Abstract: A system comprising: a copyright owner registration section for registering a copyright owner of phonemes; a phoneme combination section for combining phonemes using a database constructed of phonemes supplied from a phoneme capture section; a royalty calculation section for calculating the royalty for the copyright of the phonemes according to the information on the amount of phonemes used, for each of copyright owners; and a monetary payment section for providing payment of the royalty to the copyright owner based on the information on the charges. This system protects the copyright of the phonemes the speaker has and allows users to readily purchase products or services utilizing phonemes.

Abstract: There is provided an information terminal and a reading system that output phonetic sound in natural voice desired by users. The information terminal has a voice synthesizer for synthesizing phonetic sound with phonemic database constructed of human voice taken from a real character. A user can listen to voice of synthesized sound by inserting into the information terminal a memory device provided with voice synthesizer, the phonemic database and synthesis subject data, and replaying it, which activates voice synthesis processing in the terminal device. Or, the user is able put the information terminal in communication with a server device on the network, and select phonemic database and synthesis subject data of his/her choice, so as to listen to reading of the synthesis subject data, e.g., a novel, news release and the like, in voice of his/her favorite character.