A content distribution system for transferring contents between transmission device and reception device. The transmission device includes: key obtaining unit that obtains, from reception device, public keys and public key identifiers; watermark embedding unit that embeds a different public key identifier, as electronic watermark, into each of contents that are identical in substance; an encryption unit that encrypts contents using public keys to generate encrypted contents; and transmission unit that transmits encrypted contents to reception device. The reception device includes: key storage unit storing public keys, public key identifiers, and a private key that makes a pair with one of the public keys; key transmission unit that transmits public keys and public key identifiers to the transmission device; content receiving unit that receives encrypted contents from transmission device; and decryption unit that obtains a content from the received encrypted contents, using the private key.