Patent ID: 7457820

Claim:
A digital image sharing apparatus, which is connected to an archiving apparatus storing a high resolution version of a digital image via to a network, said digital image sharing apparatus storing a low resolution version of the digital image previously, said digital image sharing apparatus comprising: an obtaining request reception unit adapted to receive, from a client apparatus, an obtaining request for obtaining the high resolution version of the digital image; a determining unit adapted to determine whether the archiving apparatus can supply the high resolution version of the digital image to the client apparatus, in response to the reception of the obtaining request; a transmission unit adapted to transmit an address of the archiving apparatus to the client apparatus in response to the obtaining request, if the determining unit determines that the archiving apparatus can supply the high resolution version of the digital image to the client apparatus, or transmit the low resolution version of the digital image to the client apparatus in response to the obtaining request, if the determining unit determines that the archiving apparatus cannot supply the high resolution version of the digital image to the client apparatus; a download unit adapted to download the high resolution version of the digital image from the archiving apparatus, if the determining unit determines that the archiving apparatus cannot supply the high resolution version of the digital image to the client apparatus; and a notifying unit adapted to notify the client apparatus after the download unit downloads the high resolution version of the digital image from the archiving apparatus.