With content management apparatus 110 serving as a copy origin and storage medium 120 as a copy target, the copy origin retains allowed copy count control information on content, and when the content is copied from the copy origin to the copy target, the allowed copy count control information retained at the copy origin before copy processing is updated in accordance with a predetermined rule to generate allowed copy count control information to be retained at the copy origin and allowed copy count control information to be retained at the copy target, and subsequent copy processing at the copy origin is done based on the allowed copy count control information retained at the copy origin, whereas subsequent copy processing on the content stored in storage medium 120 is done based on the allowed copy count control information stored in storage medium 120. In this way, it is possible to achieve content management which is easily understandable for users.