Patent 7917531 was granted and assigned to Sony on March, 2011 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
The present invention pertains to an information processing apparatus which allows users to easily know content which others are allowed to check out. A management server 352 records data relevant to content which others are allowed to check out. A web server 351 receives a request for the data relevant to the content, and transmits the data relevant to the content when the data relevant to the content is requested. The present invention is applicable to an information processing apparatus for handling data relevant to copyright protected content.