APPARATUS FOR RESTRICTING NUMBER OF TIMES OF USE OF IMAGE AND METHOD FOR RESTRICTING NUMBER OF TIMES OF USE OF IMAGE

摘要

In order to provide a number-of-times-of-image-use restricting apparatus that can prevent cost for communication with a server connected to a network from being incurred and apply restriction on use to image data, a number-of-times-of-image-use restricting apparatus includes a metadata storing unit that embed, according to use of image data, the number of times of use of the image data in the image data as metadata, a metadata reading unit that reads the number of times of use by reading the metadata embedded in the image data, and a number-of-times-of-use managing unit that manages the number of times of use of the image data on the basis of the number of times of use read by the metadata reading unit and a predetermined upper limit number of times of use.