To provide a nonlinear reproduction control device and method for a multimedia data stream that can include forward/reverse skip functions utilizing structural/semantic information of multimedia contents.

When a user enters a skip request, the skip direction as to whether the entered skip indicates a forward skip or a reverse skip is discriminated, and whether the skip request by the user indicates a large unit or a small unit is discriminated to decide the skip unit, the structural/semantic information revision point of the multimedia data stream closest from the current reproduction position is selected as a reproduction start point on the basis of the decided skip direction and skip unit and the reproduction of the media is started from the selected point.