JP2006059175A - Supplying method of software - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent unauthorized copy of software itself or installation thereof to a plurality of PCs exceeding a licensed number while preventing invalidation of authentication function of a software body. <P>SOLUTION: A supplying source A of software has functions of supplying a USB memory 5 provided with a flash memory or the like connectable to a USB interface 20 of a PC 1, which contains the software body 3 and authentication information 9, and loading the software body 3 to a main memory 15 of the PC 1, and supplies a CD-ROM 2 containing a software loader 4 including authentication information 8 of software. A user B receives the USB memory 5 and the CD-ROM 2, performs authentication processing by use of the software loader 4 in the CD-ROM 2, and then stores the software body 3 in the USB memory 5 to the main memory 15 of the PC 1. According to this, the user B can use the software body 3 on the PC 1. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a software supply method, and more particularly, to a software supply method for supplying software so as to prevent use by unauthorized copying exceeding the number of licenses in supplying software.

  In general, the software is supplied by storing the software in a medium such as a CD-ROM that can be used by an information processing apparatus such as a personal computer (hereinafter referred to as a PC). The mainstream is to install the software. At that time, it is necessary to prevent unauthorized installation of software and installation of software on a plurality of PCs exceeding the number of licenses. As a conventional technique that makes it possible to prevent such illegal copying of software and installation of software on a plurality of PCs exceeding the number of licenses, for example, there are techniques described in Patent Document 1, Patent Document 2, and the like. Are known.

  The prior art described in Patent Document 1 relates to protection of contents handled by software by preventing unauthorized use of software, and external authentication information that can be connected to the PC separately from the software installed on the PC. Is connected, and each time the software is executed, authentication information is acquired from this device, and whether or not the software can be executed is determined.

Similarly to the prior art described in Patent Document 1, the prior art described in Patent Document 2 is related to protection of content handled by software by preventing unauthorized use of software. The ID issued from the authorized supplier is received, and the ID and the authentication information incorporated in the software installed in the PC are compared with the information in the external authentication device to determine whether the software can be executed. It is to do.
JP 2001-216357 A JP 2002-258965 A

  In the prior art described in Patent Document 1 described above, the area in the hard disk of the PC in which the software is installed can be freely accessed from the file system in the PC, so that the external device of the software itself installed in the PC If the part in which the authentication information acquisition mechanism is embedded is reverse-engineered and altered to determine that it can be executed unconditionally, the function of the external device will be invalidated. Yes. In addition, the prior art described in Patent Document 1 has a problem that when the altered software is copied and provided to a third party who does not have a license, the third party can use the software. ing.

  Also, the conventional technique described in Patent Document 2 has a problem that it is possible to invalidate a mechanism for performing authentication by falsification of software itself, as in the case described above. In addition, the conventional technique described in Patent Document 2 has a usage limitation that a software ID cannot be acquired from a software use permission supplier in the case of a PC that cannot be connected to a network.

  The object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, without depending on the use environment of the PC, to prevent invalidation of the authentication function of the software body, and to exceed the unauthorized copy of the software itself and the number of licenses It is an object of the present invention to provide a software supply method capable of supplying software so as to prevent installation on a plurality of PCs.

  According to the present invention, in the software supply method, the software main body and the authentication information are stored and supplied to an external storage device that can be externally attached to the information processing apparatus that uses the software. A software loader having a function of loading on the main memory of the information processing apparatus and including software authentication information is stored and supplied in a medium that can be recognized by the information processing apparatus. This is achieved by causing the software loader to perform authentication processing and then storing the software main body in the external storage device in the main memory of the information processing device.

  The object is achieved by the software loader being downloaded and used on a hard disk in the information processing apparatus, and the software main body being loaded into the main memory in the information processing apparatus by the software loader. Further, this is achieved by storing the software main body in a secret area of the external storage device that cannot be accessed from the file system of the information processing apparatus.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to prevent the software itself from being copied to a hard disk or other external storage device in the PC, and to prevent tampering of the software body.

  Embodiments of a software supply method according to the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of a PC that receives supply of software according to the present invention. In FIG. 1, 1 is a PC, 11 is a CPU, 12 is a hard disk drive (HDD), 13 is a CD-ROM driver, 14 is an FD driver, 15 is a main memory (MM), 16 is a display, 17 is a keyboard, 18 is A mouse, 19 is a communication control unit (CCU), and 20 is a USB interface.

  The PC 1 which is an information processing apparatus that receives supply of software according to the present invention includes a CPU 11, a hard disk device 12, a CD-ROM driver 13, an FD driver 14, a main memory 15, a display 16, a keyboard 17, a mouse 18, a communication control unit 19, A USB interface 20 is provided, and these are connected by a bus. Although FIG. 1 shows that the communication control unit 19 is provided, the communication control unit 19 may not be provided.

  In the embodiment of the present invention, a PC is given as an example of a device that receives the supply of software according to the present invention. However, a device that receives the supply of software can perform processing using software. Any device may be used.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining a software supply method according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining a method for using the supplied software. Next, referring to FIG. 2 and FIG. A supply method and a usage method will be described. In FIG. 2, 2 is a CD-ROM, 3 is a software main body, 4 is a software loader, 5 is a USB memory, and 8 and 9 are authentication information.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the software supplier A has a software main body 3 and authentication information 9 in a storage device that can be externally attached to the PC 1, for example, a USB memory 5 that includes a flash memory that can be connected to the USB interface 20 of the PC 1. And store and supply. Further, the software supplier A has a function of loading the software main body 3 onto the main memory 15 of the PC 1 and the PC 1 such as the CD-ROM 2 recognizes the software loader 4 including software authentication information 8. Store and supply on possible media.

  The user B can recognize the PC 1 such as the CD-ROM 2 in which the USB memory 5 supplied by storing the software main body 3 and the authentication information 9 and the software loader 4 including the authentication information 8 are stored. The software main body 3 in the USB memory 5 is stored in the main memory 15 of the PC 1 using a software loader in the CD-ROM 2. Thereby, the user B can use the software main body 3 on the PC 1. Next, a processing procedure until the user B can use the software main body 3 on the PC 1 will be described with reference to the flow shown in FIG.

(1) The user B who has received the USB memory 5 and the medium that can be recognized by the PC 1 such as the CD-ROM 2 in which the software loader including the authentication information 8 is stored is first loaded into the CD-ROM driver 13 of the PC 1 with the CD-ROM. The ROM 2 is set, and the software loader 4 stored in the CD-ROM 2 and the authentication information 8 stored in the loader 4 are installed in the hard disk device 12 (step 301).

(2) When the user B wants to use the software main body 3 stored in the USB memory 5, the user B activates the software loader 4 and downloads the software loader 4 into the main memory 15 (step 302).

(3) Thereafter, the user B connects the USB memory 5 to the USB interface 20 (step 303).

(4) The software loader 4 reads the authentication information 9 in the USB memory 5 by the mechanism of the PC 1 that automatically recognizes the USB device at the timing when the USB device is connected to the PC 1. Matching (authentication process) with the authentication information 8 stored in the loader 4 is performed (step 304), and it is determined whether or not consistency is confirmed (step 305). In this case, the unavailability of the software body 3 is displayed on the display or the like, and the process is terminated (step 306).

(5) When the consistency is confirmed in the determination in step 305, the software loader 4 loads the software main body 3 in the USB memory 5 onto the main memory 15 of the PC 1 (step 307).

(6) After loading the software main body 3 in the USB memory 5 onto the main memory 15 of the PC 1 by the series of processes described above, the user B can use the software main body 3 on the PC 1. Further, when the USB memory 5 is removed from the PC 1 after using the software main body 3, the USB device is removed due to the mechanism of the PC 1 that automatically recognizes the USB device when the USB device is connected to the PC 1. Is automatically recognized, and the software loader 4 unloads the software main body 3 from the main memory 15 of the PC 1 (step 308).

  In the above description, when the capacity of the software main body 3 is larger than the capacity of the main memory 15 and not all of the software main body 3 can be stored in the main memory 15, only a part of the software main body 3 necessary for processing is necessary. The software loader 4 performs control so that it is downloaded to the main memory 15 each time.

  By using the software usage method according to the embodiment of the present invention as described above, the software main body 3 can be downloaded to the main memory 15 without installing the software main body 3 in the hard disk device 12 of the PC 1. Since the software loader 4 installed in the hard disk device 12 has only a function of downloading the software main body 3 to the main memory 15, the embodiment of the present invention It is possible to prevent the software main body 3 from being copied to the hard disk device 12 or another external storage device.

  In the embodiment of the present invention, the software main body 3 is stored only in the software loader 4 by storing the software main body 3 in the secret area of the USB memory 5, and is accessed from the file system of the PC 1, the OS, or the like. I can't do that.

  In the embodiment of the present invention described above, the medium for storing the software main body has been described as a flash memory having a USB interface. However, the present invention is not limited to a USB memory, and any connection can be automatically recognized by a PC. The software body may be supplied using any medium. For example, it may be various memory cards, a hard disk device capable of USB connection, and the like. In particular, the USB memory described in the embodiment of the present invention is advantageous in that it is compact and excellent in portability and can be inserted and removed while the PC is activated.

  According to the above-described embodiment of the present invention, the software supplier includes the authentication information 8 in the software loader 4 having the function of loading the software body 3 onto the main memory 15 of the PC 1. The software loader 4 is stored in a medium that can be recognized by the PC 1 such as the CD-ROM 2 and supplied to the USB memory 5 having a flash memory or the like that can be connected to the USB interface 20 of the PC 1. 3 and authentication information 9 are stored and supplied, and the software main body 3 can be copied to the hard disk device 12 or other external storage device in the PC 1, the software main body can be prevented from being falsified, and the software main body license can be reliably Protection can be enabled and the user can use the software body.

It is a block diagram which shows the structural example of PC which receives supply of the software by this invention. It is a figure explaining the supply method of the software by one Embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart explaining the method of using the supplied software.

Explanation of symbols

1 PC
2 CD-ROM
3 Software body 4 Software loader 5 USB memory 8, 9 Authentication information 11 CPU
12 Hard disk drive (HDD)
13 CD-ROM driver 14 FD driver 15 Main memory (MM)
16 Display 17 Keyboard 18 Mouse 19 Communication Control Unit (CCU)
20 USB interface

Claims (4)

  In the software supply method, the software main body and the authentication information are stored and supplied to an external storage device externally attached to the information processing apparatus using the software, and the software main body is stored on the main memory of the information processing apparatus. A software loader having a loading function and including software authentication information is stored and supplied in a medium that can be recognized by the information processing apparatus, and when the software body is used, authentication processing is performed using the software loader in the medium. And supplying the software main body in the external storage device to the main memory of the information processing apparatus.   2. The software supply method according to claim 1, wherein the external storage device is a USB memory, and the medium is a CD-ROM.   The software loader is downloaded and used on a hard disk in the information processing apparatus, and the software main body is loaded into a main memory in the information processing apparatus by the software loader. 2. The software supply method according to 2.   4. The software supply method according to claim 1, wherein the software main body is stored in a secret area of the external storage device that cannot be accessed from a file system of the information processing apparatus.

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