It is known in respect of protecting a copyright that copying digital data such as music software recorded on a given recording medium to another recording medium (referred to as “copying” or “dubbing” hereinafter) is permitted only one time or for one generation. Home audio systems are commonly designed capable of copying a group of digital data, e.g. of music play by a player, from an optical disk to a recording medium such as another optical disk, a magnetic disk, or a magnetic tape without change. However, such home audio systems permit no more copying of the digital data from the copied medium or source such as an optical disk, a magnetic disk, or a magnetic tape to a further recording medium.
The copying of such digital data may be dubbing at a common speed but not fast dubbing at a double or triple speed. In this application, the common speed is referred to as a recording speed or a recording and/or playback action where a group of data stored on an optical disk rotating at a standard speed specified by applicable standards is read out and played back with the use of a head and its playback data is recorded onto another optical disk rotating at the same speed. The double speed and triple speed are referred to as recording speeds or a recording and/or playback action where a group of data stored on an optical disk rotating at a speed two or three times faster than the standard speed is read out and played back with the use of a head and its playback data is recorded at two or three times faster clock onto another optical disk rotating at the speed two or three times faster than the standard speed. More particularly, such fast dubbing is technically feasible that the digital music data is read and copied from its optical disk rotating at the double or triple speed to a recording medium such as another optical disk, a magnetic disk, or a magnetic tape. For example, high-speed disk drives capable of playing back optical disks at eight or twelve times faster speed are now commercially available. There is a drawback that the copyright may be infringed if such high speed dubbing is permitted without rules.
For protecting the copyright, each action for high-speed dubbing of digital data is subjected to payment by the user. More specifically, infringement of the copyright is avoided when the high-speed dubbing of digital data is allowed only to the user who has fulfilled its payment. Practical means and arrangements for carrying out such payment for the high-speed dubbing have rarely been proposed so far.
It is thus an object of the present invention, in view of the foregoing aspects, to provide a record/playback apparatus and a record/playback method capable of permitting the high-speed dubbing of digital data on condition that a corresponding payment action has been done, hence preventing infringement of the copyright.