Patent ID: 7284275

Claim:
An information playback apparatus for playing back a recording medium on which image information is recorded, comprising: first fetching means for fetching identification information, input by a user, used for identification of a recording medium; second fetching means for fetching a permission condition, input by the user, for permitting playback of the image information recorded on a recording medium; storage means for storing the identification information fetched by said first fetching means and the permission condition fetched by said second fetching means; extraction means for extracting the identification information recorded on a recording medium loaded in said information playback apparatus; first comparison means for comparing the identification information extracted by said extraction means and the identification information stored in said storage means with each other; third fetching means for fetching a permission condition when the identification information extracted by said extraction means and the identification information stored in said storage means coincide with each other; second comparison means for comparing the permission condition fetched by said third fetching means and the permission condition stored in said storage means with each other; and control means for controlling playback of the image information recorded on the recording medium in response to a result of the comparison by said second comparison means, wherein said user is able to increase a value of said identification information, input by a user, used for identification of a recording medium and a value of said identification information recorded on a recording medium loaded in said information playback apparatus, wherein the increased values of the identification information are written over original values of the identification information in the storage means, and wherein, if a maximum of identification information is achieved the new identification information is written over a user-selected replaceable identification information.