Patent ID: 8259557

Claim:
A method of producing an optical disc having a first data region for storing user data and a second data region containing operation management information, said method comprising: determining whether said first data region of the optical disc should not be accessed by a playback device complying with a preceding version of a specification which defines a characteristic of said optical disc, said determining being based on changes in laser power needed to reproduce said first data region; based on results of said determining step, incrementing reproducing identification information indicating whether the first data region should be accessed by the playback device complying with the preceding version of the specification, and recording said incremented reproducing identification information in the second data region of said optical disc, the second data region containing version information specifying a version of the specification, wherein the second data region is read by the playback device before accessing said first data region, and the incremented reproducing identification information prohibits the playback device complying with the preceding version of the specification from accessing the first data region to prevent possible damage to the disc due to reproducing laser power of said playback device.