Patent ID: 8103700

Claim:
A data management apparatus for collecting data generated by a plurality of information terminals, and transmitting, in accordance with a request from a one of the plurality of information terminals, necessary data to the one of the plurality of information terminals, the data management apparatus comprising: reception circuitry for receiving, from a one of the plurality of information terminals, both ghost data used for reproducing a game process having been executed in accordance with an operation performed by a user of the one of the plurality of information terminals, and score data which represents an index indicating a skill of a game based on the ghost data, and database process circuitry for storing the received ghost data in accordance with a definition of a database in which a plurality of score sections are defined based on a value represented by the score data, and a maximum registration allowable number of users for which the ghost data are registered is defined for each of the plurality of score sections, or is defined so as to be the same among the plurality of score sections, wherein the database process circuitry includes: database storage circuitry for storing the database in which the plurality of score sections are defined based on the value represented by the score data; score section determination circuitry for determining one of the plurality of score sections, with which the received ghost data is to be associated, in accordance with the score data received with the ghost data, when the ghost data is received by the reception circuitry from a one of the plurality of information terminals; registration circuitry for registering the ghost data in the database so as to be associated with the one of the plurality of score sections determined by the score section determination circuitry; and deletion circuitry for deleting, as necessary, the ghost data for at least one user for which the ghost data has been already registered, such that, in the one of the plurality of score sections, the number of users for which the ghost data are registered is not greater than the maximum registration allowable number of users for which the ghost data are registered, when the ghost data is registered by the registration circuitry.