A data management method that by encrypting and distributing digital content prevents copyright infringement, and that prevents authorization information for decrypting the encrypted digital content from being damaged or otherwise lost. Encrypted content 45 is prepared by encrypting digital content 11 with a content key 44. A portion of the digital content 11 is extracted as sample data 41. A secret key 46, by which the content key 44 is encrypted with user information 14, is embedded as invisible information into the sample data 41, thus preparing watermarked sample data 47. The watermarked sample data 47 is synthesized with the encrypted content 45 to form synthesized data 48. The synthesized data 48 is distributed.