Patent ID: 7944789

Claim:
A recording medium playback device comprising: (a) an information reading unit that reads information from a recording medium, said information being only allowed to be played back for a limited number of playbacks; (b) an information playback unit that plays back said information that has been read by said information reading unit; and (c) a control unit that controls reading of said information by said information reading unit and playback of said information by said information playback unit, and forcibly terminates the reading or the playback if the reading or the playback of the information is not possible, and (d) a storage device connected to said control unit, the storage device being configured to store a location of forced termination of the reading on said recording medium when the reading and the playback of the information is forcibly terminated by said control unit, wherein (A) said control unit is configured to control said information reading unit to read said information, control said information playback unit to play back said information, and count down said number of playbacks of said information if the reading or the playback has been attempted for the first time or if the reading or the playback is attempted in a state where said location of the forced termination is not stored in said storage device, and (B) when the reading or the playback is attempted again after the forced termination, the control unit is configured to control, said information reading unit to read information residing at a subsequent location that follows said location of the forced termination stored in said storage device at a predetermined time interval, and then control said information playback unit to play back said information at said subsequent location and not count down said number of playbacks.