Patent ID: 8566457

Claim:
A content delivery service providing apparatus that provides a content delivery service via a communication line to a user-side terminal unit capable of recording content into one or more information storage mediums, at least one of the information storage mediums containing at least a medium unique identifier and medium information on medium key information, the content delivery service providing apparatus comprising: a storage unit storing a set of instructions, the set of instructions comprising: user eligibility determining instructions configured to determine whether a user who applies to subscribe to the content delivery service provided by the content delivery service providing apparatus is eligible or not based on user information supplied from the user-side terminal unit, the user information including user personal information and service coverage of the user; user information manager instructions configured to manage user information on an eligible user determined by the user eligibility determining instructions; authentication issuing instructions configured to issue, to the user-side terminal unit of the eligible user, login authentication to log into the content delivery service providing apparatus when it is determined that the user is eligible to subscribe to the content; encrypted content control instructions configured to acquire the content and a content key creation condition from a copyright owner or copyright manager of the content who provides the content delivery service, and create a content key on the basis of the content key creation condition and encrypted content on the basis of the content key; list offering instructions configured to generate a list of contents deliverable to the user-side terminal unit of the eligible user logging into the content delivery service providing apparatus using the login authentication in accordance with the service coverage of the eligible user, and to offer the list to the user-side terminal unit; delivery instructor instructions configured to receive a user's content request comprising selection information from the user-side terminal unit to select a content from the list; encrypted content key control instructions, separate from the encrypted content control instructions, configured to (i) accumulate content keys created by the encrypted content control instructions, (ii) register all of or a part of the medium information on medium key information, (iii) use the medium information on medium key information or the medium information on medium key information and terminal device unique key information included in the user's content request to encrypt a content key corresponding to the selected content, and (iv) issue the encrypted content key to the user-side terminal unit of the requesting user; and content delivery control instructions configured to retrieve the selected content from the encrypted contents created by the encrypted content control instructions and deliver the selected content to the user-side terminal unit of the requesting user.