Patent ID: 8045710

Claim:
A distributing method comprising the step of: distributing encrypted contents from a distributing side wherein the encrypted contents are encrypted by the distributing side and the encrypted contents are stored into a storage medium at a receiving side; and distributing a play command with a decryption key at a time after distributing the encrypted contents to cause the encrypted contents to be played, wherein the time at which the play command and decryption key are distributed is predetermined by the distributing side and the decryption key is stored into a memory at a receiving side; wherein, upon receiving the play command, the receiving side causes the encrypted contents to be retrieved from the storage medium and the decrypted using the decryption key is used to produce decrypted contents, and wherein the decrypted contents are outputted and the decryption key is deleted from the memory when output of the decrypted contents is finished, wherein the encrypted contents are distributed with a first identifier identifying the encrypted contents, and wherein the play command is distributed with a second identifier identifying the first identifier to indicate the encrypted contents to be retrieved from the storage medium for output.