An apparatus of a flexible and common MPEG-2 IPMP system (Intellectual Property Management and Protection) is invented to provide flexibility and interoperability by introducing a IPMP Control Information which includes IPMP Tool List and an optional Tool Container. The IPMP Control Information is put in PSI in MPEG-2 transport stream, and a special PES packet in MPEG-2 program stream. IPMP Stream is defined to carry IPMP information that is to be sent to each individual IPMP tool instance. The concept of Tool Manager, Message Router from MPEG-4 IPMP extension is mapped into MPEG-2 terminal to form MPEG-2 IPMP framework together with introduced IPMP Control Information and IPMP Stream. As a result of this invention, the same protected MPEG-2 content is able to play back by different types of MPEG-2 IPMP terminals, and the same MPEG-2 content can be protected by using different vendors' IPMP system.