JPH02244353A - Copying prevention system for program - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent a medium itself from being copied and to disable the medium to be copied by a computer except a computer which uses the medium first by generating an actual program which has a registration part for identification codes by computers from a source program and superposing an error. CONSTITUTION:The medium of the source program P is loaded on an error superposing device 1 to convert the source program P into the actual program where the registration part 23b for the identification codes by computers is incorporated. Further, the medium 2 is generated by superposing an error area 23e on the actual program so that the medium can not be read by the general operation of a computer. Consequently, the medium 2 itself is prevented from being copied. Then when an identification code is not registered in the registration part 23b, the identification code of an identification code storage part 32 is written and the actual program is transferred to a secondary storage part 33. Consequently, even a computer of the same kind can be copy the medium unless the assigned identification code is coincident.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Summary] The purpose of this invention is to provide a method for protecting the copyright of computer programs (software) that also prevents copying between computers of the same model, and to protect the copyright of computer programs (software). an error superimposition device that converts the registration part of the identification code into an embedded real program and creates a medium in which an error area is superimposed on the real program so that it cannot be read by general computer operations;
When the medium is loaded, the transfer unit removes the error area and reads only the actual program, and compares the identification code in the registration unit with the identification code stored in the identification code storage unit to read the actual program. The computer is configured such that the registration section writes the identification code when it is unregistered, and the transfer section transfers the actual program to the secondary storage section only when the identification code matches the unregistered case.

[Industrial application field]

The present invention relates to a program copy prevention system, and particularly to protection of copyright of computer programs (software).

In recent years, with the spread of computer systems and the increase in the number of software products, there has been an increasing demand for a function to prevent copying of programs in order to protect the rights and interests of authors.

[Conventional technology]

As a conventional program copy prevention method, a 1-bit memory area is provided on the medium that provides the program to indicate the presence or absence of a copy history, and this bit information is set to "l" during the first copy process, for example. This bit information is read during the subsequent copy processing, and if "1" is set, the copy processing is interrupted to prevent copying.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

In such conventional program copy prevention methods, copying becomes possible by intentionally rewriting bit information indicating the presence or absence of a copy history or by ignoring this information.

On the other hand, it was normally possible to copy programs to other computers of the same model, but if you prepared one program instead of the same number of programs for multiple computers, If copies are made as described above between computers of the same model, the program creator will suffer a great economic disadvantage.

Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method that prevents intentional program copying and also prevents copying even between computers of the same model.

[Means and operations for solving the problem] In view of the above, in the present invention, as conceptually shown in FIG. This original program P is converted into an actual program in which a registration section 23b of an identification code assigned to each computer is embedded.

Then, a medium 2 is created in which an error area 23e is superimposed on the actual program so that it cannot be read by normal computer operations.

In this way, the medium 2 itself is first prevented from being copied.

When the medium 2 on which the error area 23e is superimposed is applied to the computer 3, the transfer unit 31 removes the error area from the medium 2 and reads only the actual program.This extraction is possible with computers of the same model. be.

Then, the identification code in the identification code registration section 23b is compared with the identification code stored in the identification code storage section 32 in the computer 3, and if the identification code is not registered in the registration section 23b, the identification code stored in the identification code storage section 32 is checked. The identification code is written and the actual program is transferred to the secondary storage section 33 by the transfer section 31. If the comparison results in a match, the actual program is similarly transferred to the secondary storage section 33.

If the actual program stored in the secondary storage unit 33 is transferred again to another medium 4 in this way, a copy can be made exclusively for that computer. Unless the identification codes assigned to each computer match, it will not be possible to make a copy for another computer.

Note that since the identification code is also stored in the secondary storage unit 33 along with the actual program, this actual program cannot be transferred and copied to another computer as in the case of the medium 4.

[Embodiment] FIG. 2 shows an embodiment of the program copy prevention method according to the present invention. In this embodiment, P is the original program from which the program to be provided is created, and l
3A, 3B, and 3C are error superimposition devices that superimpose errors on the original program P when creating the program medium (disk) 2 from the original program P, and are installed at a program manufacturing company, etc. 3A, 3B, and 3C are the transfer unit 31, the identification device Code part 3
2 and a computer each having a built-in secondary storage unit 33, and 4 a program medium created by the transfer unit 317 of the computer 3A.

FIG. 3 shows an example of the storage contents of the program medium 2 created by the error superimposition device 1, where 21 is a volume label as a flag indicating whether or not to copy, and 22 is a file area start address that specifies the start address of the file. 23 is a file body (hereinafter simply referred to as a file), an actual program 23a, an identification code registration section 23b within this actual program 23a, a special It has a code 23c, a free area 23d, an error part 23e1 that prohibits successive expansion within this free sN area 23d, and an end code 23f. Furthermore, error superimposition device 1
As schematically shown in FIG. 4, it is composed of a medium successive section 11, a medium writing section 12, and a processing section 13.

The operation of the above embodiment will be explained below. First, the original program P is read out from the medium of the original program P by the medium reading section 11 of the error superimposing device l shown in FIG.
After processing in step 3, the program medium 2 is converted into an actual program through the medium writing section 12 as shown in FIG. 3, and errors are written therein.

That is, the volume label 21 stores information on whether or not the entire medium has been copied, the file label 22 stores information about the file, and the area start address section 22a records the program storage start address of the file 23 in which the program is recorded. , the area end address section 22b stores the program storage end address of the file 23. The file 23 starts storing the actual program 23a from the address specified by the area start address section 22a, and the identification code registration section 23b embedded in this actual program 23a contains the information of the computer on which the process is first executed. An identification code is recorded to distinguish it from other computers, and a special code 23c indicates the end of the storage section of the actual program 23a.

An empty area 23d existing after the special code 23c has an error part 23e of unknown meaning, and this area has been intentionally destroyed. The file 23 then ends with an end code 23f.

When reading the medium 2 on which errors have been superimposed in this way by a compatible computer of the same model, the actual program 23a starts from the start address of the area start address section 22a, ignores the area end address section 22b, and reads up to the special code 23c. , for general computers or other types of combiators, the area end address section 22b7! Since it tries to read up to the specified end address, special code 23 is generated.
After c, the program is judged to be incomplete due to the empty area 23d up to the end code 23f and the error part 23e, and the program stops operating or runs out of control.

In addition, as shown by the broken line in the area end address part 22b,
By specifying an address in the middle of the real program 23a or a non-existent address, it is possible to make it impossible for anyone other than a specific computer (of the same model) and the transfer unit 31 to read it.

Furthermore, by superimposing errors in this way, the entire medium including the actual program 23a and the identification code registration section 23b cannot be copied in computers of other models (when the medium itself is copied, the identification code described below ).

The operation when the program medium 2 created by the error superimposition device 1 in this manner is used in each computer will be described next.

The created program medium 2 is still in the identification code registration section 2.
Although nothing is registered in the medium 3b, when the computer 3A with the identification code A is applied to the computer 3A as shown in FIG. Read and check whether the identification code is registered (Step S1). If not, register the identification code A stored in the identification code storage section 32 in the identification code registration section 23b of the medium 2. Step S2), step S3) of reading the program one by one from the beginning of the actual program 23a,
Determine the presence or absence of the special code 23c (step S4),
If there is no special code 23c, the program is written into the secondary storage unit 33 one by one (step S5), the next code is read (step S6), and steps 54 to S6 are executed until the special code 23c is read out. do.

When the special code 23c is read out, storage of the actual program 23a in the secondary storage section 33 is completed.

As described above, the transfer unit 31 reads the actual program 23a, writes it to the secondary storage unit 33, and writes the actual program 23a to the secondary storage unit 33.
After writing to the computer 3, the actual program 23a and the identification code registration section 23b are stored in the backup medium 4 by the computer 3A.
A copy of medium 2 can be obtained by transferring it to .

If the identification code has been registered in step S1, that is, after copying, the process advances to step S7, where the identification code in the identification code registration section 23 of the medium 2 is compared with the identification code in the identification code storage section 32, If the two codes match, the user is a legitimate user, and the process proceeds to step S3, and the above-mentioned operation is performed; however, if the identification codes do not match, the user is not a legitimate user, and the process ends and transfer to the secondary storage unit 33 is prohibited. Prevent copying.

Therefore, in the medium 4 on which the identification code A is recorded in the computer 3A, another combiator 3 of the same model with the identification code B is detected.
When attempting to write to the secondary storage section 33 of the computer 3B, the identification code A of the medium 4 and the identification code B of the identification code storage section of the computer 3B are different, so step S in FIG.
1→Step S7 disables writing, so copying to the combiator 3B is prevented.

Also, since the identification code A is recorded on the medium 2.4 used in the computer 3A and recorded with the identification code A, this medium 2.4 can be used to connect the computer 3C of the same model with the identification code C. Even if you try to read it, it cannot be written to the secondary storage unit 33 because the identification code is different.

When transferring the actual program 23a from the medium 2 to the secondary storage unit 33 of the computer 3A with the identification code A, the transfer unit 31 identifies and removes the error part 23e of the file 23 so that the computer 3A can read it correctly. It allows normal operation.

Therefore, the actual program 2 stored in the secondary storage unit 33
3a has the error part 23e removed, so it can be copied to another computer 3B or 3C as is, but even if this actual program 23a is executed, the identification code on the file 23 and the computer's identification code will be lost. Since a difference with the identification code is detected, the operation is stopped and the actual program 23a is erased (see Figure 6).
.

This is to prevent the error superposition mechanism shown in FIG. 3 from being discovered if the program remains in the secondary storage section 33 in some form.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, in the program copy prevention method according to the present invention, a real program having an identification code registration section for each computer is created from an original program, and an error is superimposed to prevent copying of the medium itself. Even if it is, it cannot be read and copied by any computer other than the one that originally used the medium.

Therefore, it is possible to prevent a large amount of copying when one program is prepared instead of preparing the same number of programs for a plurality of computers, and it is possible to maintain the economic value of copyright.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Figure 1 is a principle block diagram of the program copy prevention method according to the present invention, Figure 2 is a diagram showing an embodiment of the program copy prevention method according to the present invention, and Figure 3 is created using the error superimposition device used in the present invention. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the configuration of the error superimposing device; FIG. 5 is an operation flowchart of the transfer section of the computer used in the present invention; FIG. It is a flowchart figure at the time of a program execution start. In FIG. 1, P...Original program, 1...Error superimposition device, 2...Medium, 3...Computer, 23b...Identification code registration unit, 23e...Error part, 31... - Transfer unit, 32... Identification code storage unit, 33... Secondary storage unit. In the figures, the same reference numerals indicate the same or corresponding parts.

Claims (1)

[Claims] A medium (2) in which an original program is converted into a real program in which a computer-specific identification code registration part (23b) is embedded, and an error area (23e) is superimposed on the real program so that it cannot be read by general computer operations.
When the medium (2) is applied to the error superimposition device (1) that creates the
3b) is compared with the identification code stored in the identification code storage section (32), and if the registration section (23b) in the medium (2) is unregistered, the identification code is written, and the unregistered The transfer unit (31
), and a computer (3) that transfers the actual program to a secondary storage unit (33).