Information distribution system and billing system used for the information distribution system

摘要

An information distribution system provides information requested from a user for the user through an information communication medium. The information distribution system comprises a billing processor which is individually from a data processor realized by an application program, the billing processor being realized by middle ware (an operating system). The information comprises a content, billing attribute data including a billing method and a settlement method, and correspondence information indicating the correspondence between the content and the billing attribute data. When a request is made from the user, the information distribution system retrieves the content which meets the request and transfers a request to the billing processor to perform the billing process. The billing processor uses the billing attribute data corresponding to the content to perform a predetermined billing process.