METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING METADATA OF CONTENTS, AND METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR LIMITING USE-AUTHORTITY OF CONTENTS

摘要

A meta data providing method and apparatus, and contents authority restricting method and apparatus are provided for a service provider to allow a user to use contents only within an allowed authority range, thereby preventing the unauthorized usage of the contents of the user. A meta data server combines contents information and control information defining the authority range of a client for corresponding contents to produce meta data(542). The client analyzes control information included into meta data information to extract the authority information of the client for corresponding contents(547). The client determines whether control operation according to the input of a user is operation within a right authority range by using the extracted authority information. The client performs the operation or outputs a warning message to the user without performing the operation(548).