Patent ID: 7362677

Claim:
An information writing/reading apparatus that cooperates with an information record medium including a ROM area and a RAM area, either the RAM area or the ROM area having in advance control information recorded thereon used to limit reading and/or writing of information, the information writing/reading apparatus comprising: an optical pick-up unit for reading information stored on the information record medium; and a control unit for, based on the control information read by the optical pick-up unit, limiting reading and/or writing of information from/to an other area on which the control information is not recorded and outputting a signal which notifies of presence of the other area only out of the ROM area and the RAM area on the information record medium, wherein the control information includes period data specifying an available period, the apparatus further comprising: a clock for outputting time information; and a comparison unit for comparing the period data included in the control information read by the optical pick-up unit with the time information output from the clock, to make a first determination to determine whether it is within the available time or not, the control unit limiting reading and/or writing of information from/to the other area depending on the result of the first determination, and when the control information is recorded on the ROM area, if it is not within the available period as a result of the first determination, the control unit imposes limitations such that reading of information from the RAM area is enabled but that writing of information to the RAM area is disabled.