Patent ID: 7330874

Claim:
An information processing apparatus comprising: an input unit configured to receive an input operation by a user; a generation unit configured to generate, for a second information processing apparatus, a request signal indicating a request to send multimedia data based on the input operation by the user received by said input unit, the second information processing apparatus including a first storage unit configured to store the multimedia data, a second storage unit configured to store information indicating a virtual hierarchical structure for organizing the multimedia data, stored by said first storage unit, into categories, and a third storage unit configured to store information concerning the priority of the multimedia data, stored by said first storage unit, in the categories of the hierarchical structure stored by said second storage unit; a sending unit configured to send the request signal generated by said generation unit; a receiving unit configured to receive the multimedia data extracted from said first storage unit and sent from the second information processing apparatus, in accordance with the request signal sent from said sending unit, based on the information indicating the virtual hierarchical structure stored by said second storage unit and the information concerning the priority of the multimedia data stored by said third storage unit; and a playback unit configured to play back the multimedia data received by said receiving unit.