JP2010140446A - Content management method, content management device and content management program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To avoid data of a quality equal to original data (content) from being lost by a copy guard function. <P>SOLUTION: A recording/regeneration device 10 is a content management device for managing content to which a copy guard for limiting the permitted number of copies is applied. The recording/regeneration device 10 includes: a copying processing part 142 which updates the permitted number of copies of the content every time a copy of the content is formed, and a saving part 143 which forms a backup of the content in a predetermined storage means when the permitted number of copies reaches a predetermined value. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a content management method, a content management apparatus, and a content management program for managing content to which a copy guard that restricts the number of times that copying can be applied, and in particular, data of the same quality as original data is obtained by a copy guard function. The present invention relates to a content management method, a content management apparatus, and a content management program that can avoid being lost.

  In recent years, with the spread of technology for handling video and music as digital data, copy guard technology has attracted attention. Digitized video data and audio data do not deteriorate in quality even if they are copied. If unlimited copying is permitted, the rights of copyright holders and the like are harmed. On the other hand, if copying is not allowed at all, if the user wants to enjoy video and music on multiple devices, it is necessary to purchase the same video and music for each device, which is disadvantageous for the user. It becomes.

  Therefore, in order to harmonize the interests of the right holder and the user, a copy guard technique that allows copying of video data and audio data with a certain upper limit number of times is widely used. Video data and audio data to which this copy guard technology is applied are encrypted and managed so that the copied data cannot be reproduced normally unless it is copied via a mechanism that manages the maximum number of copies. (For example, see Patent Document 1).

  Copy guard technology that places an upper limit on the number of copies is also applied to Japanese television broadcasting. The copy guard technology for Japanese TV broadcasting is called dubbing 10 and allows nine copies and one move for video data recorded on a recording / playback device such as an optical disk recorder. In the dubbing 10, when the number of times the video data is copied reaches 10, the 10th copy is treated as a move, and the recorded original video data is automatically deleted.

JP 2000-9888A

  If the original data is automatically deleted when copying is performed a predetermined number of times as in the case of the above dubbing 10, data having the same quality as the original data may not be obtained again. For example, if the recorded video data is converted to a portable terminal with a low-resolution screen and copied repeatedly and the maximum number of copies is reached, the high-resolution original video data is lost and converted. Only the later low-resolution video data remains.

  It is an object of the disclosed technique to provide a content management method, a content management apparatus, and a content management program that can avoid losing data of the same quality as original data (content) by a copy guard function. .

  In one aspect, the content management device disclosed in the present application is a content management device that manages content to which a copy guard that restricts the number of times of copying is applied, and each time a copy of the content is created, A copy unit that updates the copyable number, and a save unit that creates a backup of the content in a predetermined storage unit when the copyable number reaches a predetermined value.

  In addition, in order to solve the above-described problem, a component, expression, or any combination of components disclosed in the present application is applied to a method, device, system, computer program, recording medium, data structure, and the like. It is effective for.

  According to one aspect of the content management method, the content management device, and the content management program disclosed in the present application, it is possible to avoid the loss of data having the same quality as the original data by the copy guard function. .

  Embodiments of a content management method, a content management device, and a content management program disclosed in the present application will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the following description, the content management method disclosed in the present application will be described for use in managing video data recorded on a television broadcast. However, the content management method disclosed in the present application is limited to such applications. It can be used to manage various contents to which copy guard is applied.

  Further, in the following description, a recording / playback apparatus and a personal computer will be described as examples of the content management apparatus disclosed in the present application, but the content management apparatus disclosed in the present application is not limited to these, for example, Various devices such as a server device for managing contents via a network are included.

  First, the recording / reproducing apparatus 10 according to the present embodiment will be described. The recording / reproducing apparatus 10 is an apparatus for recording / reproducing a television broadcast, and a copy guard technique for automatically deleting the recorded video data when the recorded video data is copied ten times is applied. The recording / reproducing apparatus 10 has a function of automatically backing up video data so that high-quality video data is not lost by this copy guard technology.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the recording / playback apparatus 10. As shown in FIG. 1, the recording / playback apparatus 10 includes a tuner unit 110, a recording processing unit 120, a recording data storage unit 130, a content management unit 140, a replication history storage unit 150, an output interface 160, It has an optical drive 170, a saved data storage unit 180, and a reproduction processing unit 190.

  The tuner unit 110 demodulates the signal received by the antenna 30 to obtain an image. The recording processing unit 120 encodes the video obtained by the tuner unit 110 by a predetermined method, and stores it in the recorded data storage unit 130 as video data 130a. The recording processing unit 120 also performs a process of initially setting 10 times as the number of times that the video data 130a can be copied.

  The recorded data storage unit 130 is a storage device such as a hard disk device, and stores the video data 130 a encoded by the recording processing unit 120.

  The content management unit 140 includes a deletion processing unit 141, a replication processing unit 142, and a save processing unit 143, and executes processing related to copying of the video data 130a. The duplication processing unit 142 performs a process of copying the video data 130a to an external device such as the portable terminal 50 via the output interface 160 or a process of copying to an optical disk mounted on the optical drive 170 in accordance with a user instruction. To do.

  When the copy processing unit 142 executes copying of the video data 130a, the copy processing unit 142 reduces the number of times that the video data 130a can be copied by one. Then, the copy processing unit 142 instructs the deletion processing unit 141 to delete the video data 130a when the number of times that the video data 130a can be copied becomes zero. Further, the copy processing unit 142 instructs the save processing unit 143 to back up the video data 130a when the number of times that the video data 130a can be copied reaches a predetermined value.

  Further, the replication processing unit 142 records a replication history in the replication history storage unit 150. An example of a replication history recorded in the replication history storage unit 150 is shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 2, the replication history has items such as a data ID, a replication number, and a replication destination. The data ID is an identification number for identifying the video data 130a. The duplication number is a number for identifying the time of copying each video data 130a. The duplication destination is a copy destination of the video data 130a.

  The deletion processing unit 141 deletes the video data 130a whose copy count has reached the upper limit in accordance with an instruction from the duplication processing unit 142. Further, when deleting the video data 130 a, the deletion processing unit 141 deletes the replication history corresponding to the video data 130 a from the replication history storage unit 150.

  The save processing unit 143 backs up the video data 130 a whose number of copies has reached a predetermined number in the save data storage unit 180 in accordance with an instruction from the copy processing unit 142. Since the backup to the saved data storage unit 180 is also a kind of copy, when the backup is executed, the replication processing unit 142 records the replication history and sets the permitted number of times of the backup video data 130a to one. cut back.

  As described above, by backing up the video data 130a having reached the predetermined number of times in the saved data storage unit 180, it becomes impossible to obtain data having the same quality as the video data 130a by deletion by the deletion processing unit 141. Can be avoided.

  The save processing unit 143 obtains the copy history of the video data 130a instructed to be backed up from the copy history storage unit 150, and has already been copied to the copy destination where the quality of the data after the copy is equivalent to that before the copy. If it is detected, backup is canceled. In this case, it is considered that even if backup is not executed, there is no possibility that data having the same quality as the video data 130a cannot be obtained by deletion by the deletion processing unit 141. For example, the optical drive 170 is a copy destination where the quality of the data after the copy is equivalent to that before the copy.

  The replication history storage unit 150 is a storage device that stores a replication history. The output interface 160 is an interface for connecting various external devices such as the portable terminal 50. The optical drive 170 is a drive that executes reading and writing of an optical disk.

  The save data storage unit 180 is a storage device that stores the video data 180 a backed up by the save processing unit 143. Note that the save data storage unit 180 may be external to the recording / playback apparatus 10. An optical disk mounted on the optical drive 170 may be used as a backup destination.

  The reproduction processing unit 190 decodes the video data 130 a stored in the recorded data storage unit 130 and the video data 180 a stored in the saved data storage unit 180 and causes the display device 40 to display them.

  Next, the processing procedure of the duplication processing of the recording / playback apparatus 10 shown in FIG. 1 will be described. FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the processing procedure of the duplication processing of the recording / playback apparatus 10.

  Here, it is assumed that the video data 130a is backed up when the number of times the video data 130a can be copied becomes 2 after copying. If the setting is made in this way, it is possible to avoid the possibility that the number of times of duplication becomes 0 and the video data 130a is deleted by executing the backup, and that the user loses the opportunity to copy the video data 130a by his / her own intention.

  Note that the timing for automatically executing the backup is not limited to the timing at which the number of times the video data 130a can be copied after copying is two. Specifically, it may be executed whenever copying is possible, that is, when the number of times that the video data 130a can be copied is one or more.

  Further, here, the video data 130a that has been copied to the optical disc is not backed up because deletion by the deletion processing unit 141 does not cause a situation in which data having the same quality as the video data 130a cannot be obtained. And

  As shown in FIG. 3, when the copy processing unit 142 executes copying of the video data 130a (step S101), the copy history is recorded in the copy history storage unit 150 (step S102), and the number of times that the video data 130a can be copied is recorded. Is reduced by 1 (step S103).

  If the permitted number of times of duplication becomes 0 (Yes at Step S104), the deletion processing unit 141 deletes the video data 130a (Step S105), and deletes the replication history of the video data 130a from the replication history storage unit 150. (Step S106).

  In addition, when the number of possible duplications becomes 2 (No at Step S104, Yes at Step S107), the save processing unit 143 refers to the replication history storage unit 150 (Step S108). If the video data 130a has been copied to the optical disk (Yes at step S109), the backup is stopped.

  On the other hand, if the video data 130a has not been copied to the optical disc (No at Step S109), the save processing unit 143 checks whether or not the save destination is available (Step S110). Specifically, the save processing unit 143 checks whether the save data storage unit 180 has a sufficient capacity. If an optical disk is designated as the save destination, the save processing unit 143 checks whether an optical disk having a sufficient capacity is mounted on the optical drive 170.

  If the save destination is not available (No at Step S110), the save processing unit 143 displays an error message (Step S111).

  On the other hand, if the save destination is available (Yes at Step S110), the save processing unit 143 performs backup of the video data 130a (Step S112). Then, the duplication processing unit 142 records the duplication history (step S113), and reduces the number of times that the video data 130a can be duplicated by 1 (step S114).

  As described above, in the first embodiment, when data whose copy count is limited by the copy guard function is copied a predetermined number of times, the data is automatically backed up. It is possible to avoid a situation in which data of equivalent quality cannot be obtained.

  In the first embodiment, an example in which the content management method disclosed in the present application is applied to a recording / playback apparatus has been described. However, the content management method disclosed in the present application can be applied to various apparatuses that store and play back content. it can. In the second embodiment, a case where the content management method disclosed in the present application is applied to a personal computer (hereinafter referred to as “PC”) will be described.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an appearance of the PC 20 according to the second embodiment. As illustrated in FIG. 4, the PC 20 includes a main body 21, a keyboard 220 a, a mouse 220 b, and a display device 230, and is connected to the external storage device 60.

  The main body 21 is a main part of the PC 20, and includes an optical drive 240 and a USB (Universal Serial Bus) interface 250, a CPU (Central Processing Unit), a RAM (Random Access Memory), a hard disk device, a tuner, and the like. The keyboard 220a and the mouse 220b accept input from the user. The optical drive 240 executes reading / writing of the optical disc. The USB interface 250 electrically connects various devices such as a portable terminal to the PC 20.

  The display device 230 displays various information such as images and characters. The external storage device 60 is used as a backup destination for content such as video data.

  FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the PC 20 shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 5, the PC 20 receives a CPU 210 that executes various arithmetic processes, an input device 220 including a keyboard 220a and a mouse 220b, a display device 230, an optical drive 240, a USB interface 250, and an antenna 30. A tuner 260 that demodulates the received signal to obtain video, a network interface device 270 that exchanges data with the external storage device 60 via a network, a RAM 280 that temporarily stores various information, and a hard disk device 290. Are connected by a bus.

  The hard disk device 290 stores a content management program 291 having the same function as the content management unit 140 shown in FIG. The hard disk device 290 also stores video data 292 corresponding to the video data 130 a shown in FIG. 1 and replication history data 293 corresponding to the replication history of the replication history storage unit 150.

  Then, the CPU 210 reads the content management program 291 from the hard disk device 290 and develops it in the RAM 280, so that the content management program 291 functions as the content management process 281. Then, the content management process 281 expands the copy history data 293 read from the hard disk device 290 to an area allocated to itself on the RAM 280 as appropriate, and executes various data processing based on the expanded data.

  Note that the content management program 291 is not necessarily stored in the hard disk device 290, and the PC 20 may read and execute the program stored in a storage medium such as a CD-ROM. In addition, this program is stored in another computer (or server) connected to the PC 20 via a public line, the Internet, a LAN (Local Area Network), a WAN (Wide Area Network), etc. The program may be read and executed.

  In the above description, the external storage device 60 connected to the PC 20 is used as the backup destination of the video data 292. However, the storage device built in the PC 20 or the optical disk mounted on the optical drive 240 is used. May be used.

  The processing procedure executed by the content management program 291 is the same as the processing procedure shown in FIG. Although not shown in FIG. 5, the hard disk device 290 has a recording program having the same function as the recording processing unit 120 shown in FIG. 1 and a playback program having the same function as the playback processing unit 190. Is also remembered.

1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a recording / playback apparatus according to Embodiment 1. FIG. It is a figure which shows an example of the replication history memorize | stored in a replication history memory | storage part. 3 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure of a duplication process of the recording / playback apparatus shown in FIG. 1. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an appearance of a PC according to a second embodiment. FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a PC according to a second embodiment.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Recording / reproducing apparatus 110 Tuner part 120 Recording processing part 130 Recording data storage part 130a Video data 140 Content management part 141 Deletion processing part 142 Duplication processing part 143 Evacuation processing part 150 Duplication history memory part 160 Output interface 170 Optical drive 180 Evacuation data Storage unit 180a Video data 190 Playback processing unit 20 PC
21 Main body 210 CPU
220 Input device 220a Keyboard 220b Mouse 230 Display device 240 Optical drive 250 USB interface 260 Tuner 270 Network interface device 280 RAM
281 Content management process 290 Hard disk device
291 Content management program 292 Video data 293 Replication history data 30 Antenna 40 Display device 50 Mobile terminal 60 External storage device

Claims (7)

A content management method for managing content to which a copy guard that restricts the number of times that can be copied is applied,
A replication step of updating the number of times the content can be copied each time a copy of the content is made;
A content management method comprising: a saving step of creating a backup of the content in a predetermined storage means when the number of possible copies reaches a predetermined value of 1 or more. The duplication step records the copy destination as a duplication history every time a copy of the content is created,
The saving step refers to the duplication history when the number of possible copies reaches a predetermined value, and if it is detected that the content is copied to a copy destination that is copied while maintaining quality, The content management method according to claim 1, wherein a backup of the content is not created in a predetermined storage unit. A content management apparatus that manages content to which a copy guard that limits the number of times that copying is possible is applied,
Copy means for updating the number of times the content can be copied each time a copy of the content is created;
A content management apparatus comprising: a saving unit that creates a backup of the content in a predetermined storage unit when the possible number of times of copying reaches a predetermined value of 1 or more. The duplicating means records the copy destination as a duplication history every time a copy of the content is created,
The saving means refers to the copy history when the possible number of times of copying reaches a predetermined value, and detects that the content has been copied to a copy destination to be copied while maintaining quality. The content management apparatus according to claim 3, wherein a backup of the content is not created in a predetermined storage unit.   4. The content management apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the saving unit creates a backup of the content in an external storage device when the number of possible copies reaches a predetermined value of 1 or more. A content management program for managing content to which a copy guard that limits the number of times that copying is possible is applied,
A replication procedure for updating the number of times the content can be copied each time a copy of the content is made;
A content management program for causing a computer to execute a save procedure for creating a backup of the content in a predetermined storage means when the number of possible copies reaches a predetermined value of 1 or more. The duplication procedure records the copy destination as a duplication history every time a copy of the content is created,
The evacuation procedure refers to the duplication history when the number of possible copies reaches a predetermined value, and if it is detected that the content is copied to a copy destination that is copied while maintaining quality, 7. The content management program according to claim 6, wherein a backup of the content is not created in a predetermined storage unit.

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