Management information is embedded by directly controlling media with a date hiding technique. A system which accesses (regenerates or records) media data by using the management information is controlled based on this management information, and according to the contents of the management information, the access to media data is inhibited. Therefore, illegal duplication of data can be prevented, and consequently, works can be effectively protected. More particularly, in a system for accessing media data stored on a storage medium 51, the system comprises means 52 for reading out data from the storage medium, means 56 for specifying an embedding region, in which management information for managing access to the media data was embedded, from the read-out data and for extracting the management information in accordance with a status of the embedding region by referring to an extraction rule where the status of the embedding region is caused to correspond to the contents of data to be extracted, means 60 for generating an access interference signal, and means 59 for selectively outputting either the read-out signal or a signal generated by both the read-out signal and the access interference signal, in accordance with the contents of the management information.