DVDs can be copy protected by incorporating regions which contain
unreadable or subversive data within the data area (42). For example,
such a region may be configured as a cell of a video object (VOB) (50)
within a VOB file (51). Access to the region of subversive data is
prevented during normal playback, for example, by ensuring that there are
no pointers leading to the subversive region. To defeat such a copy
protection method, the content on the copy protected optical disc is
accessed by utilising the navigation provided for normal playback of the
disc. Thus, the subversive regions are navigated around during copying of
the disc. The accessed content is stored in a corresponding data area
and, where subversive regions are identified, arbitrary data is
incorporated within regions of the copy data area which correspond to
regions of unreadable or subversive data in the original data area.