Patent ID: 8103149

Claim:
A playback system for playing back content, comprising: a category determining unit that determines a category, out of a plurality of categories, of a target content as a whole; a playback instruction data generator that determines a portion of the target content with specific details to be played back for a user in special playback of the target content, on the basis of a playback rule for the category of the target content, among playback rules, which are defined separately for each of the plurality of categories and for each type of special playback according to the details of the target content, the playback rules being used for determining a portion of the target content with specific details to be played back in special playback of the target content, and the playback instruction data generator generates playback instruction data in which portion-to-be-played information indicating the portion of the target content with the specific details to be played back is associated with identification information identifying the target content, wherein there are a plurality of types of special playback and each type of special playback is video content to be played for the user that includes a portion of the target content and not the entire target content, the types of special playback including abstract playback and highlight playback; an obtaining unit that obtains the portion-to-be-played information for the type of special playback specified by the user, the portion-to-be-played information being included in the playback instruction data and being associated with the identification information for the target content specified by the user; and an extracting unit that extracts, from the target content specified by the user, a portion of the target content with the specific details, which is indicated by the portion-to-be-played information obtained by the obtaining unit.