Patent ID: 7577571

Claim:
An electronic apparatus, comprising: a determination module that: determines whether contents data is proprietary or non-proprietary, such that: when the contents data is proprietary, a user is charged based on information representative of a time period within which the contents data is used and not based on an amount of contents data; when the contents data is non-proprietary, the user is charged based on an amount of time for which said electronic apparatus is used and not based on an amount of contents data; a contents data use time period measurement module that measures a time period for which the contents data is used; an apparatus use time period measurement module that measures a time period for which said electronic apparatus is used; and a charging processing module that produces, when the determination module determines that the contents data is proprietary, information to be used by a charging process based on at least a result of the measurement of said contents data use time period measurement module; when the determination module determines that the contents data is non-proprietary, information to be used by the charging process based on the result of the measurement of said apparatus use time period measurement module.