Patent ID: 7343491

Claim:
An information processing apparatus for carrying out secure transmission of content to another apparatus over a network, said information processing apparatus comprising: an encryption unit operable to encrypt the content; an authentication unit operable to receive authentication information from the another apparatus when the another apparatus requests permission to receive the encrypted content, and to determine whether the authentication information is valid; a first obtaining unit operable to obtain identification information of the another apparatus from the authentication information when the authentication information is valid and to determine whether the identification information of the another apparatus is already stored in a storage unit; a transmitting unit operable to transmit a decryption key needed to decrypt the encrypted content to the another apparatus when the authentication information is valid and a count of a total number of apparatuses having permission to receive the encrypted content is less than a maximum value; a first counting unit operable to increment by one the count of the total number of apparatuses having permission to receive the encrypted content when the identification information of the another apparatus is not already stored in said storage unit and the count of the total number of apparatuses having permission to receive the encrypted content is less than the maximum value; said storage unit being operable to store the identification information of the another apparatus when the identification information of the another apparatus is not already stored in said storage unit; and an information updating unit operable to delete the identification information stored in said storage unit and to reset the count of the total number of apparatuses having permission to receive the encrypted content when the decryption key needed to decrypt the encrypted content is changed.