A content playback control terminal comprising: a communication section that receives playback control information, license information, and encrypted content, encrypted content, whereby the playback control information and the license information are transmitted separately, a tamper-proof security module in which, from among the playback control information and the license information, only the license information is stored; a content decoding section that decodes the encrypted content, wherein said content decoding section obtains the license information containing a content key for generating the encrypted content and a usage condition describing an indication that only playback based on the playback control information is permitted for the encrypted content, and decodes and plays back the section of content by means of the encryption key based on the playback control information; a playback control information processing section that obtains the playback control information comprising a description that specifies a section of content and a playback mode restriction of skip for the section of content, and gives said content decoding section a decoding instruction based on the playback control information; and an operating section operable to receive a skip request from a user and pass the skip request to the content decoding section; wherein the content decoding section is operable, in response to the skip request, to issue a skip possibility/impossibility request to the playback control information processing section; the playback control information processing section, in response to the skip possibility/impossibility request, is operable to recognize, referring to the playback control information, that skipping is prohibited for the segment being played back, and to return an indication that skipping is not possible to the content decoding section; and the content decoding section, having obtained the indication that skipping is not possible, does not comply with the skip request. a communication section that receives playback control information, license information, and encrypted content, encrypted content, whereby the playback control information and the license information are transmitted separately, a tamper-proof security module in which, from among the playback control information and the license information, only the license information is stored; a content decoding section that decodes the encrypted content, wherein said content decoding section obtains the license information containing a content key for generating the encrypted content and a usage condition describing an indication that only playback based on the playback control information is permitted for the encrypted content, and decodes and plays back the section of content by means of the encryption key based on the playback control information; a playback control information processing section that obtains the playback control information comprising a description that specifies a section of content and a playback mode restriction of skip for the section of content, and gives said content decoding section a decoding instruction based on the playback control information; and an operating section operable to receive a skip request from a user and pass the skip request to the content decoding section; wherein the content decoding section is operable, in response to the skip request, to issue a skip possibility/impossibility request to the playback control information processing section; the playback control information processing section, in response to the skip possibility/impossibility request, is operable to recognize, referring to the playback control information, that skipping is prohibited for the segment being played back, and to return an indication that skipping is not possible to the content decoding section; and the content decoding section, having obtained the indication that skipping is not possible, does not comply with the skip request.