Patent ID: 7971020

Claim:
A method comprising: determining, at a signal modifying apparatus, whether copying of an information signal is allowed, not allowed or conditionally allowed; generating, at the signal modifying apparatus, a password in response to a determination that copying is conditionally allowed; applying to the information signal, at the signal modifying apparatus, a modification representing copy control data to form a modified information signal, the copy control data comprising a copy status code of a) first data if copying is allowed, b) second data if copying is not allowed, and c) third data if copying is conditionally allowed, the third data including at least encoded data corresponding to the password; outputting, at the signal modifying apparatus, the password enabling conditional copying of the information signal separately from the modified information signal; using a processor of a signal copying apparatus to derive the copy control data from the modified information signal and to determine whether the control data is the first, second or third data; using the processor of the signal copying apparatus to request entry of the password in response to determining that the copy control data is the third data; receiving, at the signal copying apparatus, the password separate from the modified information signal; and using the processor of the signal copying apparatus to determine whether to a) allow a recording unit to record if the first data is present in the modified information signal, b) disable the recording unit if the second data is present in the modified information signal; and c) allow the recording unit to record if the third data is present in the modified information signal and the password is provided, which when securely encoded by a predetermined algorithm, has a predetermined relationship to the said encoded data of the third data.