Patent ID: 7386597

Claim:
A method for distributing contents, comprising the steps of: previously arranging, via a network, a plurality of storage servers, each deployed to connect to said network and each having a storage unit for storing contents and a retrieving server for retrieving a location of the contents stored by each of said storage servers; correlating one or more clients to each of said storage servers, wherein said one or more clients correlated to one of said storage servers is not the same one or more clients correlated to another of said storage servers; causing the storage unit of each of said storage servers to store contents held for a correlated client; receiving, in any storage server, a contents distribution request from a client correlated to the storage server; distributing said contents to the requesting client when the requested contents exist in said storage server; transmitting a request for retrieving a location of the requested contents including a requested content name information to said retrieving server by means of said storage server when the requested contents do not exist in said storage server; receiving a content location information including address information of the storage servers holding said requested contents from said retrieving server; requesting transmission of said requested contents from any of the storage servers holding said requested contents as shown in a result of retrieval through receipt by the storage server having transmitted said retrieving request of the result of retrieval in the retrieving server; storing, upon receipt of the contents, the received contents in the storage unit of said storage server to which the requesting client is correlated, and notifying said retrieving server of holding of said contents in said storage unit of said storage server to which the requesting client is correlated; and distributing said received contents to the requesting client.