Patent attributes
Apparatus nominally used for recording includes a reproduction section to play digital data from a recording medium recorded with that digital data and retrieval information, a recording section to write the digital data reproduced by the reproduction section and record the retrieval information on a control table, and a control circuit to search the control table by using the retrieval information when the digital data from the reproduction section is written by the recording section, thereby to permit the writing of digital data recorded on the medium with the recording section when the retrieval information is not recorded on the control table, and to prohibit the writing of digital data recorded on the medium with the recording section when the retrieval information is already recorded on the control table, and also to prevent the mistaken duplicate copying of the digital data with the recording section.