Video and/or audio information reading apparatus, information recording apparatus, optical disk reproducing apparatus, optical disk recording apparatus, information reading method, information recording method, program, and storage medium

摘要

A mask function that replaces at least part of information, such as video data, audio data, and sub-picture data, with invalid data is provided in an information recording/reproducing apparatus. Both of a personal computer (PC) and the information recording/reproducing apparatus are provided with features in which the information is encrypted on a sending end, exchanged between the sending end and a receiving end, and decrypted on the receiving end. Authentication is performed between the PC and the information recording/reproducing apparatus: when the authentication succeeds, the information is transferred from one end where the information is encrypted to the other end where the information is decrypted; when the authentication fails, the information recording/reproducing apparatus applies the mask function to the information read from a storage medium or to the information to be written transferred from the PC to the storage medium.