The invention flexibly limits a terminal able to play content and prevents unfair utilization of the content. In one embodiment, an identifier proper to each terminal device is allocated to discriminate each playback equipment. The identifier of a terminal which is allowed to play the content is registered to this license. When the content is played, authentication is performed between the terminal device as a license transfer destination and a memory device as a license transfer source. The identifier of the terminal device itself is transmitted to the memory device as a transfer source at an authenticating time. The memory device collates the identifier sent from the terminal device with an identifier registered to the license. If these identifiers are the same identifier, the memory device transfers the license to the terminal device. In contrast to this, if these identifiers are different identifiers, the memory device stops the transfer of the license.