Patent ID: 8509444

Claim:
A scramble key management apparatus which manages an output of a scramble key for decoding an encrypted content to a content decoder which receives and decodes the encrypted content, comprising: a scramble key management information decoding device which decodes scramble key management information in which the scramble key and individual authorization information are encrypted, the individual authorization information including authorization information for a plurality of the content decoders, wherein the authorization information for the plurality of the content decoders includes a sequence of bits, wherein each bit is associated with a single one of the plurality of content decoders and the bits are arranged in a numerical order of decoder IDs of the plurality of the content decoders to indicate presence or absence of authorization for each of the plurality of the content decoders to decode the encrypted content; an authorization information obtaining device which obtains the authorization information for the content decoder of an output target from the individual authorization information decoded by the scramble key management information decoding device based on the decoder ID of the content decoder of the output target; and an authorization status determining device which determines whether or not the content decoder is authorized to decode the encrypted content based on the authorization information obtained by the authorization information obtaining device, and outputs the scramble key to the content decoder of the output target if the content decoder is authorized to decode the encrypted content.