Information storage and information transmission media with parental control

• US 6,009,433 A
• Filed: 03/24/1998
• Issued: 12/28/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 04/14/1995
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: Mimura, Hideki, Kikuchi, Shinichi, Kurano, Tomoaki, Taira, Kazuhiko, Hagio, Takeshi
• Primary Examiner(s): Von Buhr, Maria N.
• Application Number:
  US09/046,516
• Time in Patent Office: 644 Days
• Field of Search: 395/600, 360/131-133, 360/135, 360/71-72.2, 369/272, 369/273, 369/275.1, 369/276, 707/9, 707/100, 707/200, 711/117, 711/163
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 19/02 Control of operating function, e.g. switching from recording to reproducing
• 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 20/00159 Parental control systems
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/2562 DVDs [digital versatile discs]; Digital video discs; MMCDs; HDCDs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 23/283 Security features, e.g. digital codes
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/034 on discs G11B27/036, G11B27/038 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/105 of operating discs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/3027 used signal is digitally coded
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/329 on a disc [VTOC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/765 Interface circuits between an apparatus for recording and another apparatus
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/85 on discs or drums
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8042 involving data reduction
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8063 using time division multiplex of the PCM audio and PCM video signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8205 involving the multiplexing of an additional signal and the colour video signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8216 using time division multiplex
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8227 the additional signal being at least another television signal
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99939 Privileged access

Abstract

Parental information of a video program recorded on an optical disk is always checked in a disk player. Even if a jump of laser beam tracing of an optical head erroneously occurs due to shocks or vibrations, the content of parental information assigned to the destination of optical head jumping is checked, to thereby achieve an accurate parental control of selective restriction for the video whose reproduction or presentation is restricted by the parental information.

Claims

1. A recording medium comprising:

a data area to record at least one prescribed data portion, the data area having a hierarchical structure including one or more sequences, wherein each sequence includes one or more programs, each program includes one or more cells, and each cell includes one or more packs, and

a management area to record restriction information for selectively restricting reproduction or presentation of the prescribed data portion, the management area including management information for managing the sequences in the data area, the restriction information including a higher level and a lower level that constitute a hierarchical structure wherein parental hierarchy is established based on a path from the higher level restriction information to the lower level restriction information.

2. A recording medium comprising:

a data area having a hierarchical structure including one or more sequences, each sequence including one or more programs, each program including one or more cells, and each cell including one or more packs, the data area recording at least one prescribed data portion, and

a management area including management information for managing the sequences in the data area, the management area including;

a first restriction information for selectively restricting reproduction or presentation of the prescribed data portion, and

a second restriction information having a higher and a lower level restriction information that constitute a hierarchical structure, wherein parental hierarchy is established based on a path from the higher level restriction information to the lower level restriction information.

3. The medium of claim 2, wherein at least one of the first and second restriction information includes one or more parental levels, each defining a degree of restricting reproduction or presentation of the prescribed data portion.

4. The medium of claim 2, wherein the data area includes another data portion which can be reproduced or presented in place of the prescribed data being restricted by at least one of the first and second restriction information.

5. A system for broadcasting or communicating information comprising:

a data area having a hierarchical structure including one or more sequences, each sequence including one or more programs, each program including one or more cells, and each cell including one or more packs, and

a management area including management information for managing the sequences in the data area,

wherein the data area records at least one prescribed data portion, and

wherein the management area records restriction information for selectively restricting reproduction or presentation of the prescribed data portion, the restriction information including a higher level and a lower level that constitute a hierarchical structure, and parental hierarchy being established by tracing a path from the higher level restriction information to the lower level restriction information.

6. A recording apparatus for recording prescribed data in a recording medium having a management area and a data area, said apparatus comprising:

supplying means for supplying the prescribed data;

encoding means for encoding the prescribed data supplied from the supplying means;

generating means for generating first and second restriction information for restricting reproduction or presentation of the prescribed data; and

means for recording said prescribed data encoded by said encoding means in the data area of said recording medium, and for selectively recording the first restriction information generated by the generating means in the management area of the recording medium in accordance with said prescribed data,

where the data area of the recording medium has a hierarchical structure including one or more sequences, each sequence including one or more programs, each program including one or more cells, and each cell including one or more packs, and

where the management area includes management information for managing the sequences in the data area, the management area including the second restriction information having higher and lower levels that constitute a hierarchical structure, parental hierarchy being established based on a path from the higher level restriction information to the lower level restriction information.

7. A recording method for recording prescribed data in a recording medium having a management area and a data area, the data area having a hierarchical structure including one or more sequences, wherein each sequence includes one or more programs, each program includes one or more cells, and each cell includes one or more packs, the management area including management information for managing the sequences in the data area, said recording method comprising the steps of:

supplying the prescribed data;

encoding the supplied prescribed data;

generating restriction information for restricting reproduction or presentation of the prescribed data;

recording the encoded prescribed data to the data area of the recording medium, and

selectively recording the restriction information to the management area of the recording medium in accordance with the recording of the prescribed data, the restriction information including a higher level and a lower level that constitute a hierarchical structure, wherein parental hierarchy is established based on a path from the higher level restriction information to the lower level restriction information.

8. A reproduction apparatus for reproducing recorded data from a recording medium having a data area and a management area, the data area having a hierarchical structure including one or more sequences, wherein each sequence includes one or more programs, each program includes one or more cells, and each cell includes one or more packs, the management area including management information for managing the sequences in the data area, the data area recording at least one prescribed data, and the management area recording restriction information for selectively restricting reproduction or presentation of the prescribed data in the data area, the restriction information including a higher level and a lower level that constitute a hierarchical structure, parental hierarchy being established based on a path from the higher level restriction information to the lower level restriction information, said reproduction apparatus comprising:

means for reading the prescribed data from the data area of the recording medium and for reading the restriction information from the management area of the recording medium;

means for inhibiting reproduction or presentation of the prescribed data read by the reading means when reproduction or presentation of the prescribed data is inhibited by the restriction information read by the reading means; and

means for converting the prescribed data read by the reading means into a reproduction output when reproduction or presentation of the prescribed data is not inhibited by the restriction information read by the reading means.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the restriction information includes one or more parental levels, each defining a degree of restricting reproduction or presentation of the prescribed data.

10. A method for reproducing recorded data from a recording medium having a data area and a management area, the data area having a hierarchical structure including one or more sequences, wherein each sequence includes one or more programs, each program includes one or more cells, and each cell includes one or more packs, the management area including management information for managing the sequences in the data area, the data area recording at least one prescribed data, and the management area recording restriction information for selectively restricting reproduction or presentation of the prescribed data in the data area, the restriction information including a higher level and a lower level that constitute a hierarchical structure, wherein parental hierarchy is established by tracing a path from the higher level restriction information to the lower level restriction information, said method comprising the steps of:

reading the prescribed data from the data area of said recording medium;

reading the restriction information from the management area of the recording medium;

inhibiting reproduction or presentation of the read prescribed data when reproduction or presentation of the prescribed data is inhibited by the restriction information read; and

converting the read prescribed data into a reproduction output when reproduction or presentation of the prescribed data is not inhibited by the restriction information read.