Patent 7225158 was granted and assigned to Sony on May, 2007 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
An image commercial transactions system and method that implement sales according to the purpose of the seller is disclosed. An e-commerce system sells a picture and a handling condition specific to the picture, both being recorded on a predetermined recording medium in a predetermined format. The picture to be sold and the handling condition are accepted by an acceptor in a digital format. When a transaction is established, an accounting company carries out an accounting electronically for a purchaser of the data of the picture and the e-commerce condition, thereby both the picture to be sold and the handling condition are sold as digital data so that the purchased picture is used in a handling manner as intended by the seller. Consequently, the sale of the picture can be made so as to satisfy the intention of the seller.