Patent ID: 7257132

Claim:
A receiver apparatus for receiving a program and outputting it to other apparatuses, comprising: an output circuit for outputting said program to said other apparatus; and a controller for controlling an output of said output circuit, so as to manage a number of said other apparatuses, through which the program can be simultaneously viewed or simultaneously recorded, wherein said controller determines the number of said other apparatuses, wherein said controller determines whether said other apparatuses are regularly certified apparatuses which can receive said program, and wherein said controller restricts said other apparatuses, to which said output circuit can output said program, to the regularly certified apparatuses, and restricts said other apparatuses which can simultaneously view or simultaneously record the program being output to be less than or equal to at least one of a number of said other apparatuses through which the program can be simultaneously viewed or a number of said other apparatuses through which the program can be simultaneously recorded.