Patent ID: 8069246

Claim:
A relay server comprising: a relay group information registration unit arranged to store information about a relay group including other relay servers that are arranged to be connected with the relay server; a shared resource information registration unit arranged to store shared resource information including resource information and account information of each client terminal that shares a resource when the resource is shared by a plurality of client terminals in the relay group; and a control unit including: a resource addition indicating unit arranged to indicate a change of the shared resource information in the shared resource information of another client terminal when the client terminal monitors a specified monitoring-target folder, and as a result of the monitoring, detects addition of an additional resource to the monitoring-target folder and then adds resource information about the additional resource to the shared resource information; a transfer request relaying unit arranged to relay a resource transfer request to: the client terminal that belongs to the relay server and that is arranged to handle the additional resource, or the relay server that is connected with the client terminal that is arranged to handle the additional resource when the client terminal monitors specified monitoring-target shared resource information, and as a result of the monitoring, detects that the resource information about the additional resource has been added to the monitoring-target shared resource information and then requests for transfer of the additional resource; and a deletion request relaying unit arranged to relay a resource information deletion request only to the client terminal that belongs to the relay server and that is arranged to handle the additional resource, or the relay server that is connected with the client terminal that is arranged to handle the additional resource when the additional resource is transferred to the client terminal that requested the resource transfer and stored in a specified folder, and as a result of the transfer and storage of the additional resource, the client terminal requests for deletion of the resource information about the additional resource from the monitoring-target shared resource information.