Patent ID: 7991862

Claim:
A content distributing system including a content distributing apparatus that distributes video or audio content and further including a plurality of content recording apparatuses that are communicable with the content distributing apparatus and record content distributed from the content distributing apparatus, wherein the content recording apparatuses respectively comprise a request transmitting unit that transmits to the content distributing apparatus, a content purchase request including specification information specifying content and identification information uniquely identifying the content recording apparatuses respectively, a content receiving unit that receives from the content distributing apparatus, the content corresponding to the purchase request transmitted, and a recording unit that records the content received by the content receiving unit; and the content distributing apparatus comprises a request receiving unit that receives a content purchase request from one of the content recording apparatuses, a determining unit that determines communication environment quality for the content recording apparatuses, respectively, a selecting unit that based on communication environment qualities determined by the determining unit, selects from among the content recording apparatuses, a content recording apparatus as a destination to which the content corresponding to the purchase request is to be transmitted, a confirming unit that confirms remittance for the content by a user of the content recording apparatus selected by the selecting unit, and a content transmitting unit that, in response to confirmation of remittance, transmits the content to the content recording apparatus selected.