Distributed processing system, method of the same

A distributed processing method for a processing task, comprising:

• a user terminal obtaining a user application and a license application from an application server via a network;
• said application server transmitting information of a user who obtained said user application and said license application to a collection/distribution server;
• said collection/distribution server accepting a request for a processing task from a customer terminal via the network;
• said collection/distribution server dividing said processing task into a form which can be distributed and executed in a plurality of user terminals;
• said collection/distribution server requesting said user terminal of executing the divided processing task based on the user information received from said application server;
• said license application executing the divided processing task requested from said collection/distribution server by said license application on said user terminal, and sending back a processing result to said collection/distribution server from said user terminal;
• said license application providing the user terminal with a license key for said user application installed to said user terminal, said license indicating an agreement that said user application can be executed by said user terminal as a value for executing said processing unit, instead of paying a predetermined license fee;
• and
• said collection/distribution server integrating the processing results of the processing task collected from said user terminals to transmit an integrated result to said customer terminal.

A distributed processing system in which a processing task is executed by a plurality of user terminals, comprising:

• a collection/distribution server which divides a processing task requested from a customer terminal into a plurality of processing units and distributes said processing units to said user terminals via the network;
• and
• an application server which supplies said user terminals with a user application and a license application in response to a request from said user terminals,
• wherein the license application supplied to said user terminal allows said processing unit to be executed on said user terminal and a processing result obtained therefrom to be sent back, when said user terminal receives one or more said processing units from said collection/distribution server, said license application also provides the user terminal with a license key for using said user application, said license indicating an agreement that said user application can be executed by said user terminal as a value for executing said processing unit, instead of paying a predetermined license fee.

A storage medium embodying a program of machine-readable instructions executable by a digital processing apparatus, said program causing a user terminal, being in a distributed processing system comprising:

• a collection/distribution server;
• an application server;
• at least one or more user terminals;
• and
• a network mutually connecting the foregoing,
• to perform a method of distributed processing, said method comprising:
• receiving a license key capable of using a specified user application from said application server;
• executing at least one or more processing units received from said collection/distribution server on said user terminal;
• sending back a result of executing said processing unit to said collection/distribution server;
• and
• applying said license key to said user application an said user terminal as a value for executing said processing units, said license key defining a license indicating an agreement that said user application can be executed by said user terminal as a value for executing said processing unit, instead of paying a predetermined license fee.