Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Koichi Komoda

Kunio Ninomiya

Junya Nishizaka

A playback unit () reproduces contents which are recorded on a video cassette tape (), and a recording unit () records the contents on another video cassette tape () and, simultaneously, an erasing unit () erases the contents from the video cassette tape (). Thereby, the copy-inhibited contents recorded on the video cassette tape () can be transferred to the other video cassette tape () without copying the contents.

Reproducing/recording apparatus

According to a copy protection method of the present invention, as for a component video signal which is composed of a luminance signal and two color-difference signals, copy inhibition information is superimposed upon a first color-difference signal and information indicating that the copy inhibition information is included in the first color-difference signal is superimposed upon a second color-difference signal. Or copy inhibition information is superimposed upon the luminance signal, a vertical blanking interval, or a horizontal blanking interval. Accordingly, it can be judged whether or not the video is capable of copying, without making the viewers conscious, whereby component video signals can be easily copy protected.

Growing community of inventors

Niihama, Japan

Koichi Komoda