Patent ID: 7777693

Claim:
An image output apparatus comprising: a communication unit configured to communicate with a plurality of external apparatuses via a network; an output unit configured to output at least one received image for displaying, which has been received from one of said external apparatuses that is connected to said image output apparatus via the communication unit; a holding unit configured to hold the received image in a memory; a sending unit configured to send the received image to another said external apparatus via the communication unit; and a determining unit configured to inquire the external apparatus which provided the received image, for whether or not the received image is allowed to be stored in the memory so as to provide the received image to said another external apparatus, and determine whether or not the received image is allowed to be held in the memory by the holding unit based on a response to the inquiry, wherein the output unit outputs a plurality of received images from the plurality of external apparatuses as a single screen image, the single screen image includes a received image that was not allowed by said determination unit to be held in the memory; the holding unit, even when the output unit displays received images from the external apparatuses as the single screen image, holds in the memory the single screen image from which the received image that was not allowed by said determination unit to be held in the memory is removed, as a single image to be provided, and the sending unit sends the single image to be provided held in the memory in response to an image sending request from the another external apparatus.