Patent ID: 8321575

Claim:
A relay server comprising: a relay group information registration unit arranged to store relay group information about a relay group including other relay servers that can be connected with the relay server; a shared resource information registration unit arranged to store shared resource information including resource information, hierarchical structure information regarding a hierarchical structure of a resource, account information of a resource sharing terminal that is a client terminal that shares the resource, and account information of a resource sharing terminal that can handle the resource when the resource is shared by a plurality of client terminals in the relay group; and a control unit arranged to: (i) create a hierarchical structure based on shared resource information specified by the resource sharing terminal; (ii) establish, based on the relay group information, a communication path with another resource sharing terminal that is specified by the resource sharing terminal based on the shared resource information and that will operate the resource when the resource sharing terminal cannot operate the resource that is included in the specified shared resource information; and (iii) receive the resource from the another resource sharing terminal and transfer the resource to the resource sharing terminal so as to output the transferred resource in accordance with the hierarchical structure when the specified shared resource information is specified by the resource sharing terminal such that the resource included in the prescribed shared resource information may be collectively output to an output destination in accordance with the hierarchical structure information.