Macrovision Europe Limited

T.t.r. Technologies Ltd.

Macrovision Corporation

Baruch Sollish

Moshe Brody

Dennis Howe

Craig Schwarz

A method for producing a copy-protected audio compact disc containing a plurality of symbols within error-correction codewords, representing audio data samples of an audio signal is provided. The method includes the steps of selecting at least one audio data sample of the audio signal (); locating the data symbols representing audio data sample (); overwriting symbols with erroneous symbols (); locating the error-correction codewords associated with the data symbols and disabling the error-correction of said error-correction codewords ().

Copy-protected digital audio compact disc, and method and system for producing same

A codeword for use in error correction of digital optical media, the codeword having a plurality of data symbols and a plurality of parity symbols, and includes an augmented channel word which can be read as either a first value or a second alternate value. The augmented channel word is one of the plurality of data and parity symbols, wherein the augmented channel word retains its value irrespective of any error correction performed.

Codeword for use in digital optical media and a method of generating therefor

A copy protected DVD disc and a method for producing and validating the DVD disc is provided. In an embodiment the method for protecting a DVD from being illegally copied includes producing a signature which includes introducing ambiguous symbols into an ECC block and partially disabling the error correction. A DVD encoder for use in producing the copy protected disc is also provided.

Copy protected DVD and method for producing and validating same

A codeword and a method for generating a codeword is provided. The codeword may be used in error correction of digital optical media and DVDs, the codeword having a plurality of data symbols and a plurality of parity symbols, and includes an augmented channel word which can be read as either a first value or a second alternate value. The augmented channel word is one of the plurality of data and parity symbols, the augmented channel word retaining its value irrespective of any error correction performed.

Codeword for use in digital optical media and a method of generation thereof

A copy-protected digital audio compact disc and method for producing same, such that neither the proper playing of the original nor the enforcement of the copy-protection depends on the use of any special equipment. A pattern of latent noise is incorporated into a digital audio CD by overwriting some of the original audio signal data symbols with grossly-erroneous values, and then overwriting the corresponding error-correction parity symbols in such a way as to create an uncorrectable error in the codewords containing the erroneous values. An ordinary CD player of such a disc will therefore detect each occurrence of a latent noise value as an uncorrectable error and will apply interpolative error-concealment to prevent the output of the error. By appropriately choosing the locations for the overwriting of the erroneous values in such a way that the interpolated value will be substantially identical to the original value, the resulting sound output from the CD player will match that of the original audio signal, so that an ordinary CD audio player will properly reproduce the original audio signal from the protected disc without any superimposed noise. Most commercially-available CD-ROM drives for computers, however, do not employ error-concealment when reading a compact disc as a data source. Depending on the copying software employed with such CD-ROM drives, when an uncorrectable error is detected, either no data is read from the disc, or only the raw uncorrected data is read from the disc. Thus, either substantial portions of the original disc will be uncopyable because of the uncorrectable errors, or the uncorrected raw data of the original will be copied, which will place audible noise on the unauthorized copy. To inhibit unauthorized copying via CD-ROM drives that employ error-concealment, alterations are made to the channel Q mode and/or CRC to disable the ability of the CD-ROM drive to seek to the desired data position.

Copy protected digital audio compact disc and method and system for producing same

A method and system for overriding error correction capabilities of digital optical media is provided. The overriding of the error correction codes (ECC) is accomplished by causing a non-correctable pattern of erroneous symbols to occur in the ECC codeword. Specific redundancy symbols are replaced with invalid symbols. The non-correctable error pattern is recognized by the ECC decoder as being non-correctable and the ECC decoder does not attempt to change the values of any symbols of an ECC codeword that is contaminated by the detectable non-correctable error pattern.

Method and system for overriding error correction

A method of authenticating a Compact Disc, to distinguish an original Compact Disc from an unauthorized copy thereof. One or more invalid symbols are written into the subcode of the original Compact Disc, such one affecting the Q-channel, by using special equipment. The Q-channel normally contains only track location information whose format and content are precisely defined by the applicable standards, and thus ordinary consumer Compact Disc recording equipment does not receive external Q-channel input, but rather generates Q-channel data internally when recording. Therefore, invalid symbols affecting the Q-channel of an original Compact Disc cannot be copied by ordinary consumer Compact Disc recording equipment. Consequently, the presence of data in the Q-channel of a Compact Disc serves to distinguish an original Compact Disc from an unauthorized copy thereof. Invalid symbols include both symbols with incorrect values as well as bistable symbols, which cannot be copied by most professional mastering equipment. The present invention discloses methods for reading the Q-channel to determine the presence or absence of predetermined invalid data.

Method for determining an unauthorized copy of an optical disc

A method for authenticating a digital optical medium to determine if it is original or an unauthorized copy. One or more special bistable data subunits are written onto the original digital optical medium by recording bistable data symbols and other intentional errors into the data subunit such that the data subunit will be on the error-correction limit threshold. A bistable data symbol is a data symbol for which a player will randomly read at least two different values. Depending on which values are read for the bistable data symbols, the bistable data subunit will either be error-free and readable (at or below the error-correction limit) or will be erroneous or unreadable (above the error-correction limit). When an unauthorized copy of the digital optical medium is made, the data subunit with the address of the bistable data subunit on the original digital optical medium will be a monostable data subunit with constant data, because special hardware equipment is needed to record bistable data symbols. Thus, by testing the stability of the appropriate data subunits, the undetermined digital optical medium can be authenticated as either original or an unauthorized copy. Methods for writing a bistable data subunit include replacing one or more data symbols in the data subunit with bistable data symbols and zero or more data symbols in the data subunit with erroneous data symbols. Methods for testing the stability of a data subunit include multiple readings and checking for error as well as measuring the time for a successful read using a player with a multiple retry capability.

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Emmanuel, Israel

Baruch Sollish