JPH05197635A - Method for preventing ic memory card from being copied - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent the contents of an IC memory card legally acquired by a certain user from being illegally copied to the own IC memory card of the third person concerning the copy preventing method for the IC memory card. CONSTITUTION:First key information is written in a card attribute recording part 12 of an IC memory card 11, second key information is written in headers 14 of respective files in the file recording part 13. Even when the contents of the file recording part 13 are copied to another IC memory card 11', at read terminals 30A and 30B, read is not permitted unless fixed corresponding relation is established between the first and second key information.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a copy protection method for an IC memory card. IC as a portable recording medium in recent years
Demand for memory cards is increasing, and various information service systems using the same are provided. Considering electronic publishing as an example, this electronic publishing is widely put into practical use as one form of an information service system. In conventional electronic publishing, information sources such as books and magazines supplied from publishers are stored on a certain storage medium, mainly a CD.
-CD-R that is pre-recorded in ROM and already recorded with information
The user purchases the OM and obtains the information from the playback device owned by the user. However, this conventional electronic publishing has a few disadvantages, and the applicant of the present invention has proposed a new form of information service system capable of solving these problems all at once (Japanese Patent Application No. 3-2886).
No. 89). As will be described later, the information service system of this new form has an information center, an information server that stores information obtained from this information center and supplies it externally, and a copy card that copies the information from this information server.
When the copy card is inserted, the image information is displayed on the display screen, and it is mainly composed of an information viewer capable of listening to the sound information.

The present invention describes a copy protection method for an IC memory card, which is suitable for application in the above-mentioned information service system.

[0003]

2. Description of the Related Art Taking the above-mentioned information service system as an example, the contents of the information copied from the above information server to an IC memory card are read by an information viewer and displayed to the user. Is.
However, the user (A) lends the IC memory card (a) to a third party (B) such as an acquaintance, and the third party further copies the information in the IC memory card (a) of the user. Another usage method is possible in which the IC memory card (b) owned by the three parties is copied and set in the information viewer owned by the third party, and the third party views and listens to the contents of the electronic publication.

[0004]

The above-mentioned other usage of the latter is technically easy. For example, the IC memory card borrowed from the above user is set in the input / output section of a personal computer, and MS- By executing the "COPY" command of DOS, another IC set in the input / output unit can be easily
Information can be copied onto a memory card.

However, the information in the IC memory card may be personal information, but in the above information service system, the information in the IC memory card is often a publication relating to the work of another person. However, in this case, there arises a problem that the copying act of the third party becomes an infringement of copyright. Therefore, in view of the above problems, it is an object of the present invention to provide a copy protection method that makes it difficult for a general user to copy information from one IC memory card to another IC memory card.

[0006]

FIG. 1 is a diagram schematically showing the method of the present invention. In this figure, reference numeral 11 is I
It is a C memory card. The card 11 is generally composed of a card attribute recording unit 12 and a file recording unit 13. The file recording unit 13 is further divided into a plurality of files, and each file is provided with a header 14. These components 12, 13 and 14
Is a general configuration in a normal IC memory card.

According to the method of the present invention, the key information to be the lock (Key) for releasing the secret is provided to the IC memory card 11
The first key information K1, K2 ... Is written in the card attribute recording unit 12, and the second key information k is written in the header 14 of each file in the file recording unit 13.
Write 1, k2 ... Then, for example, the first key information written in the card attribute recording unit 12 of the IC memory card 11 by the writing terminal 20 and the header 14 of each file in the file recording unit 13 of the IC memory card 11 are written. The second key information is extracted, for example, at the reading terminals 30A and 30B.

The reading terminals 30A and 30B determine whether or not there is a predetermined fixed correspondence relationship with the extracted first and second key information, and it is determined that there is a fixed correspondence relationship. Only when this is done, the reading of various types of information (electronic publications, etc.) from the file recording unit 13 is permitted.

[0009]

In FIG. 1, the IC memory card 11 provided by the user A from the writing terminal 20 (corresponding to the above-mentioned information server) has the first key information K1, K2 ... And the second key information k1 ,. There is a certain correspondence with k2 ... And the reading terminal 30A (corresponding to the above-mentioned information viewer) permits reading of information from the file recording unit 13 (“OK” at the bottom of FIG. 1). ").

On the other hand, the IC memory card 11 provided by the user A is borrowed by a third party, for example, and the copy machine 1
0 to another IC memory card 11 'to IC memory card 1
It is assumed that the information in 1 is copied. Then, when the copied card 11 'is set in the reading terminal 30B, the second information k1, k2 ... Copied to the file recording unit 13 in the IC memory card 11' and the card 11 '.
Secondly originally written in the card attribute recording section 12 in
It is found that the above-mentioned certain correspondence relationship that should exist with the key information X1, X2 ... As a result, the reading terminal 30B prohibits reading of information from the file recording unit 13 of the card 11 '("NG" in the lower part of FIG. 1).

After all, the original IC memory card 11
The IC memory card 11 'obtained by copying
The reading of the information at 0B was not successful, and the copy was not actually performed. Here, the purpose of copy protection is achieved. The copy protection function described above is achieved by focusing on one fact. This fact generally defines that the file recording unit 13 in the IC memory card is an area that the user can freely access.
The card attribute recording section 12 is defined as an area that cannot be accessed freely by general users. Therefore, this attribute recording unit 12 can be rewritten only by a specific person. In addition,
Information such as the format (file format or data format) in the IC memory card is usually recorded in the card attribute recording unit 12, and the information is required only by the receiving side hardware of the IC memory card. It is information that does not appear in the table. That is, the information is not accessible to general users.

As a result, even if the original IC memory card 11 is copied by the copy machine 10 shown in FIG. 1, only the area of the file recording section 14 can be copied, and the area of the card attribute recording section 12 can be copied. Out of scope. Therefore, the contents (X1, X2 ...) Of the card attribute recording unit 12 originally possessed by the IC memory card used for copying cannot be changed and remain as they are. Thus, the second key information (k1, k2 ...) In the bettor and the first key information (X1, X2) in the card attribute recording unit 12 are recorded.
...), there is no predetermined correspondence relationship, and the reading at the reading terminal 30B is finally rejected. Further, even if the reading terminal 30A is set, the reading is naturally rejected. However, the original card 1
If it is 1, the terminal 30B will not be rejected.

The predetermined fixed correspondence between the first and second key information is, in the simplest form, the first key information (K1, K2, ...) For example, "2131",
When "2132", "2133", etc. are allocated, it means that exactly the same values "2131", "2132", "2133", etc. are allocated as the second key information (k1, k2 ...). However, not limited to this example, a value obtained by multiplying the second information (k1, k2 ...) By a predetermined constant scramble may be used as the first information (K1, K2 ...). However, this scrambling method must be shared between the writing terminal 20 and the reading terminals 30A and 30B. If you scramble it,
Even if a malicious user (a so-called maniac) tries to rewrite the first information in the card attribute recording unit 12, since the value to be rewritten is not known, the copy is more effectively prevented.

[0014]

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an application example of the present invention. As shown in the figure, the main components of the information service system to which the present invention is applied are an information center 1, an information server 21, an IC memory card 11 and an information viewer 3.
It is 1. However, according to the present invention, in particular, the information server 21 (corresponding to the writing terminal 20 described above) and the information viewer 31 (corresponding to the reading terminal 30 described above) in FIG. 2 and the IC memory exchanged between them. It is related to the card 11.

The information center 1 stores various information to be provided to users. The information server 21 is provided with a communication means 22 for communicating with the information center 1, a buffer means 23 for temporarily holding information obtained through the communication means 22, and a writing means 24 for writing it in an external recording medium. The IC memory card 11 constitutes the external recording medium, and the information server 21
A copy of the information once stored in it.

The information viewer 31 has a receiving portion for the IC memory card 11 and reads the information in the IC memory card 11 and displays it to the user. An information center 1 for storing digitized information in a publisher or a newspaper company is usually far away from users. It is the information server 21 that allows the information center 1 (database) to be installed as if it were close to the user.
The information server 21 temporarily holds information in the information center 1 via the communication means 22. The information server 21 further provides the held information to the outside.

On the other hand, the user has the IC memory card 11 and only the necessary information is stored in the information server 21.
C Copy in the memory card 11. The user also holds an information viewer 31. By simply inserting the IC memory card 11 into the information viewer 31, it is possible to view and listen to necessary information.

The information viewer 31 may be as small as a small portable television, and the information can be viewed and heard even on a train, for example. Further, the information center 1 can store as many information sources as possible without worrying about whether or not mass sale is possible. The user basically uses one I
If the C memory card 11 is held, this can be repeatedly used any number of times, and even if the IC memory card is expensive, the cost per information is low, which is economical.

Thus, although the cost per information is low, the IC memory card itself is actually expensive at present, and the information itself is expensive, so that the user usually buys ICs of others. It is natural to want to copy and use the contents of a memory card. However, if such a copy is left unattended, the copyright may be infringed, which is not preferable.

The above-described method of the present invention exerts an effective copy protection function. At present, if the above-mentioned copying is performed, it is most common to use the "COPY" command of MS-DOS by a personal computer.
In this case, it is premised that the IC memory card used is initialized by the MS-DOS format,
Only the file recording unit 13 described above is the target of copying. The information in the card attribute recording unit 12 is set at the time of initialization.

Therefore, when copying the IC memory card 11, the IC memory card 11 must be initialized once by some method. This initialization has the following two modes (1)
And (2) are possible. (1) When the IC memory card is initialized by the normal MS-DOS format When the IC memory card is initialized by the normal MS-DOS format, the above-mentioned first key information is not set, Information viewer 3 using the IC memory card 11
When set to 1, the second key information described above may not be matched, and the reading of information by the information viewer 31 is rejected.

(2) When the IC memory card has already been initialized in a format peculiar to the present invention, that is, it has been initialized once in a format that incorporates the first key information in one of the information servers 21. , If some publication information is already stored in the file recording unit 13, MS-DO of the personal computer
Even if copied in S, the second key information of the file header 14 of the copied document is repainted with the second key information of the original IC memory card 11, and the copy IC memory card 11 'loses the correspondence with the first key information originally held in the card attribute recording unit 12. Therefore, the reading of information by the information viewer 31 is rejected.

In the information server 21, (I) each I
The first key information unique to the C memory card is written in the card attribute recording unit 12 of the IC memory card, and (b)
The second key information having a predetermined fixed relationship with the first key information is written in the header 14 of each file in the file recording unit 13 of the IC memory card.

The information viewer 31 reads (c) the first key information written in the card attribute recording unit 12 and the second key information written in the header 14 of each file in the file recording unit 13. (D) It is determined whether or not there is a predetermined fixed correspondence between the read first and second key information, and (e)
Depending on the presence or absence of a certain correspondence based on the result of the determination, the reading of information from the file recording unit 13 is permitted or prohibited.

If permitted, the user can view the information viewer 3
Information can be viewed on one display unit (for example, a liquid crystal panel). On the other hand, when prohibited, the message "This document is not correct." Is displayed on the display.

[0026]

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to effectively prevent copying of information between IC memory cards without requiring special hardware.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram schematically showing the method of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an application example of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 11, 11 '... IC memory card 12 ... Card attribute recording unit 13 ... File recording unit 14 ... Header 20 ... Writing terminal 21 ... Information server 30A, 30B ... Read terminal 31 ... Information viewer

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Mariko Hayakawa 1015 Kamiodanaka, Nakahara-ku, Kawasaki-shi, Kanagawa Fujitsu Limited

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. The first key information written in a card attribute recording section (12) of an IC memory card (11) and the I
Only when it is determined that there is a predetermined correspondence with the second key information written in the header (14) of each file in the file recording unit (13) of the C memory card, the file A method of preventing copying of an IC memory card, which permits reading of information from each file in a recording unit. 2. An IC memory card (1) comprising a card attribute recording section (12) and a file recording section (13).
When writing information from 1) to the writing terminal (20), (a) writing the first key information peculiar to each IC memory card to the card attribute recording section of the IC memory card, (b) An IC memory, characterized in that second key information having a predetermined fixed relationship with the first key information is written in a header (14) of each file in the file recording section of the IC memory card. Card copy protection. 3. An IC memory card (1) comprising a card attribute recording section (12) and a file recording section (13).
When reading information from the reading terminal (30A, 30B) from 1), (a) the first key information written in the card attribute recording section and the header (14) of each file in the file recording section Each of the written second key information is read out, and (b) it is determined whether or not there is a predetermined fixed correspondence relationship between the read out first and second key information. A method for preventing copy of an IC card, which permits or prohibits reading of information from the file recording unit according to the presence or absence of the certain correspondence based on the result. 4. An information center (1) for accumulating various information to be provided to a user, a communication means (22) for communicating with the information center, and a buffer for temporarily holding the information obtained through the communication means. Means (2
3) and write means (24) for writing to an external recording medium
An information server (21) including: an IC memory card (11) which forms the external recording medium and copies the information once held in the information server.
And an information viewer (31) including the receiving section of the IC memory card and reading information in the IC memory card and displaying the information to the user, wherein the information server includes (a) The first key information unique to the IC memory card is stored in the card attribute recording unit (12) of the IC memory card.
(B) The second key information having a predetermined fixed correspondence relationship with the first key information, the header (14) of each file in the file recording section (13) of the IC memory card. The information viewer reads (c) the first key information written in the card attribute recording unit and the second key information written in the header of each file in the file recording unit. D) It is determined whether or not there is the predetermined fixed correspondence relationship between the read first and second key information, and (e) the presence or absence of the fixed correspondence relationship based on the result of the judgment. A method of preventing copying of an IC card, which permits or prohibits reading of information from the file recording unit, respectively.