The present invention provides an image processing system which can make switch-over
between a copy-permitted state and a copy-prohibited state automatically according
to the type of production while securely protecting the production.
For the purpose, the system causes a detecting portion to detect the presence
of predetermined information (i.e., production information) in image data, when
that image data is sent from a user side terminal to be output from an output device.
If the results of this detection indicate its presence, the system prohibits outputting
of that image data from the output device. With this, the system releases an output-prohibited
state of the above-mentioned image data based on the results of comparison between
a password sent from the user side terminal and a password present in that image data.
