A reproduction control method adopted by an information-processing
apparatus such as a personal computer for the purpose of protecting
copyrights imposes a restriction on an operation carried out by a media
reproduction apparatus such as a disc drive apparatus to reproduce
musical data or the like (from a recording medium mounted on the media
reproduction apparatus). A command issued by the processing main member
of the information-processing apparatus (including application programs
and an OS) to the media reproduction apparatus such as the disc drive
apparatus to read out data recorded on the recording medium in a
predetermined format is monitored. If the issuance of a command to read
out data recorded in a predetermined format is confirmed, a copyright
protection process is carried out to protect a copyright. The copyright
protection process is a process to prohibit or conditionally permit a
suck-up operation (to transfer the musical data from the recording medium
to the personal computer).