Patent ID: 7403983

Claim:
An information processing apparatus for controlling transmission and reception of electronic mail associated with a user, comprising: first input controlling means for controlling input of said electronic mail; first judging means for judging whether first information attached to said electronic mail has a capacity larger than a first predetermined capacity; generating means for generating second information corresponding to said first information, wherein said second information is authentication information; storage controlling means for, if said first judging means judges that said first information attached to said electronic mail has a capacity larger than said first predetermined capacity, controlling storage of said first information in association with said second information for the user, wherein said storage controlling means controls storage of said first information for a plurality of users; replacing means for replacing said first information attached to said electronic mail with said second information generated by said generating means; incrementing means for incrementing a counter value indicating a number of times the first judging means has judged that the capacity of said first information is larger than said first predetermined capacity for the user, wherein the incrementing means does not increment the counter value when the first judging means judges that the first information has a capacity smaller than the first predetermined capacity; first output controlling means for controlling output of said electronic mail after said first information has been replaced with said second information by said replacing means; third input controlling means for controlling input of said authentication information; third judging means for judging whether said authentication information is valid after input of said authentication information has been controlled by said third input controlling means; and third output controlling means for, if said third judging means judges said authentication information to be valid, controlling output of said first information controlled in storage by said storage controlling means, wherein said third output controlling means controls output of said first information in small increments; and second judging means for, if said first input controlling means controls input of said electronic mail together with said first information, judging whether or not a plurality of pieces of said first information destined for any one of said users have a total storage capacity larger than a second predetermined capacity.