Patent ID: 7526548

Claim:
An information image utilization system for performing multimedia file management, the system comprising: a plurality of clients, each client having a client identifier; an information image management server for: producing and storing a master information image, the master information image comprising specific information including an information image providing server identifier, wherein the master image is maintained on the information image management server; producing and storing first and second copy information images based on the master image; adding first attribute data to the first copy image specifying access rights; determining a second client owner of the second copy image and adding second attribute data, different from the first attribute data, to the second copy image specifying access rights of the second client owner; and an information image providing server for distributing the first copy image to a first client and the second copy image to the second client owner, wherein the first client is different from the second client owner, wherein the information image management server: updates the first copy image, after the first copy image is distributed to the first client, by adding a first client identifier to the first copy image stored on the information image management server to assign ownership of the first copy image to the first client, redistributes the undated first copy image to the first client, and stores an information image managing table, which associates an identifier of the master image, an information image providing server identifier, an identifier of the first and second copy images, the first client identifier, and a second client owner identifier.