Patent ID: 8862903

Claim:
An information processing apparatus, comprising: data processing circuitry configured to reproduce contents stored in a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium; the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having a general purpose area in which encrypted contents and utilization controlling information corresponding to the encrypted contents are stored, and a protected area configured from a plurality of blocks to which access limitation is set and which include a block in which an encryption key for decrypting the encrypted contents and information of a plurality of validity periods indicative of content utilization permission periods applied to application contents of the encryption key are stored; said data processing circuitry being further configured to acquire the utilization controlling information of a reproduction object content from the general purpose area, extract selection information of validity period information to be applied to the reproduction object content from within the information of the validity periods recorded in the block included in the protected area configured from the plurality of blocks, from the utilization controlling information, and decide whether or not content reproduction is to be permitted by comparison between the validity period information selected from within the block included in the protected area configured from the plurality of blocks, and current date information in accordance with the selection information, wherein the validity period information includes at least one of at least a first content validity period set for at least a first content recorded in the utilization controlling information, and at least a block-corresponding validity period set commonly for a plurality of contents, and wherein the decision whether or not content reproduction is to be permitted is based on a reading of both said at least the first content validity period and said at least the block-corresponding validity period, such that one of the validity periods can be selectively applied to permit the content reproduction.