Information receiving and recording/reproducing apparatus/method having function for limiting/delimiting for protecting copyright of recording information

摘要

An apparatus comprising a transmission system for transmitting an information signal, and a reception system including an information receiving unit for receiving the information signal, and an information recording/reproducing unit for recording/reproducing the received information signal on/from a recording medium. The reception system includes a specific information storage circuit for storing specific information which is assigned peculiarly to the reception system in advance, a specific information donating circuit for adding the specific information to the received information signal or encrypting the received information signal on the basis of the specific information to supply the resulting information signal to the information recording/reproducing unit, and a specific information judgement circuit for receiving an information signal reproduced by the information recording/reproducing unit and verifying the information signal with a condition based on the specific information stored in the specific information storage circuit so that when the condition is satisfied, a signal obtained by deleting the specific information added to the reproduced information signal or by decrypting the encrypted information signal is outputted.