System and method for disc labeling

An optical disc drive comprising:

• a laser operable to write data on a storage side of an optical disc if the optical disc is aligned in a storage orientation and to write labels on a non-storage side of the optical disc if the optical disc is aligned in a label orientation;
• a write engine interfaced with the laser and operable to communicate with an information handling system, the write engine operable to manage data and label writes with the laser;
• a read engine interfaced with the laser and operable to communicate with an information handling system, the read engine operable to manage the reading of information by the laser from the storage side of the optical disc aligned in the storage orientation and to manage the reading of identification information by the laser from the non-storage side of the optical disc oriented in the label orientation, the identification information comprising a bar code printed on either the storage or non-storage side of the optical disc in a transparent region, the bar code identifying the type of optical disc, the laser reading the bar code in the label orientation;
• and
• a label manager in communication with the write engine and the read engine, the label manager operable to determine from the identification information whether to authorize the write engine to write a label on the optical disc;
• wherein the label manager comprises an application running on an information handling system, the label manager operable to determine authorization from authorization information read from the data side of the optical disc and stored on the information handling system in association with the identification information.