Patent ID: 7627686

Claim:
A media contents distribution system for distributing a media content via a communication network, said media contents distribution system comprising a server and a terminal, wherein said server comprises: a condition setting unit operable to determine a usage rule for the media content to be transmitted to said terminal; a server-side storage unit operable to store the media content, an execution program for processing the media content, and the usage rule for the media content; and a transmission unit operable to transmit the media content and the execution program stored in said server-side storage unit to said terminal prior to using the media content, and at a time of using the media content, transmit the usage rule stored in said server-side storage unit to said terminal; wherein said terminal comprises: a reception unit operable to receive the media content, the execution program, and the usage rule from said server; a terminal-side storage unit operable to store the media content and the execution program received by said reception unit; a control unit operable to, at the time of using the media content, permit use of the media content within bounds of the usage rule determined by said condition setting unit; and a processing unit operable to execute the execution program stored in said terminal-side storage unit to process the media content stored in said terminal-side storage unit; and wherein the execution program checks with said control unit whether or not use of the media content received by said reception unit is permitted, and processes the media content only when use of the media content is permitted.