Method for copy protecting a record carrier, copy protected record carrier and means for detecting access control information

• US 6,353,890 B1
• Filed: 05/29/1998
• Issued: 03/05/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 05/30/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Rovi Europe Limited (Adeia Inc.)
• Original Assignee: C-Dilla Limited (Adeia Inc.)
• Inventors: Newman, Peter A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Hayes, Gail
• Assistant Examiner(s): Darrow, Justin T.
• Application Number:
  US09/086,694
• Time in Patent Office: 1,376 Days
• Field of Search: 713/187, 713/193, 380/201, 714/48, 714/49, 714/57, 714/157
• US Class Current: 713/193
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/00 Security arrangements for protecting computers, components thereof, programs or data against unauthorised activity
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/80 in storage media based on magnetic or optical technology, e.g. disks with sectors preventing unauthorised reproduction or copying of disc-type recordable media G11B20/00
• 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 20/00101 the original record carrier having a larger recording capacity than the potential target medium
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00123 the record carrier being identified by recognising some of its unique characteristics, e.g. a unique defect pattern serving as a physical signature of the record carrier
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00166 involving measures which result in a restriction to authorised contents recorded on or reproduced from a record carrier, e.g. music or software
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/0021 involving encryption or decryption of contents recorded on or reproduced from a record carrier
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00557 wherein further management data is encrypted, e.g. sector headers, TOC or the lead-in or lead-out areas
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00659 involving a control step which is implemented as an executable file stored on the record carrier
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00927 wherein said defects or errors are generated on purpose, e.g. intended scratches
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00949 said intentional errors occurring due to bad sectors, which are either physically destroyed or which are declared defective in the defect management information
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00963 wherein said defects or errors are not generated on purpose, e.g. random defect patterns occurring during the normal manufacture
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/1866 by interleaving G11B20/1809 takes precedence

Abstract

A method for copy protecting a record carrier using a pattern of logical errors which cannot be corrected by the error correcting rules predefined for the record carrier. The pattern of logical errors represents access control information. The logical errors are generated during decoding the bit sequence read from the record carrier. Bit errors may be positioned in the bit sequence so as to counteract de-interleaving which is part of an error decoding process in a reading device and accumulate in error words which are uncorrectable. Also a method for detecting access control information and a retrieval arrangement, which detects the access control information by selecting at least one error location, but not all error locations on the record carrier, and verifying the presence of an error by reading the selected error location via the reading means.

Claims

1. A method for controlling access to a record carrier, comprising the steps of:

creating an image file containing main information;

generating access control information for controlling the access to the main information;

producing a record carrier depending on the image file and the access control information, including the steps of;

creating a correctable bit sequence by applying formatting and error correcting rules to the image file;

modifying the correctable bit sequence according to the access control information with sufficient bit errors to provide uncorrectable errors which cannot be corrected by the error correcting rules and which constitute a predefined uncorrectable error pattern defined by uncorrectable error locations and error correctable locations; and

translating the modified bit sequence into a physical pattern of marks on the record carrier.

2. The method of claim 1, in which at least part of the main information is encrypted depending on the access control information.

3. The method of claim 1, in which at least some of the access control information is included in the image file and the predefined uncorrectable error pattern is generated depending on the included access control information.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of multiplicating the record carrier.

5. A copy protected record carrier comprising:

a substrate; and

a correctable bit sequence stored thereon representing information according to predefined formatting and error correcting rules, the information including main information and access control information for controlling the access to the main information, and in which the bit sequence includes means including sufficient bit errors for providing uncorrectable errors which cannot be corrected by the error correcting rules and which constitute a predefined uncorrectable error pattern representing at least part of the access control information, the uncorrectable error pattern defined by uncorrectable error locations and error correctable locations.

6. The carrier of claim 5, in which:

the record carrier is subdivided into addressable sectors, the record carrier includes a padding area which includes uncorrectable error sectors and error correctable sectors, the uncorrectable error sectors contain the uncorrectable errors and the error correctable sectors contain no uncorrectable errors, and the pattern of uncorrectable error sectors and error correctable sectors together constitute the uncorrectable error pattern.

7. The carrier of claim 6, in which part of the bit sequence corresponding to an error correctable sector which adjoin an uncorrectable error sector, contains no bit errors.

8. The carrier of claim 6, in which, the record carrier has a predetermined information storage capacity of which the main information covers a part, and the padding area essentially covers the remaining part of the information storage capacity.

9. The carrier of claim 5, in which, the modified bit sequence includes information bits and error correction bits, and the information bits contain the bit errors that result in uncorrectable errors and the error correction bits have no bit errors that result in uncorrectable errors.

10. The carrier of claim 5, in which the bit errors that provide the uncorrectable errors are located so as to accumulate in at least one error word more than in another error word and the one error word cannot be corrected by an error word correcting rule during reproduction.

11. The carrier of claim 10, in which the record carrier is a CD, and the error word correcting rule is contained in the C2 layer.

12. The carrier of claim 10, in which the bit errors that provide the uncorrectable errors are located so as to accumulate by de-interleaving, which de-interleaving is part of the formatting and error correcting rules.

13. The carrier of claim 10, in which the bit errors that provide the uncorrectable errors are located so as to accumulate in at least one second error word more than in another second error word and the one second error word cannot be corrected by a second error word correcting rule during reproduction.

14. The copy protected record carrier of claim 13, in which the record carrier is a CD, the error word correcting rule being the C2 layer and the second error word correcting rule being the C1 layer of the CD error correcting rules.

15. A method for detecting access control information on the copy protected record carrier of claim 5, comprising the steps of:

storing a bit sequence representing information according to predefined formatting and error correcting rules on a record carrier, the information including main information and access control information for controlling the access to the main information, and in which the bit sequence includes sufficient bit errors to provide uncorrectable errors which cannot be corrected by the error correcting rules and which constitute a predefined uncorrectable error pattern representing at least part of the access control information, the uncorrectable error pattern defined by uncorrectable error locations and error correctable locations;

selecting at least one uncorrectable error location, but not all uncorrectable error locations, which uncorrectable error location(s) should have an uncorrectable error according to the predefined uncorrectable error pattern; and

verifying the presence of the uncorrectable error by reading the selected uncorrectable error location and detecting the uncorrectable error during error correction.

16. The method of claim 15, in which the method further comprises the steps of:

selecting at least one error correctable location, but not all error correctable locations, which error correctable location should not have an uncorrectable error according to the predefined uncorrectable error pattern; and

verifying the absence of an uncorrectable error by reading the selected error correctable location and attempting to detect an uncorrectable error.

17. The method of claim 15, in which at least one error correctable location is selected which adjoins an uncorrectable error location.

18. The method of claim 15, further comprising the a step of retrieving at least some access control information indicating the uncorrectable error pattern from the main information before selecting locations.

19. The method of claim 15, in which, the record carrier is subdivided into addressable sectors, and the presence or absence of an uncorrectable error at a location is verified by reading the respective sector and detecting the uncorrectable error during error correction.

20. The carrier of claim 5, in which the record carrier includes software for executing the method of selecting at least one uncorrectable error location, but not all uncorrectable error locations, which uncorrectable error location should have an uncorrectable error according to the predefined uncorrectable error pattern, and verifying the presence of the uncorrectable error by reading the selected uncorrectable error location and detecting the uncorrectable error during error correction.

21. A retrieval arrangement for retrieving information from the copy protected record carrier of claim 5, the arrangement comprising:

reading means for reading a copy protected record carrier, including a read unit for extracting a bit sequence stored on the record carrier and an error correcting unit for processing the bit sequence to retrieve the information that was copy protected; and

access control means for controlling the access to the information according to access control information detected by selecting at least one uncorrectable error location, but not all uncorrectable error locations, which at least one uncorrectable error location should have an uncorrectable error according to the uncorrectable error pattern, and by verifying the presence of an uncorrectable error by reading the selected uncorrectable error location via the reading means and detecting an uncorrectable error during error correction.

22. The retrieval arrangement of claim 21, in which, the record carrier is subdivided into addressable sectors, and the reading means includes a control unit for controlling the reading of a sector and generating an error message when an uncorrectable error is detected.

23. A recorder for producing the copy protected record carrier of claim 5, comprising:

means for providing an image file containing main information;

means for generating access control information for controlling access to the main information;

means for producing a record carrier depending on the image file and the access control information, including the steps of;

creating a correctable bit sequence by applying the formatting and error correcting rules to the image file;

modifying the correctable bit sequence according to the access control information to constitute uncorrectable errors which cannot be corrected by the error correcting rules and which constitute a predefined uncorrectable error pattern defined by uncorrectable error locations and error correctable locations; and

translating the modified bit sequence into a physical pattern of marks on the record carrier.

24. A player for detecting access control information on a record carrier of claim 5 to access other information on the record carrier, comprising:

means for selecting at least one uncorrectable error location, but not all uncorrectable error locations on a record carrier, which uncorrectable error location should have an uncorrectable error according to a predefined uncorrectable error pattern; and

means for verifying the presence of an uncorrectable error by reading the selected uncorrectable error location and detecting an error that can not be corrected during error correction.

25. A system for programming to produce a recorder for producing the copy protected record carrier of claim 5, comprising:

means for providing programmed apparatus for generating access control information for controlling the access to an image file of main information;

means for providing programmed apparatus for producing a record carrier depending on the image file and the access control information, including;

means for providing programmed apparatus for creating a bit sequence by applying formatting and error correcting rules to the image file;

means for providing programmed apparatus for modifying the bit sequence according to the access control information to constitute uncorrectable errors which cannot be corrected by the error correcting rules and which constitute a predefined uncorrectable error pattern defined by uncorrectable error locations and error correctable locations;

means for providing programmed apparatus for translating the modified bit sequence into a physical pattern of marks on the record carrier.

26. A system for programming to produce a player for playing the record carrier of claim 5, comprising:

means for providing programmed apparatus for selecting at least one uncorrectable error location, but not all uncorrectable error locations, which uncorrectable error location should have an uncorrectable error according to a predefined uncorrectable error pattern; and

means for providing programmed apparatus for verifying the presence of the uncorrectable error by reading the selected uncorrectable error location.