Patent ID: 7835510

Claim:
A conference system in which communication data including audio information generated at a conference is exchanged between terminal apparatuses as well as access restrictions to system resources are performed on the basis of preset access control information, the conference system comprising: a plurality of terminal apparatuses; and a conference management apparatus, wherein each terminal apparatus has access privilege granting means that, when predetermined access privileges to available system resources including a conference participation right are set for a target terminal apparatus to which access rights are to be granted, generates permission information according to the set access privileges, and sends the permission information to the target terminal apparatus, permission information storage means that stores the permission information, and access privilege setting means that obtains the permission information so as to cause the permission information to be stored in the permission information storage means as well as sends the permission information to the conference management apparatus that manages access restriction to the system resources so as to enable the access privilege, the target terminal apparatus has access privilege setting means that transmits the permission information received from another terminal apparatus to the conference management apparatus, and wherein the conference management apparatus has access control information updating means that, upon receiving the permission information from the target terminal apparatus, updates the access control information according to the permission information, and access restriction management means that performs the access restrictions to the system resources on the basis of the access control information updated by the access control information updating means.