Method of manufacturing a limited use data storing device

• US 20070253316A1
• Filed: 09/09/2005
• Published: 11/01/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 05/09/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Invention Science Fund I, L.L.C. (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Searete LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Ferren, Bran, Jung, Edward
• Granted Patent: US 7,748,012 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 369/273
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 17/051 Direct insertion, i.e. without external loading means
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00086 Circuits for prevention of unauthorised reproduction or copying, e.g. piracy indicating unauthorised use of record carriers in general G11B23/28; scrambling for television signal recording H04N5/913; network architectures or network protocols for network security H04L63/00; cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for secret or secure communication H04L9/00
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00195 using a device identifier associated with the player or recorder, e.g. serial numbers of playback apparatuses or MAC addresses
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00253 wherein the key is stored on the record carrier
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00608 wherein the material that the record carrier is made of is altered, e.g. adding reactive dyes that alter the optical properties of a disc after prolonged exposure to light or air
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00695 said measures preventing that data are read from the recording medium
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/0084 wherein the usage restriction can be expressed as a specific time or date
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00855 involving a step of exchanging information with a remote server
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00927 wherein said defects or errors are generated on purpose, e.g. intended scratches
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/2537 Optical discs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 23/282 Limited play
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 33/12 Disposition of constructional parts in the apparatus, e.g. of power supply, of modules
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 7/24 Record carriers characterised by shape, structure or physical properties, or by the selection of the material characterised by the arrangement of information on the carrier G11B7/007
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 7/26 Apparatus or processes specially adapted for the manufacture of record carriers

Abstract

Embodiments of methods and systems for controlling access to information stored on memory or data storage devices are disclosed. In various embodiments, methods of retrieving information from a data storage device previously deactivated by modification or degradation of at least a portion of the data storage device are disclosed.

Claims

1. A method of manufacturing a memory device comprising:

providing a substrate;

providing a primary data storage medium on the substrate; and

storing machine readable data in the primary data storage medium, said machine readable data being initially readable by a first type of data read system;

wherein at least a portion of at least one of the substrate and the primary data storage medium is modifiable by a limited expected lifetime to render at least a portion of the machine readable data unreadable by the first type of data read system.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least a portion of at least one of the substrate and the primary data storage medium is modifiable by a limited expected lifetime to render at least a portion of the machine readable data unreadable by the first type of data read system but readable by a second type of data read system.

6. The method of claim 2, including providing a substrate having at least one degradable portion, wherein the at least one degradable portion is degradable by the limited expected lifetime to render the at least a portion of the machine readable data unreadable by the first type of data read system but readable by the second type of data read system.

7. The method of claim 2, including providing a degradable primary data storage medium on at least a portion of the substrate, wherein the degradable primary data storage medium is modifiable by the limited expected lifetime to render at the at least a portion of the machine readable data unreadable by the first type of data read system but readable by the second type of data read system.

20. The method of claim 2, including storing at least one first portion of machine readable data in at least one first portion of the primary data storage medium and storing at least one second portion of machine readable data in at least one second portion of the primary data storage medium, the at least one first portion of machine readable data modifiable by a limited expected lifetime to render the at least one first portion of machine readable data unreadable by the first type of data read system but readable by the second type of data read system, and the at least one second portion of machine readable data substantially unmodifiable by the limited expected lifetime.

21. The method of claim 20, including storing read-support information in the at least one first portion of the primary data storage medium and storing data of interest in the at least one second portion of the primary data storage medium, the read-support information necessary for reading the data of interest from the at least one second portion of the primary data storage medium.

67. The method of claim 1, wherein the limited expected lifetime is defined by at least one of a limited number of readings of the machine readable data from the memory device, a limited number of uses of the memory device, or a limited time interval following an initial use of the device.

68. The method of claim 7, wherein the degradable primary data storage medium includes at least one of a photosensitive material, an electromagnetically-sensitive material, a thermally-sensitive material, a moisture-sensitive material, or a chemical-sensitive material.

69. The method of claim 1, including storing machine readable data in the primary data storage medium including multiple copies of data of interest or including redundancies within the data of interest, wherein the machine readable data is modifiable by the limited expected lifetime so that the redundancy in the data of interest is reduced.

70. The method of claim 2, wherein following the limited expected lifetime the portion of machine readable data is readable by a second type of data read system that performs one or more of signal averaging of multiple reads of the portion of machine readable data, determining a moving average of the machine readable data, or reading data from the at least a portion of the machine readable data at a reduced scan rate relative to a scan rate used by the first type of data read system.

71. The method of claim 21, including storing two or more copies of the read-support information or storing read-support information including redundant information in the at least one first portion of the primary data storage medium.

72. The method of claim 20, including storing secondary read-support information on the memory device in the at least one second portion of the primary data storage medium by at least one of storing the secondary read-support information in a different format than the data of interest, in encrypted form, or distributed in the data of interest, wherein the secondary read-support information is readable with the second type of data read system but not the first type of data read system.

73. The method of claim 72, including storing secondary read-support information in the at least one second portion of the primary data storage medium encrypted by one of a public key encryption method or a private key encryption method.

75. The method of claim 20, including storing secondary read-support information in the at least one second portion of the primary data storage medium at a different level, at a different spatial frequency, at a different optical wavelength, or at a different spatial frequency than the data of interest, wherein the primary data storage medium is an optical data storage medium and wherein the secondary read-support information is readable with the second type of data read system but not the first type of data read system.

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30. The method of claim 24, including providing a secondary data storage medium on the substrate, and storing secondary read-support information in the secondary data storage medium, wherein the secondary data storage medium is different than the primary data storage medium.

74. The method of claim 30, wherein the secondary data storage medium includes at least one RFID or resonant circuit.

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39. A method of manufacturing a data storage device comprising:

storing primary read-support information in a first data storage region of the data storage device, the first data storage region having an expected lifetime limit during which the primary read-support information can be read from the first data storage region with a first type of data read system;

storing secondary read-support information in a second data storage region of the data storage device, the secondary read-support information readable from the second data storage region with a second type of data read system but not with the first type of data read system;

storing data of interest in the second data storage region, the data of interest readable with support of the primary read-support information by the first type of data read system and readable with support of the secondary read-support information by the second type of data read system.

45. The method of claim 39, including storing the primary read-support information in a degradable first data storage region, wherein the expected lifetime limit during which primary read-support information can be read from the first data storage region with the first type of data read system is determined by the degradation of the degradable first data storage region.

76. The method of claim 39, wherein the primary read-support information includes at least one of a decryption key or index information.

77. The method of claim 39, wherein the primary read-support information includes a decryption key selected from a private key or a public key.

78. The method of claim 39, wherein the data of interest includes at least one of an audio recording, a video recording, a software code, or decryption or encryption key.

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51. A method of configuring a memory device comprising:

providing a memory device including a first data storage region including a material that is modifiable by a limited expected lifetime of data from the data storage region and a second data storage region including a material that is substantially unmodifiable by a limited number of reading of data from the data storage region;

storing primary read-support information in the first data storage region that is readable prior to modification of the material by a first data read system;

storing data of interest that is readable with use of the read-support information in the second data storage region;

providing read-support information on the memory device that is readable by a second data read system but not the first data read system.

52. The method of claim 51, including providing read-support information on the memory device that is readable by a second data read system but not the first data read system by storing read-support information in the first data storage region in a format that is readable by the first data read system prior to modification of the material and is readable by the second data read system but not the first data read system subsequent to modification of the material.

79. The method of claim 52, wherein the format readable by the first data read system includes redundancy and following modification the level of redundancy is reduced to a level readable by the second data read system but not the first data read system, or wherein the format readable by the first data read system includes multiple copies of the read-support information of which only one is read by the first data read system and following modification the signal-to-noise ratio of the copies is reduced to a level that is unreadable by the first data read system but readable by the second data read system by averaging of the multiple copies.

80. The method of claim 51, including providing read-support information on the memory device that is readable by a second data read system but not the first data read system by storing secondary read-support information at one or more locations in the second data storage region, wherein information about the one or more locations is available to the second data read system but not the first data read system.

81. The method of claim 51, wherein the primary read-support information includes at least one of index information or an encryption key.

82. The method of claim 51, wherein the primary read-support information includes an encryption key selected from a private key or a public key.

83. The method of claim 51, including storing data of interest in at least one of an optical data storage medium or a magnetic data storage medium.

84. The method of claim 51, including providing read-support information on the memory device that is readable by at lest one of an optical data read device or a magnetic data read device.

85. The method of claim 51, including providing secondary read-support information on the memory device in the form of at least one RFID or resonant circuit.

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