The present invention provides a disc player that authenticates a disc via the Internet. According to one embodiment of the invention, upon insertion of a disc into a player, the player reads a disc identification (ID) on the disc. The player then sends a registration request with the disc ID to a server over the Internet for obtaining an authentication key for playing the disc, upon proper registration of the disc by the server. To properly register the disc, the server first determines whether the disc ID is included in its database. Upon proper registration of the disc, the server will set a registration status associated with the disc to prevent any subsequent unauthorized registrations for the same disc. Thus, by using the present invention, unauthorized copying of the disc can be effectively eliminated.