US Patent 8006313 Non-machine specific optical-media based copy protection

A method of preventing use of an illegally copied optical medium comprises the step of identifying the media type of the optical medium to determine whether the optical medium is an original version or an unauthorized copy. If the media type indicates that the optical medium is an original version, use of the optical medium is not prevented. If the media type indicates that the optical medium is an unauthorized copy, use of the optical medium is inhibited. The media type can be identified by reviewing a medium-type code field contained in a mode parameter header of the optical medium, which corresponds to the media type of the optical medium, and is a feature integrated into the media that cannot be copied.