The present invention relates to a method of and a system for recording and reproducing information data, which may be suitably used for protecting one""s copyright when music and image information data or the like are transmitted for distribution by way of electronic communication system.
Recently, audio music data, video image data and computer program data are usually transmitted for distribution by way of electronic communication system. Such an information distribution is carried out under a prerequisite that the information data can only be distributed by a legally allowed person or company. Namely, in order to forbid an unlawful copy so as to avoid an economic damage to an original author, there have been a regulation prescribing that once the above information data has been received by one recording-reproducing apparatus, the same information data must not be copied from one recording-reproducing apparatus to another. Here, xe2x80x9ccopyxe2x80x9d means that the same identical data is existing in two or more mediums.
However, under the above-mentioned regulation, there has been the following problem which has been experienced by users who have legally obtained the above-described information data.
For example, if a person wants to enjoy the music information recorded in an internal memory means such as a hard disc of a computer, he or she has to go to the place where the computer has been set. Alternatively, the computer has to be transported to a place where the person is.
Moreover, under the above regulation, the above-described information data must not be copied to an easily portable machine such as an MD player.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved method and an improved system for recording and reproducing desired information data, such that when information data has already been transmitted from one recording medium to another, information reproduction from the one recording medium may be forbidden (if necessary), thereby preventing the same identical information from being recorded on several different recording mediums, thus effectively preventing an unauthorized copying.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an improved method and an improved system for recording and reproducing information, such that the unit of information data to be transmitted is considerably small so that it is possible to almost simultaneously reproduce information data on several different apparatus, without the necessity of duplicating these informations.
According to the present invention, there is provided an information reading and recording method for effecting data transmission among a plurality of information processing apparatus, said method comprising the steps of: reading and transmitting information data recorded on a recording medium of one information processing apparatus, in accordance with a transmission request from another information processing apparatus; rendering ineffective a predetermined unit amount of information data recorded on the recording medium of said one information processing apparatus, at a time a predetermined unit amount of information data has already been transmitted therefrom; recording the predetermined unit amount of transmitted information data in said another information processing apparatus which has received the transmitted information data.
In one aspect of the present invention, said another information processing apparatus is adapted to record the transmitted information data while at the same time reproducing the transmitted information.
In another aspect of the present invention, each predetermined unit amount of information data is provided with a transmitted code indicating that said unit amount of information has already been transmitted therefrom, so that it is allowed to determine whether the information to be transmitted should be reproduced.
Further, according to the present invention, there is provided an information reading system for reading information data from a recording medium and transmitting the information data in accordance with a transmission request, said system comprising; reading means for reading-out information data from the recording medium in accordance with a control signal; transmitting means for transmitting the read-out information data; storing means for storing transmitted code indicating that information data has already been transmitted, corresponding to each unit amount of information to be transmitted; detector means for detecting transmitted code; and control means for producing control signal for controlling the reading of said information data, and for producing another control signal for forbidding the reading of the information data when a corresponding transmitted code has been detected.
In another aspect of the present invention, the transmitting means for transmitting the read-out information comprises; confirmation means for confirming whether or not a plurality of different information processing apparatus are allowed to be connected with one another for exchanging predetermined data in accordance with a predetermined protocol; and an allowance issuing means for issuing an allowance for transmitting information data when it has been confirmed by the confirmation means that the plurality of different information processing apparatus are all legally connected with one another for exchanging predetermined data in accordance with a predetermined protocol.
Moreover, according to the present invention, there is provided an information recording system adapted to record information containing transmitted code corresponding to information data to be transmitted, said system comprising: determining means for determining whether or not there is existing transmitted code corresponding to transmitted information data; and recording means for recording the transmitted information data when it is determined by the determining means that there is not existing said transmitted code, and for erasing the transmitted code when it is determined that there is existing said transmitted code.
In a still further aspect of the present invention, said recording means includes: confirmation means for confirming whether or not a plurality of different information processing apparatus are allowed to be connected with one another for exchanging predetermined data in accordance with a predetermined protocol; and an allowance issuing means for issuing an allowance for transmitting information data when it has been confirmed by the confirmation means that the plurality of different information processing apparatus are all legally connected with one another for exchanging predetermined data in accordance with a predetermined protocol. With the use of the present invention, when information data is transmitted from a recording medium of one apparatus to a recording medium of another apparatus, it is allowed to forbid the reading of information data from the recording medium of the one apparatus, thereby ensuring that the same identical data information will not be existing in several different recording mediums. In this way, information data can be recorded in a recording medium such as an MD (Mini Disc) having an excellent portability and owned by a person of good will, without damaging a concept of duplicating information data. Further, with regard to the provision of transmitted flag, since the information data to be transmitted has been processed to be present in quite small unit such as ECC block unit, information data such as music data can be reproduced almost simultaneously in a plurality of apparatus (among which information data is transmitted from one another), without duplication of the information data. Furthermore, since the movement of information data is administrated using data transmission unit and transmitted code, it is allowed not to erase the information data in transmission unit, thereby making it possible to reduce an overhead when the movement of information data is repeated. In addition, since the information data is transmitted, read and recorded under a condition where a mutual confirmation has been completed, it is sure to prevent any unlawful duplication of the information data and to prevent the information data from being accidentally erased.