Patent ID: 7219135

Claim:
An information acquisition apparatus for reproducing information stored in an information recording medium, and for communicating with at least one information server through an Internet, the information server contains related information, the related information is information related to the information recording medium, the apparatus comprising: reading means for automatically initiating reading of contents information and predetermined address information when the information recording medium is set into the information acquisition apparatus, said contents information and said predetermined address information are stored on the information recording medium beforehand, said predetermined address information indicates an address of a homepage stored on the information server, said contents information is information stored on the information recording medium, and said contents information does not include said predetermined address information; reproducing means for reproducing said contents information being read by said reading means; address-information acquisition means for acquiring said predetermined address information from said reading means in parallel with contents information reproduction initiated by said reproducing means; related-information acquisition means for accessing the homepage in the information server through the Internet based on said predetermined address information acquired by said address-information acquisition means in parallel with said contents information reproduction initiated by said reproducing means, and for acquiring any of said related information; display means for displaying said related information acquired by said related-information acquisition means; and control means for controlling each of said address-information acquisition means, said related-information acquisition means, and said display means in parallel with said contents information reproduced by said reproducing means.