US Patent 7925882 Data application method

Data application method enabling evaluations to be properly received while content is being protected, enabling content users to use only what they want to use in the amount they want to use it, and enabling advertising providers in certainty to have users use ads. The method includes: a step of converting first data for permitting use based on predetermined conditions, into encrypted first data by means of a predetermined encryption key; a step of generating watermarked second data in which the encryption key is embedded, as an invisible electronic watermark, into second data for permitting use unconditionally; and a step of compositing and distributing the encrypted first data and the watermarked second data.