Information processing apparatus and method, recording medium, and program

An information processing method, comprising:

• communicating, via a communication device, with different information processing apparatuses via a network;
• determining, in an authentication circuit and based on personal restriction information including a privacy level of the information processing apparatus relative to a sharing group which is included in the content data, whether use of the content data is permitted;
• determining, in a sharing determination circuit, whether use of the content data is permitted based on a comparison between a maximum number of sharing terminals information and a number of the different information processing apparatuses performing synchronous playback with the information processing apparatus;
• and
• synchronously playing back the content data with the different information processing apparatuses, when use of the content data is permitted based on the personal restriction information and the comparison of the maximum number of sharing terminals information and the number of different information processing apparatuses.

A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing computer-readable instructions thereon that, when executed by a processor of an information processing apparatus, causes the processor to perform a process comprising:

• communicating with different information processing apparatuses via through a network;
• determining based on personal restriction information including a privacy level of the information processing apparatus relative to a sharing group which is included in the content data, whether use of the content data is permitted;
• determining whether use of the content data is permitted based on a comparison between a maximum number of sharing terminals information and a number of the different information processing apparatuses performing synchronous playback with the information processing apparatus;
• and
• synchronously playing back the content data with the different information processing apparatuses, when use of the content data is permitted based on the personal restriction information and the comparison of the maximum number of sharing terminals information and the number of different information processing apparatuses.