INFORMATION-PROCESSING APPARATUS AND ASSOCIATED METHOD OF SECURELY PROVIDING CONTENTS FOR DISTRIBUTION

The present invention relates to an information-processing system, an information-processing apparatus and an information-processing method. At a step S1, a PDA transmits a request for purchase of a content to a server. At steps S11, S12 and S14, the server receives the request for purchase of a content from the PDA and transmits the content to the PDA. At a step S5, the PDA transmits a request for preservation of the content to the server. At a step S16, the server generates a preservation ID based on a user ID for identifying the user of the PDA and based on a content ID for identifying the content, and issues the preservation ID to the PDA. At the next step S17, the server stores the issued preservation ID in a preservation-ID database by associating the preservation ID with the content ID. At a step S6, the PDA receives the issued preservation ID from the server and stores the preservation ID in a memory. The present invention can also be applied to an information management system.