A data recording/reproduction apparatus and method are disclosed, in which a recording medium for digitally recording and reproducing a copyrighted signal is prevented from being illegally duplicated and controlled by a duplication control method conforming with the signal input and the internal functions of the apparatus. An image signal is compressed, the compressed data is converted by a first converter into a format adapted for recording in a recording medium, and the data is recorded by a recording unit in the recording medium. The data recording/reproduction apparatus further comprises a first detection unit for detecting the duplication limiting information embedded in the image signal. Further, the input/output of the image information can be suspended in accordance with the duplication limiting information.