A recording apparatus having a reproduction means to play digital data from a recording medium recorded with that digital data and retrieval information, a recording means to write the digital data reproduced by the reproduction means and record the retrieval information on a control table, and a control circuit to search the control table by using the retrieval information when the digital data from the reproduction means is written by the recording means, to permit the writing of digital data recorded on the medium with the recording means when the retrieval information is not recorded on the control table, and to prohibit the writing of digital data recorded on the medium with the recording means when the retrieval information is already recorded on the control table, and also prevent the mistaken duplicate copying of the digital data with the recording means.