A recording or reproduction apparatus is provided which utilizes copyright information in operations to record content data onto a recording medium or reproduce content data from the recording medium. Copyright information for the contents includes information identifying an input source of the content data. The information identifying an input source is stored in the recording medium along with the content data. When the contents are reproduced from the recording medium, the input source information is acquired and used as a basis for determining whether the contents can be reproduced and output. Thus, it is possible to impose an output restriction on an operation to reproduce the contents in accordance with the input source.