Patent ID: 8607360

Claim:
A data delivery apparatus comprising: a receiving unit configured to receive a user instruction for transmitting to another apparatus limited-access data to which an access from a user other than a first user is limited; a first determination unit configured to determine whether or not the other apparatus has an access management function for limiting an access to previously-stored data, the access to which is limited by limited-access data stored on the other apparatus, for each user when the user instruction is received by said receiving unit; a second determination unit configured to determine whether or not the other apparatus manages an access to data associated with the first user, responsive to determining by said first determination unit that the other apparatus has the access management function; an authentication unit configured to request input of authentication information from a user and then authenticate the user using the input authentication information, responsive to determining by said first determination unit that the other apparatus does not have the access management function or determining by said second determination unit that the other apparatus does not manage the access to data associated with the first user; and a transmission control unit configured to transmit the limited-access data which is requested to be transmitted to the other apparatus when the user has been authenticated successfully by said authentication unit, wherein, responsive to determining by said first determination unit that the other apparatus has the access management function and determining by said second determination unit that the other apparatus manages the access to data associated with the first user, the transmission control unit transmits the limited-access data which is requested to be transmitted to the other apparatus without authentication processing.