Patent ID: 6496807
Filing Date: 2002-12-17
Classification: G06Q,G07F,G11B

Abstract:
A recording medium having a write-once recording area in which information can be recorded only a single time and cannot be rewritten at locations on which information has already been recorded, the recording medium comprising:a billing information recording area in which readable billing information is sequentially recorded in the write-once recording area in a series of packets of a single fixed length, each packet representing an indivisible billing unit, so that the billing information recording area includes: a) a recorded portion in which the readable billing information has been recorded so as to occupy a first number of packets and a corresponding first area of the billing information recording area that are directly proportional to a spent number of billing units; and b) an unrecorded portion in which the readable billing information is not presently recorded and that occupies a second number of packets and a corresponding second area of the billing information recording area that are directly proportional to an unspent balance of billing units.