GB2481060A - Anti-piracy optical disc with holes in the lead in area - Google Patents

Abstract

A new physical process in the final mastering provides an anti-piracy copy protected digital media format for any original digital content, capable of avoiding any kind of illegal copy or cloning by just making at least one hole but preferably four symmetrical perforations with clean edges, between +/- 1mm, in the area known as the lead-in. This is done at the end of the original mastering process of any digitalized original content distributed using a digital media format such as CDs, DVDs and/or BDs of all their kinds, brands and capacities. This new process makes any computer unable to recognize the main data because it breaks the 360 degrees cluster-chain or pits-chain.

Description

ANTI-PIRACY DIGITAL MEDIA FORMAT (AP.DMF.)

A -SPECHCATION AND DESCRIPTION

[AOO1] -The "Anti-Piracy Digital Media Format" is the results of several experiments done with aU kind of digital media with original contents. This is not a new software developed, not an extra hardware tool needed to run it, not a post-production process, either. This is part of the production of the CD's and DVD's. The new step should be added into the final mastering, glass mastering, authoring, encoding, and/or replication process, after or before each final cover printing (It could be both ways with the same results) and of course, before the last marketing steps like stamping, stickers, packaging, fulfillment and delivery.

[A002] -After more than one hundred tests using all kinds of digital media formats such as CD's and DVD's, rye discovered that if you make a hole (literally), with a ÷1-1mm approximately precision punch with a clean edge on the "introduction area", popularly known from the usual recording PC programs as "lead in" or "opening media sector, area or opening cluster" (this part is only used at the recording process, not at the reading process of the players, and that is why does not affect the normal use and applications of the data), this will totally prevent to any professional or amateur software to make a copy, any clone, or getting the complete or any partial information, because it won't work. Errors will pop-up on any platform support (Windows, Mac or Linux already tested) because the computer (PC or Laptops) will not be able to recognized what kind of material is trying to be read by the laser bean, and this is because the cluster-chain or the "pits-chain" (the digital pits on the CD's or DVD's) will be broken doing this process and will cause a fatal error. Four "holes" must be done to preserve the equilibrium of the digital media spinning into the players, but with only one, the effect is exactly the same.

[A003] -The very important point here is to make the ÷1-1mm hole into the "lead-in" area, sector or clusters. Not above, not below. Only in that area, broken the complete 360 degrees "cluster-chain" pits of the "introduction" of the digital media you want to protect from piracy after sending the data into the world.

B -APPLICATIONS

[BOOl] -The digital media market is growing so swiftly that you must be famiUar with a wide spread of software duplication & applicaflons for building a CD or DVD.

The expansion of CD-ROM & DVD technology and electronic pubshing will continue to increase unabated. These developments make them a very suitable medium, not only for storing or archMng, but also for distributing data and information.

[B002] -Multimedia CD or DVD applications like games, movies etc now have an excellent distribution medium. Over the last 10 years CD's, and more recently DVD's, have become the most widely used media for storing, publishing and distribution of large amounts of data. That is why the "Anti-Piracy Digital Media Format" should need to start mastering with this protection "holes" g'obally as soon as possible.

[B003] -Some examples of CD's, DVD's, DVD-ROM or DVD-R based applications are: 1. Promotion materials 2. Presentations for shows, exhibitions, etc. 3. Offline demo of your website 4. Training 5. Demo & test applications Gadgets 6. Digital product catalogues 7. Encyclopedias & Dictionaries 8. Multimedia games 9. Mass storage for distribution 10. CD Marketing actions 11. Photo albums 12. Software distribution 13. Reference works (Telephone books, Trade directories, Tourist information, etc.) 14. Audio and video distribution 15. Educationa' CD-Rom 16. Indexes en articles 17. And everything that can be digitized.

C -TITLE OF THE INVENTION AND INVENTOR DATA

[COOl] -The Anti-Piracy Digital Media Format" a.k.a. "APDMF" was invented and discovered by Mr. Luis Gerardo Pascual, resident of United States of Amenca with Florida ID #: P240-527-74-092-0, TeL #: +1(786) 629-6886 and TeL #: -1-54 (911) 6047- 2330, email: contactluispascuaLcom. Citizen of Argentina, born in Buenos Aires, March 12th, 1974, with Argentinean ID and Passport #: 23.906.185N.

D -RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

[DOOl] -The "Anth-Piracy Digital Media Format" was created, analyzed, tested, researched and developed with personal funding only, without any corporate sponsor.

Complete processes and idea were completed by Mr. Luis Gerardo PascuaL [D002] -Several tests were made using all these digital media formats with the same excellent anti-piracy results with more than ten different well known software brands: 1. CD 15. DVD Blue-Ray 2. CD-R 16. DVD-5 3. CD-ROM 17. DVD-9 4. Mini CD-R 18. DVD-10 5. Business Card CD 19. DVD-14 6. Hockey Rink CD 20. DVD-1 8 7. OvalCD 21. HD-DVD-15 8. DVD with or without CSS 22. HD-DVD-30 encryption 23. 80MM (Mini) Disc DVD's & HD- 9. Hybrid DVD DVD's 10. DVD-RW 24. Dual Layered CD 11. DVD+RW 25. Dual Layered DVD 12. DVD-RAM 26. DLT III 13. DVD-R 27. DLTIIIXT 14. DVD+R 28. DLT IV [D003] -A of them were tested and approved wfth aU the internationa' video standards: 1. PAL-B 2. PAL-N 3. PAL-M 4. SECAM 5. NTSC USA 6. NTSCM p004] -AI the media wfth the new "Anti-Piracy Digita' Medta Format" were tested and approved with perfect resu'ts on the seven recognized worldwide regions (in real order): 1. U.S., Canada, U.S. Terntories.

2. Japan, Europe, South Africa, and Middle East (induding Egypt).

3. Southeast Asia and East Asia (including Hong Kong).

4. Austraa, New Zealand, Pacific islands, Central America, Mexico, South America, and the Caribbean.

5. Eastern Europe, Indian subcontinent, Africa, North Korea, and Mongolia.

6. China.

7. Reserved.

8. Special international venues (such as for air travel or sea cruises, etc.).

E -BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION (ORIGIN OF THE IDEA) [EO01] -Being part of the movie industry myself (wwwiuispascuaLcom), I understand personaUy, how important this could be for several markets, if a new digital media format appears capable to definitely protect the contents from the worldwide piracy. This problem was commonly known as the "Hole of the industry". That's were I took the idea of adding a "real hole" on the digital media formats. Sounds crazy but it works perfect.

It's a real satisfaction that the word commonly used to describe billions of dollars because of the piracy was the inspiration of the solution to control the same issue.

[E002] -We are aU aware that aU around the world, DVD movies, Music CD's and any kind of Software's distributed on DVD and/or CD's are easy clone in a couple of minutes. The real factor of this piracy issue (the "Hole of the industry") is not because the existence of an enormous quantity of cloning data software's around, or the price of the original content. The problem s that is so simple to copy them with any digital tool that anyone is buying original content anymore except those that are ready looking for perfect quaty and special features that only, an original content can offer.

[E003] -The new "Anti-Piracy Digital Media Format" will help to start produdng new original contents impossible to iUegaUy be cloned, copied or distributed.

F -BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION (ADVANTAGES AND BENEFITS) [FOOl] -The "Anti-Piracy Digital Media Format" (APDMF) was created to solve the worldwide-piracy endless issues with the most common media formats already used in the market right now and in the future (mid. and long term too).

[F002] -Small, medium and/or big companies will not need to change their products already in stock; they will just need to add this new simple step on their industry process, adding this physical change on their digital media instruments to carry safety, the information such as music, videos, movies, video-games or any content that could be digitalized without using any software or validating it online, or any other method.

[F003] -The advantages of this idea, named and discovered by Mr. Luis Gerardo Pascual as: "Anti-Piracy Digital Media Format" (APDMF), even thought the name could changed between the provisional patent and the final non-provisional patent, are mainly two simple basis: 1) adding just one step on the digital media production process; 2) with a very cheap solution to do it. So, anyone in the world (small, medium or big size companies) could easily start using this format as soon as they get authorized to do it. --

H -DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION & IDEA

[HOOl] -For a fu detailed description of the idea it's necessary to explain some basics issues, concepts and components regarding the whole and complete concept, even though they are really very simple.

[H002] -Before explaining how does all these digital media formats work, which is quite important to understand why is this problem solved with the new "Anti-Piracy Digital Media Format", it's very important to understand that the "Lead-in" area, or "Introduction" area on each original content that we must use to perform our idea, may vary along each digital media contents and this issue, is just a matter of calculate the necessary space to punch the holes into that exact area on each specific original master content.

This "area" is like the Name and Surname of a person. If we remove that "area" after the original content is digitalized, there's no PC software available right now to "understand" what kind of data we are trying to copy. That's the real basis of my discovery.

[H003] -How does a DVD work? The DVD, popularly known as the Digital Versatile Disc (it really means Digital Versatile Disc), is the next generation of optical disc media.

Though a DVD looks like a CD, inside it holds between 7 and 25 times the data. That means a new level of quality and convenience for movies, music, multimedia and interactive software. Never before has one new technology changed so many aspects of home entertainment. It has a minimum seven times the capacity of a CD. DVD achieves its huge capacity by packing more data into the same physical space as a CD. It does this in several ways. First, its tracks are closer together and the pits in each track are smaller. Second, new data compression technology is highly efficient, minimizing the need to store repetitive of unneeded data. Third, two separate layers of tracks can be combined into a single DVD disc. For movies, this adds up to a minimum of 2 hours and 13 minutes of video play. A dual-layer disc provides 4-hour play, and doesn't need to be turned over. A single layered double-sided disc provides about 4 hours and 30 minutes.

Longer playing times are only the most obvious advantage. DVD's huge capacity also supports ultra-realistic picture quality and hi-fi sound not to mention interactive multimedia enhancements.

[H005] -A the Advantages of an Optical Disc: Like a compact disc or laserdisc, DVD permfts random access to any point on the disc. There's no need to shuttle forward or backward through a tape, and of course there's no rewinding. As an optical disc, DVD never physicaUy contacts the pickup. The disc is played by a beam of laser light, so there is no wear and tear even if you keep replaying the same scene.

[H006] -How is it Different from CD's? On the outside, a DVD is virtuaUy indistinguishable form a CD. It has the same 5" diameter and 1.2mm thickness. Like a CD, it's easy to carry, safe to handle, and is just the right space-saving compact size for home entertainment. The only difference is the format and the amount of information.

SmaUer Pfts, narrower track pftch inside.

[HOOT] -On the inside, a DVD is totay different. Its pits are half the size of CD pits (O.4pm vs. O.83pm), and its tracks are spaced about twice as closer together (O.74pm vs. 1.6pm -Described on [G003 -Figure 1 C]).

[H008] -In a CD player, the laser bean has to pass through a relatively thick layer of plastic to reach the data pits. To help a DVD player focus on its smaller pits, a DVD disc uses a thinner plastic substrate. By itself, such a thin disc would not stay flat or withstand handling. Therefore, every DVD is joined to a second 0.6mm substrate, using bonding technology developed by Panasonic. On a single-layer disc, one of the two substrates has no recorded data.

[H009] -How does a CD work? Like gramophone records, the information on optical discs is recorded on a spiral track. With a CD the laser starts reading the disc from the inside ring and ends up on the outside. When play back starts, a laser beam shines on the ridges and lands on the data membrane layer. If you look at the image on the right you can see the data layer moving in gray. During playback, the number of revolutions of the disc decreases from 500 to 200 rpm (revolutions per minute) to maintain a constant scanning speed. The disc data is converted into electrical pulses (the bit stream) by reflections of the laser beam from a photoelectric cell.

[HOll] -When the laser beam strikes "land', the beam is reflected onto a photoelectric celL When it strikes a "ridge", the photoce wiU receive only a weak reflection. Thus the photoelectrical ce receives series of light pulses corresponding to the ridges and lands in the disc. These light pulses are the foundation of binary digitar data. A simple substitution for the weak signal "0" and the in-focus signal "1" results in a pure digital playback without alteration, every time, without failure or degradation. In music playback, a D1A-Converter (digital to analogue converter; DAC) converts the series of pulses (binary coding) from a decimal code to a waveform, which can then be processed for amplification. The longer the decimal code, the better the sound. Current standard CD audio is 44,100 pulses per second and 16 bit (decimal places) in digital word length.

Thus a 24 bit system sounds all that much better, in fact DVD audio is set to allow 24 bit.

Thanks to this optical scanning system, there is no friction between the laser beam and the disc. As a result, the discs do not wear, no matter how often they are played.

However, they must be treated carefully, as scratches, grease stains and dust might intercept or diffract the light, causing whole series of pulses to be skipped or distorted.

This problem can be solved, as during the recording the Cross Interleaved Reed Solomon Code (CRC) is added, which is an error correction system that automatically inserts any lost or damaged information by making a number of mathematical calculations. Without this error correction system optical disc players would not have existed, as even the slightest vibration of the floor would cause sound and image distortions. When the laser beam hits land, all of its light is reflected and the cell gives off current. When the laser beam shines on a ridge, half of the light hits the upper surface and the other half hits the lower down service. The difference in height between the two places is exactly a quarter of a wavelength of the laser beam light, so the original beam is totally eliminated by the interference between the beam reflected from the surface of the disc and the beam reflected from the ridge. The photocell does not produce current.

It should be noted that the ends of the ridges seen by the laser are "ones" and all lands and ridges are "zeros"; thus turning on and off the reflection is one, steady state is a string of zeroes. As t is not possible to have two ones next to each other, Eight to Fourteen Modulation (EFM) is used to convert 8-bit data bytes to 14 bit units that always have a minimum of 2 and a maximum of 10 zeros between ones. This makes the pits/ridges and lands separating those 3 to 11 bits long, no less, no more. This conversion is done in hardware using a ROM lookup table. To connect these 14 bit units 3 merge bits are used to make sure that there are no HonesH too dose to each other. n audio, the third merge bit is used to make sure that the cumulative lengths of the lands and ridges stay equal in the long run, otherwise a low frequency component is created that the processing amplifiers can not handle. Thus 8 data bits are actually 17 channel bits on the disc, but called 16 bft for naming conventions. The scanning must be very accurate because the track of ridges is 30 times narrower than a single human hair. You can see the "ridge" in the illustration above -it is the DARK ROUND CIRCLE. When the laser light is over top of it, the light splits' in two, causing a weak signal. There are 20,000 tracks on one audio compact disc. The lens which focuses the laser beam on the disc has a depth of field of about 1 micron (micron = micrometer one-millionth of a meter). It is quite normal for the (compact) disc to move back and forth 1mm during playback. A flexible regulator keeps the lens at a distance of +1-2 micron from the rotating disc. For the same reason, a perfect tracking system is required. The complex task of following the track is controlled by an electronic servo system. The servo system ensures the track is followed accurately by measuring the signal output. If the output decreases, the system recognizes this as being off track and returns the tracking system to its optimum state. Many CD players use three-beam scanning for correct tracking. The three beams come from one laser. A polarized prism projects three spots of light on the track. It shines the middle one exactly on the track, and the two other "control" beams generate a signal to correct the laser beam immediately, should it deflect from the middle track.

[H012] -The CD is a plastic disc 1.2mm thick and 12cm in diameter, with a silver-colored surface that reflects laser light. The maximum playing time for music recorded on compact disc is 74 minutes. The CD has several layers. First, to protect the 8 trillion microscopically small pits against dirt and damage, the CD has a plastic protective layer.

On the top of this layer the label is printed. Then there is the reflecting aluminum coating, which contains the ridges. Finally, the disc has a transparent carrier through which the actual reading of the disc takes place. This plastic forms a part of the optical system. Mechanically, the CD is less vulnerable than the analogue record, but that does not mean that it must not be treated with care. The protective layer on the label side is very thin: only 0.002mm. Careless treatment or granular dust can cause small scratches or hair cracks, enabling the air to penetrate the evaporated aluminum coating. This coating then starts oxidizing immediately at that spot. If the CD is played extensively, it may be advisable to protect the label side with a special protective foil, which is commonly available in shops. A CD must never be bent, so care should be taken when removing it from the jewel case. Even slight bending causes stress fractures. The aluminum then becomes deformed, causing some ridges to be blocked. As a consequence, error correction always has to be applied in that area, affecting the final sound. The reflecting side of the CD is the side that is read. People tend to set the CD down with the reflecting side up. But the more vulnerable side is not the reflecting side but the label side. On the label side, the reflecting layer with its ridges has been evaporated. The sensitive layer on the reflecting side has been protected better than the one on the label side. It is therefore better to store CDs with the reflecting side down. It is best to store the CD back in the jewel case, where it is safely held by its inside edge.

CD5 are easily scratched, and should never be cleaned with just any cloth. CD5 should be cleaned radially: not along the grooves, but at right angles to the direction of the grooves. If a smear, however small, should remain on the CD, running along the direction of the grooves, much information would be lost. It is advisable to use special CD cleaner that operates with a rotating brush at right angles to the direction of the grooves. Many people think that the digital CD is produced completely digitally, but this is not always the case. Many CDs have an analogue master tape as their source tapes still kept in the library of the record company, used in the past to make records. The quality of a CD made from analogue tape can be surprisingly high. A CD recorded, processed and dubbed digitally does not always sound better than a CD produced with one or two analogue processing stages.

Claims (4)

1. Claims 1. Anti-Piracy Digital Media Format: Punching Four (4) holes into the commonly known "Lean-in" are or "bC" area on any digital media format, symmetrically and with a millimetrically cross-position, will avoid to any regular or professional computer, with any operating system or brand, to read, recognize and understand digitally, the origin and/or the structure of the data (content) recorded inside this new prepared digital media.
2. 2. The Anti-Piracy Digital Media Format, according to claim 1, avoid any legal or illegal software to copy or clone an original digitalized content to another digital media format or create an image of the data into any hard drive because it breaks all references related to the content recorded making the computer Q unstable and impossible to understand the source and the beginning of the information to read or reproduce.
3. 3. The Anti-Piracy Digital Media Format, according to claim 1, Q could be perform with just one (1) scratch, rounded hole or rectangular hole, but four (4) scratches or perforation are highly recommended to preserve and keep the perfect equilibrium of any digital media format while spinning into any reader device using any type of laser beam at any speed of the device.
4. 4. According to claim 1, those perforations should be +/-lmm for CD5, +/-O,5mm for DVD5 and +/-O,lOmm for Blu-Ray format, and so on, into the "Lead-in" area, not above, not below, breaking the 360 degrees "Cluster-chain" pits of the "introduction" of the digital media data, leaving just the first and the last pits to avoid any possible fatal error on their respective and effective readers such as the DVD players, Music Players, Video-Game players and computers readers for CDs or DVD5 softwares to be prepared for an original installation for its proper use.