for decryption 2 can also be recorded in PIC area.

When an optical disc apparatus playing a recording medium performs initial servo operations in accordance with the insertion of a disc, copy protection information (CPI) recorded in the PIC area is detected. If main data recorded in a pre-recorded data area is found to be encrypted, the main data is output after decryption using the copy protection information.

Even when copy protection information is not recorded in the PIC area because the contents recorded in data area of a BD-ROM are not encrypted, an optical disc apparatus performing initial servo operations still performs a series of operations to detect copy protection information in the PIC area under the assumption that encryption has been applied to the contents. Such a preliminary operation can cause a delay in the playback of actual data. Also, if any data is recorded on the rewritable disk, BD-RE, or recordable disk, i.e., BD-WO and its data is copy protected, it has same problem when the data is reproduced.

Furthermore, in case that the copy protection information is not detected, it cannot distinguish whether there is no copy protection information initially because the disc is illegal medium, or there is no copy protection information because the disc is legal and copy-free medium.

3. DISCLOSURE OF INVE TION In exemplary embodiments, the present invention is directed to a recording medium, such as a high-density and/or read-only recording medium, such as BD-ROM, which includes copy protection indicating information, which can identify whether copy protection information is needed or not for the playback of contents stored on the recording medium, and to methods and apparatuses for forming, recording, and 3 reproducing data on the recording medium.

In exemplary embodiments, the present invention is directed to a recording medium, such as a high-density and/or read-only recording medium, such as BD-ROM, which includes information in a particular area indipating whether or not copy protection information to encrypt/decrypt recorded contents is present, and to methods and apparatuses for forming, recording, and reproducing data on the recording medium.

In exemplary embodiments, the present invention is directed to a recording medium, such as a high-density and/or read-only recording medium, such as BD-ROM, which includes information regarding the presence of copy protection information in the disc information, and to methods and apparatuses for forming, recording, and reproducing data on the recording medium.

004776899 In a first aspect there is provided a recording medium, comprising a control information area including a plurality of control information units to control a recording or reproducing of data to be recorded or recorded on a recording medium, wherein at least first control information unit in order includes an identifier to indicate a presence of copy protection information in the recording medium, and the copy protection information is required for a copy protection system; and a data area where data is to be recorded or recorded.

The plurality of control information units are recorded on the control area in wobbled pattern of phase-modulated.

The control area can be a lead-in area of the recording medium.

The recording medium can be an optical disc. In this case, each control information unit includes a disc information containing at least disc type information, disc size information, disc structure information, and data zone allocation information.

Each control information unit can include information having at least same value each other.

The copy protection information can include a key value for encrypting/decrypting a main data.

The copy protection information can be selectively or repeatedly recorded in other area of the recording medium.

The identifier and the copy protection information can be recorded respectively in a different area of the recording medium.

The identifier can indicate the presence of the copy protection information within one byte in the first control information unit.

An area for recording the copy protection information can be filled with value "00" if the identifier indicates the copy protection information is not present.

004776899 The identifier and the copy protection information can be recorded in a lead-in area of the recording medium, wherein the identifier is followed by the copy protection information.

In a second aspect the present invention provides a method of recording data on a recording medium, comprising generating a plurality of control information units to control a recording or reproducing of data to be recorded or recorded on a recording medium, wherein at least first control information unit in order includes an identifier to indicate a presence of copy protection information in the recording medium, and the copy protection information is required for a copy protection system; and recording a plurality of control information units at a specific area of the recording medium.

Step can record the plurality of control information units in a lead-in area of the recording medium.

The recording medium is preferably an optical disc, and each control information unit can include a disc information containing at least disc type information, disc size information, disc structure information, and data zone allocation information.

Each control information unit can include information having at least same value each other.

The method of can further comprise recording a main data in main data area, wherein the main data is copyprotected by the copy protection information including a key value.

The method of can further comprise recording the copy protection information in an area different from the area where each control information unit is recorded, based on the identifier.

Step can record a value "00" in the area where the copy protection information is to be recorded, if the 6 !004776899 identifier indicates the copy protection information is not present.

Step can record the copy protection information repeatedly.

Step can record the identifier within one byte in the first control information unit, to indicate the presence of the copy protection information.

4. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the invention, illustrate exemplary embodiments of the invention, and together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the present invention.

In the drawings:' FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating the disc structure of a conventional rewritable Blu-ray disc (BD-RE); FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating the high frequency modulation (HFM) groove formed in the PIC area of a rewritable Blu-ray disc; FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating each area allocated in a read-only Blu-ray disc (BD-ROM) in an exemplary embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary embodiment wherein information regarding the presence of copy protection information is recorded in the PIC area of a Blu-ray disc according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating the fields of disc information recorded and managed in a high-density Blu-ray disc, wherein a flag indicating the presence of copy protection information is included in an exemplary embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary embodiment wherein recorded in the BCA area of a Blu-ray disc according to the present invention is information indicating whether or not copy protection information is recorded; FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a process restoring data encoded in wobbled pits according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating a simplified structure of an optical disc apparatus capable of playing a high-density 8 Blu-ray disc in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating the process of playing a high-density Blu-ray optical disc according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention; and FIGS. 10 and 11 are diagrams illustrating respectively the exemplary embodiments according to the present invention, wherein recorded in a Blu-ray disc are information indicating whether or not copy protection information is recorded.

5. MODES FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Hereinafter, a high-density read-only recording medium according to exemplary embodiments of the present invention and exemplary embodiments of apparatuses and methods for forming, recording, and reproducing copy protection information will be described in detail with reference to the appended drawings.

As stated above with reference to FIG. 3, a read-only Blu-ray disc (BD-ROM) according.to exemplary embodiments of the present invention has a disc structure including inner area, clamping area, transition area, information area, and rim area.

As shown in FIG. 4, disc information corresponding to general information of a disc as well as encrypted main data recorded in data zone, for example, copy protection information required to decrypt A/V data streams may be recorded in the PIC area allocated in the information area.

When the main data is recorded without encryption in the data zone, the copy protection information need not be particularly recorded in the PIC area.

Accordingly, a flag to indicate whether or not copy protection information is recorded in the PIC area may be included in the disc information recorded in the PIC area. The flag (CPI_rec_Flag) indicates the presence of copy protection information and may have a recording size of one byte.

As shown in FIG. 5, one byte is allocated to record the flag indicating the presence of copy protection information within the area reserved for the disc information.

Also, the disc information in the PIC area can be recorded for several times. The flag byte may be recorded only in the first disc information among multiple of disc information which are recorded repeatedly in the PIC area.

As illustrated in FIG. 6, the flag indicating whether or not the copy protection information is recorded may be recorded in another area, the BCA (Burst Cutting Area) area allocated in the inner ring of the PIC area wherein copy protection information is recorded.

Copy protection information, along with the flag indicating the presence thereof, may be encoded and recorded in wobbled pits rather than in straight pits where data.are recorded in general case. To this purpose, pits may be formed in wobbled pattern (or in a zigzag pattern) within as many track sections as needed. Also, it may be encoded and recorded in wobbled pits and straight pits alternatively and/or intermittently within the PIC area. Otherwise, it may be selectively or repeatedly recorded on other area except for the PIC area. It is recorded by HFM groove wobbled method such as BD-RE.

The copy protection information includes a key value for encrypting the main data to be recorded on data area.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example where data is encoded in wobbled pits by bi-phase modulation, whereby data are detected. In FIG. 7, the value of '0101' is encoded in biphase modulated form, bi- phase modulated HFM Groove, along with wobbled pattern of wobbled pits. The recording example of wobbled pits in FIG. 7 comprises 36Ts (including marks and.spaces) where six 3T signals (mark) make up of the value of one bit. In the example, left and right transition of a sequence of six pits denoting l 1' and a sequence of six pits denoting are provided in opposite directions.

As shown in FIG. 7. the structure by bi-phase modulation is different from the structure illustrated in FIG.2. That is, the method of FIG.2 has a bit with value 0, which is represented by a transition at the start of the bit cell and a bit with value 1, which is represented by a transition at the start and in the middle of the bit cell. Otherwise, the method of FIG.7 has a bit with value 0, which is represented by a transition at the start of low and in the middle of high, and a bit with value 1, which is represented by the transition in the opposite direction. The combination of bits consists of data to detect information recorded as wobbled pit. The wobbled pit can be copy protection information, key data to decrypt main data recorded on the data zone of the recording medium as shown in FIG.4A to 4F That is, the wobbled pit data can be reproduced or detected only when the bi-phased modulation data is detected or reproduced normally. And also, reproduction or decryption of main data is possible only when the wobbled pit data for copy protection is reproduced or detected using the normally detected or reproduced bi-phase modulation data.

When information is recorded in pits, identical pits need not be repeated but modulated varying pits (2T-8T) in accordance with input information may be recorded. In this case, too, however, the position of a pit sequence (namely, phase) is shifted approximately by every 18Ts in order to encode data into wobbled pattern of wobbled pits.

The reflected light reflected from wobbled pits recorded in such a manner undergoes a photoelectric transform by four quadrant light receiving elements 13-16.

As illustrated in FIG. 7, The photoelectrically transformed electrical signals (Ea, Eb, Ec, Ed) are amplified by a circuit for conventional push-pull track control. More specifically, left and right-side signals of the track (Ea+Eb, Ec+Ed) are amplified by respective amplifiers 10, 11 and the difference signal 501 of the left and right-side signals is output by a differential amplifier 12.

When the difference signal 501 is converted a binary signal based on whether its level is above or below a reference, encoded data in wobbled pattern of wobbled pits may be obtained.

Because signals detected.from the wobbled pattern of wobbled pits are not available externally, even if data played from a BD-ROM were copied onto another recording medium other than the BD-ROM, playback of the copied data would be impossible.

Instead of recording data in wobbled pattern, if data were recorded in the PIC area according to a different agreement for recording format between manufactures having legal authorities, copying a BD-ROM by unauthorized manufactures can also be made more difficult.

FIG. 8 is a simplified diagram illustrating an optical disc apparatus playing a recording medium of a disc. The apparatus includes an optical pickup 11; VDP (Video Disc Play) system 12 performing signal processing and servo control; and a D/A converter 13. The optical disc apparatus may perform playback processing according to whether or not copy protection information is recorded, as described in conjunction with FIG. 9.

The VDP system 12 of the disc apparatus detects and checks a flag (CPI_rec_Flag) indicating whether or not copy protection information among disc information recorded in the PIC area or encoded in the wobbled pits of an inserted BD-ROM is recorded (Sl1); otherwise, a flag recorded in the BCA area of a BD-ROM is detected (Sl1), whereby it is determined whether or not copy protection information is recorded.

If the flag is detected, its value is checked (S13). If the value indicates that copy protection information is recorded, the VDP system 12 of the optical disc apparatus performs (S14) the operation of detecting copy protection information recorded in the PIC area or encoded in the wobbled pits; thereafter, by using the copy protection information, a series of data play operations decrypting and playing encrypted data recorded in the data zone are performed When the value of the flag indicates the absence of copy protection information or the flag indicating the presence of copy protection information is not detected, the VDP system 12 omits unnecessary operations to detect non-existent copy protection information in the PIC area, but directly performs the operations of reading out recorded contents in the data area.

As shown in the exemplary embodiment of FIG. 5, the flag indicating whether or not copy protection information is recorded, instead of being included and recorded in the disc information, may be recorded in the PIC area together with copy protection information.

FIG. 10 is an exemplary embodiment illustrating such an arrangement. As shown in the exemplary embodiment of FIG. the flag (CPIrec_Flag) indicating the presence of copy protection information may be recorded as header information of copy protection information field.

The flag indicating whether or not copy protection information is recorded may have a recording size of one byte.

When the value of the flag is '0000 0000', the flag indicates that copy protection information is not recorded (in this case, a succeeding copy protection information field may be filled with When the value of the flag is '0000 lll', the flag indicates that copy protection information is recorded.

In other exemplary embodiments, copy protection information having a flag indicating whether or not copy protection information is recorded as a header information can be recorded in a particular recording area other than the PIC area, for example, the BCA area.

Copy protection information having a flag indicating whether or not copy protection information is recorded can be recorded in a field of disc information stored in the PIC area.

Alternatively, it may be recorded as an independent structure from the disc information.

FIG. 11 describes an exemplary embodiment wherein copy protection information is recorded in the PIC area independently of the disc information.

In the exemplary embodiment of FIG. 11, the flag indicating whether or not copy protection information is recorded also appears in the header of copy protection information. When the value of the flag is '0000 0000', the flag indicates that copy protection information is not recorded (In this case, succeeding copy protection information field may be filled with the value of When the value of the flag is '0000 1111', the flag indicates that copy protection information is recorded.

As described above, a high-density read-only recording medium and methods for recording copy protection information/playing thereof according to exemplary embodiments of the present invention allows a direct playback of contents stored in a high-density read-only disc unless the contents had been encrypted, whereas proper playback is achieved by reading out decryption information from the disc when encryption has been applied to the contents.

In addition, information for decoding encrypted data is recorded in a form of copy-resistant wobbled pits, whereby illegal copy of the contents stored in a high-density readonly disc is prohibited.

The foregoing description of exemplary embodiments of the present invention has been presented for purposes of illustration; therefore, those skilled in the art may utilize the invention and various embodiments with improvements, modifications, substitutions, or additions within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the following appended claims.

Claims (22)

1. A recording medium, comprising: a control information area including a plurality of control information units to control a recording or reproducing of data to be recorded or recorded on a recording medium, wherein at least first control information unit in order includes an identifier to indicate a presence of copy protection information in the recording medium, and the copy protection information is required for a copy protection system; and a data area where data is to be recorded or recorded.

2. The recording medium of claim 1, wherein the plurality of control information units are recorded on the control area in wobbled pattern of phase-modulated.

3. The recording medium of claim 2, wherein the control area is a lead-in area of the recording medium.

4. The recording medium of claim 3, wherein the recording medium is an optical disc, each control information unit includes a disc information containing at least disc type information, disc size information, disc structure information, and data zone allocation information.

The recording medium of claim 4, wherein each control information unit includes information having at least same value each other.

6. The recording medium of claim 1, wherein the copy protection information includes a key value for encrypting/decrypting a main data. 16 004776899

7. The recording medium of claim 6, wherein the copy protection information is selectively or repeatedly recorded in other area of the recording medium.

8. The recording medium of claim 6, wherein the identifier and the copy protection information are recorded respectively in a different area of the recording medium.

9. The recording medium of claim 8, wherein the identifier indicates the presence of the copy protection information within one byte in the first control information unit.

10. The recording medium of claim 8, wherein an area for recording the copy protection information is filled with value "00" if the identifier indicates the copy protection information is not present.

11. The recording medium of claim 6, wherein the identifier and the copy protection information are recorded in a lead-in area of the recording medium, wherein the identifier is followed by the copy protection information.

12. A method of recording data on a recording medium, comprising: generating a plurality of control information units to control a recording or reproducing of data to be recorded or recorded on a recording medium, wherein at least first control information unit in order includes an identifier to indicate a presence of copy protection information in the recording medium, and the copy protection information is required for a copy protection system; and 004776899 recording a plurality of control information units at a specific area of the recording medium.

13 The method of claim 12, wherein the step records the plurality of control information units in a lead-in area of the recording medium.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the recording medium is an optical disc, each control information unit includes a disc information containing at least disc type information, disc size information, disc structure information, and data zone allocation information.

The method of claim 14, wherein each control information unit includes information having at least same value each other.

16. The method of claim 12, further comprising: recording a main data in main data area, wherein the main data is copy-protected by the copy protection information including a key value.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising: recording the copy protection information in an area different from the area where each control information unit is recorded, based on the identifier.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the step records a value "00" in the area where the copy protection information is to be recorded, if the identifier indicates the copy protection information is not present. 004776899

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the step records the copy protection information repeatedly.

The method of claim 12, wherein the step records the identifier within one byte in the first control information unit, to indicate the presence of the copy protection information.

21. A recording medium substantially as herein before described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

22. A method of recording data having steps substantially as hereinbefore described. Dated 2 March 2006 Freehills Patent Trade Mark Attorneys Patent Attorneys for the Applicant: LG ELECTRONICS INC.