Digital copy control method, digital recording medium, digital recording medium producing apparatus, digital reproducing apparatus and digital recording apparatus

An apparatus for producing a digital recording medium, comprising:

• a watermark information adding device that adds electronic watermark information to original data so as not to affect characteristics of the original data;
• a copy control information adding device that adds copy control information to the original data, said copy control information being provided for restricting digital copying of the original data;
• an error correction code generating device that generates an error correction code based on main data of the original data to which the electronic watermark information and the copy control information have been added, and adding the error correction code to the original data;
• and
• an error information adding device that adds error information having a particular pattern, as medium mark, to the original data to which the error correction code has been added by said error correction code generating apparatus.

A digital reproduction apparatus usable as a transmitter-side apparatus in a system comprising a plurality of digital apparatuses that are connected to each other via a bus and mutually authenticated, said system being constructed to transmit digital data from the transmitter-side apparatus of the digital apparatuses to a receiver-side apparatus thereof through respective interfaces that permit transmission and receiving of the digital data between the authenticated apparatuses, comprising:

• a reading device that reads out recorded data from a digital recording medium;
• an error detecting/correcting device that extracts an error correction code from the recorded data read by said reading device, and detects and corrects an error in the recorded data read out by said reading device, based on the extracted error correction code;
• a particular pattern error detecting device that detects whether the error detected by said error detecting/correcting device has a particular pattern or not;
• an output device that generates the recorded data whose error has been corrected by said error detecting/correcting device, in a form of digital information that matches specifications of the interfaces;
• a copy control information judging device that extracts and makes a judgment on copy control information contained in the recorded data whose error has been corrected, said copy control information being provided for restricting digital copying of the data;
• an electronic watermark information judging device that extracts electronic watermark information indicating a copy restriction level, from the recorded data whose error has been corrected, and makes a judgment on the electronic watermark information;
• and
• an output control device that determines whether the digital recording medium is an original medium or a copy medium, based on a result of detection of said particular pattern error detecting device, and permits or prohibits reproduction of the recorded data by the digital reproduction apparatus as the transmitter-side apparatus, based on a result of determination by the output control device and results of judgments made by said copy control information judging device and said electronic watermark information judging device.

A digital recording apparatus usable as a receiver-side apparatus in a system comprising a plurality of digital apparatuses that are connected to each other via a bus and mutually authenticated, said system being constructed to transmit digital data from a transmitter-side apparatus of the digital apparatuses to the receiver-side apparatus through respective interfaces that permit transmission and receiving of the digital data between the authenticated apparatuses, comprising:

• a receiving device that receives digital data that includes a first portion comprising at least one of picture and voice information, and a second portion comprising copy control information having one of copy restriction levels indicating permission of free copying, permission of one-generation copying and prohibition of copying, said digital data further including electronic watermark information that is added to said first portion of the digital data comprising said at least one of picture and voice information;
• and
• a recording control device that determines the copy restriction levels of the copy control information and electronic watermark information of the digital data, and controls said digital recording apparatus such that wherein, when the determined copy restriction level of the copy control information indicates permission of one-generation copying and the determined copy restriction level of the electronic watermark information indicates prohibition of copying, said digital recording apparatus records the electronic watermark information as it is, and records the copy control information with the copy restriction level thereof being rewritten into one indicating prohibition of copying.