METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CONTROL OF HARD COPYING OF DOCUMENT DESCRIBED IN HYPERTEXT DESCRIPTION LANGUAGE

A system of copying a digital document easily maintains the security of the contents of the screen display of, for example, a Web page of the Internet displayed on, for example, a display unit. Tag information indicating the prevention of copying of a screen is included in the hypertext in which a document from a server is described. On the client side, browsing software for actually performing a screen-display using the document interprets the tag information in the hypertext, and prevents making of a copy of the screen when a user issues a request to make a copy of the screen.