Patent ID: 8627372

Claim:
An information processing apparatus, comprising: a package obtaining unit to obtain, from at least one program reproducing apparatus, the at least one program reproducing apparatus being configured to obtain program information including information on a plurality of items for each broadcast program, to selectively receive and reproduce the broadcast program, and to transfer a package including information on a plurality of previously-determined specific items failing to include, as a content, information whose secondary use is limited by an intellectual property right, in the program information on a program viewed by a user, the package; a first table storing unit to store a first table; a package identifier generating unit to generate, for each unique combination of information on the plurality of specific items included in the obtained package, a package identifier identifying the combination; a first table registering unit to extract information on the plurality of specific items from the obtained package, and to register the information on the plurality of specific items, a user identifier identifying a user of a program reproducing apparatus being a transfer source of the package, and the generated package identifier in correspondence with each other, in the first table; a second table storing unit to store a second table; a second table registering unit to extract a correspondence relation between the user identifier and the package identifier from the first table, and to register the at least one package identifier corresponding to the user identifier, as a program view history for each user, in the second table; a determining unit to determine the at least one package identifier being a difference between a plurality of program view histories similar to each other registered in the second table; and a notifying unit to notify a program reproducing apparatus of a recommendation-target-user of at least part of information on the plurality of specific items registered in the first table corresponding to the package identifier determined by the determining unit in which the plurality of specific items in the program information at least includes (i) an item of a program identifier uniquely allocated to each program in conformity with a broadcast standard which excludes any identifier whose secondary use is limited by the intellectual property right, and (ii) an item of information on broadcast date and time.