Patent ID: 7457779

Claim:
A user terminal program recorded on a computer-readable recording medium of a user terminal apparatus, wherein: the user terminal apparatus has pre-stored therein a compatibility file used as a basis for judging compatibility between a specified content that a user wants to purchase and a predetermined reproducing apparatus other than the user terminal apparatus, the compatibility file includes one or more pieces of system identifying information each identifying (i) a purchasing system for purchasing the specified content and (ii) a reproducing system for reproducing the purchased specified content, the purchasing and reproducing systems being adopted by the predetermined reproducing apparatus, and the specified content, which is distributed according to the purchasing and reproducing systems identified by the corresponding system identifying information, is written to one of a memory of the predetermined reproducing apparatus and a memory that is insertable into the predetermined reproducing apparatus, said user terminal program enables the user terminal apparatus to execute at least the following steps: accepting, from a user, instruction information specifying the specified content that the user wants to reproduce on the predetermined reproducing apparatus; acquiring system identifying information which identifies a system to be used for receiving the specified content from a distributing site; judging whether the acquired system identifying information is included in the compatibility file, to judge whether the specified content can be reproduced on the predetermined reproducing apparatus if the specified content corresponding to the acquired system identifying information is purchased and written to one of the memory of the predetermined reproducing apparatus and the memory that is insertable into the predetermined reproducing apparatus; receiving from the distributing site the specified content that is judged to be reproducible on the predetermined reproducing apparatus when a result of the judgment in said judging operation is affirmative, and prohibiting reception of the specified content from the distributing site when the result of the judgment in said judging operation is negative, the specified content being judged to be non-reproducible on the predetermined reproducing apparatus; and writing the specified content, which has been judged in said judging operation to be reproducible on the predetermined reproducing apparatus, to one of the memory of the predetermined reproducing apparatus and the memory that is insertable into the predetermined reproducing apparatus.