The object of the present invention is to provide contents distribution method and system which can readily distribute digital contents, can prevent unfairness such as copying and falsifying accounting data and can also correspond to the payment of a small amount. To achieve the above object, a distribution service operator encrypts contents provided by a contents provider such as newspaper articles, a magazine, music, images and software and distributes them, a user decodes and utilizes only desired contents using a user terminal that receives the above encrypted contents, accounting is executed for only utilized contents and totalization is carried out by a central station.