Patent ID: 7975098

Claim:
A recording medium, comprising: a control data area for storing different versions of access control information, the access control information controlling an access to a plurality of segment regions within a user data area of the recording medium and specifying the segment regions to which the corresponding access control information applies, the access control information including predetermined rules and update information, the predetermined rules being used to control the access and specifying operation/operations to be applicable to the record medium when the access control information is not identified by an apparatus attempting to record/reproduce data, user data being recorded or reproduced on or from the segment regions based on the predetermined rules if the access control information is not identified by the apparatus, the update information indicating number of times the access control information is updated, wherein the number of the access control information is limited to a predetermined value; and a management area for storing status information, the status information indicating at least whether each version of the access control information is valid and being changed to indicate that a previously-recorded version of access control information is invalid and that an updated version of access control information is valid in response to updating of the access control information.