Patent ID: 6336028
Filing Date: 2002-01-01
Classification: G06Q

Abstract:
A contents playing software for playing contents and writing contents on an internal or external recording medium of portable contents playing devices, said contents playing software comprising:a contents management/playing portion having one or more managing/playing contents means; a contents writing portion having one or more contents writing means for writing the contents on the internal or external recording medium of the portable contents playing devices; and a basic function portion for controlling said contents management/playing portion, said contents writing portion, and an entirety of said contents playing software, said contents managing/playing means each managing and playing the contents distributed by a specific distribution system, said contents writing means each writing the contents on an internal or external recording medium of a specific portable contents playing device, said contents managing/playing means being capable of having transferring means for transferring the contents to said contents writing means, said contents writing means receiving the contents only from said contents management/playing means that has said transferring means for transferring the contents, said contents writing means writing the contents thus received on the internal or external recording medium of the portable contents playing devices; said basic function portion including distribution system detecting means for detecting the distribution system of the contents which a user of said contents playing software is trying to obtain, and contents management/playing means-adding means for adding said contents management/playing means to said contents management/playing portion; said contents management/playing means-adding means including contents management/playing means-automatic adding means for obtaining from an external source said contents management/playing means for the distribution system detected by said distribution system detection means and automatically adding said contents management/playing means if said contents managing/playing portion does not have said contents management/playing means, said contents management/playing means-adding means further including portable contents playing device designation information that indicates portable contents playing devices whose internal or external recording medium said contents playing software writes the contents in, and contents transferability information that includes information indicating distribution systems whose contents management/playing means has said transferring means that transfers the contents to said contents writing means of the portable contents playing devices indicated in said portable contents playing device designation information, said contents management/playing means-adding means determining, based on said contents transferability information, whether said contents management/playing means for the distribution system detected by said distribution system detection means has said contents transferring means, and if said contents management/playing means does not have said contents transferring means, said contents management/playing means-adding means warning to the user of the contents playing software that the contents he is trying to obtain cannot be written on the internal or external recording medium of the portable contents playing devices indicated in said portable contents playing device designation information, and stopping an execution of an automatic adding function of said contents managing/playing means or confirming with the user of said contents playing software whether or not to execute the automatic adding function of said contents managing/playing means.