A content use rights discrimination card corresponding to encrypted content is sold to a user. The user transmits data recorded on the content use rights discrimination card to a content use rights management center. The content use rights management center then verifies the content and the card, based on data in the received content use rights discrimination card, to encrypt a decoding key for decoding the content together with, for example, a session key, to transmit the encrypted content key to the user. The content use rights discrimination card, when sold to the user, can be set for enabling resale and transferred between different users so that the decoding key can be transmitted plural times from the content use rights management center. This procedure enables content to be utilized without executing any on-line settlement processing.