JPH03290733A - Lend-out period controller for application program - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To protect the intellectual ownership of a program by outputting the program execution permitting information when the present date is within a lend-out period and then outputting the program execution inhibition information when the present date is out of the lend-out period respectively. CONSTITUTION:The present date read out of a clock part 23 is compared with a lend-out period set and stored previously by a limit period setting part 24. If the present data is within a set lend-out period, the permission is decided for the execution of the corresponding application program. Then the execution permitting information is outputted to a computer 1 via an interface part 21 as the decision information. Thus the due processing is completed. Meanwhile the inhibition is decided for the execution of the application program if the present date is out of the lend-out period. Then the execution inhibition information is outputted to the computer 1 via the part 21 as the decision information. Thus the due processing is completed. Thus, the intellectual owinership of the program can be protected.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Purpose of the Invention (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to an application that is used when a software manufacturer lends an application program to a user for a certain period of time for the purpose of evaluating the program. The present invention relates to a program lending term management device.

(Conventional technology) In recent years, engineering work stations (EW
As the standardization of S) and personal computers (PC) progresses, software manufacturers are
Computer-aided design (CAD) that runs on S and PC
A sales system has been established in which application programs such as systems are loaned to users for a fixed period of time for purposes such as evaluation of the programs. however,
In this case, there is a risk that the loan period of the program may not be respected and it may be used illegally, making it important to protect the intellectual property rights of the program.

Conventionally, the lending period is set on the object code of the application program to be lent, and the loan is lent to the user, and when the application program is executed on the computer, the user sets the date and time on the clock set on the computer to determine the program lending period. The application program was made executable if it was within the deadline, but not executable if it was outside the deadline.

However, in this case, by decoding the object code of the loaned application program on the user side, it is possible to rewrite the lending period set on this object code, and there is a risk that the lending period may be illegally extended. there were.

Furthermore, since the date and time of a computer's clock can usually be easily changed by a command, the user can set the computer's clock later so that the program can be executed even if the deadline has not expired.

(Problem to be solved by the invention) As described above, in the conventional technology, it is difficult to reliably manage the lending period of application programs to be loaned, and the protection of intellectual property rights for programs is insufficient. .

Therefore, the present invention provides an application program that can reliably manage the expiration date of an application program to be lent, and that can sufficiently protect the intellectual property rights of the program by blocking execution of the program if the expiration date has passed. The purpose of this application is to provide a rental term management device.

[Configuration of the Invention (Means for Solving the Problems) The present invention comprises a clock means for measuring the current date and time, a memory storage means for storing and retaining the lending deadline of an application program, and an application program execution request from the outside. and a comparison means that compares the current date and time measured by the clock means with the rental deadline stored in the memory storage means, and a program that determines that the current date and time is within the rental deadline by the comparison means. The present invention is an application program rental time limit management device comprising a determination information output means that outputs execution permission information and outputs program execution prohibition information when it is determined that the rental time limit has expired.

(Function) With the apparatus of the present invention having such a configuration, since the rental expiration date is stored and retained by the storage means, fraud such as rewriting the rental expiration date by decoding the program is prevented. Furthermore, since the current date and time to be compared with the lending deadline is read from the clock within the device of the present invention, the program is executed; even if the clock of the +-m machine is changed, it will not affect the comparison result. There isn't.

(Example) Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

In FIG. 1, 1 is a computer that executes an application program, and 2 is a rental term management device that manages the rental term of this application program.

=1 The computer 1 includes a central processing unit (CPU) 11 that has a built-in 6X arithmetic circuit, a memory control circuit, etc., a read-only memory (RCli) 12 that stores fixed data such as the above application programs, and a host of the above CPU II. Random access memory (RA) used in computational processing, etc.
M) 13, a human output (1/○) channel 14 having a communication interface such as R5232C for controlling data transmission with the rental term management device 2, and the like.

The rental deadline management device 2 includes an interface unit 15 that controls data transmission with the computer 1, a clock unit 23 that operates on a battery 22 and sets the current date and time at 51:00, and a clock unit 23 that sets the rental deadline of the application program. A deadline setting unit 24 consisting of a ROM for storing memory;
A control having a function of comparing the time n read from the clock section 23 with the rental deadline set in the deadline setting section 24, and a function of determining and outputting permission/prohibition of execution of the application program based on the comparison result. 25.

Therefore, the CPU 1 of the computer 1 has the ROM 12
When the application program is executed, the process shown in the flowchart of FIG. 2 is executed.

That is, first, an application program execution request is made to the rental term management bag W2 via the I10 channel 14. Then, it waits for determination information from the rental term management device 2. Here, judgment information is received from the rental term management device 2, and if the judgment information is execution prohibition information, execution of the application program is stopped and this process is ended. On the other hand, if the determination information from the rental term management device 2 is execution permission information, execution of the application program is started.

Further, the control unit 25 of the rental term management device 2
Execute the process shown in the flowchart in the figure. That is, upon receiving an application program execution start request from the computer 1 via the interface section 21, the date and time are read from the clock section 23 operated by the battery 22. Then, the current date and time read from the clock section 23 is compared with the rental deadline set in advance and stored in the deadline setting section 24. Here, if the current date and time is within the set rental period, it is determined that execution of the corresponding application program can be permitted, and execution permission information is sent to the computer 1 via the interface unit 21 as determination information.
Output to , and end this process. On the other hand, if the current date and time is outside the set rental period, it is determined that the execution of the corresponding application program cannot be permitted, and the interface unit 21 transmits the execution prohibition information as determination information.
is output to computer 1 via , and this process ends.

In this embodiment configured in this way, when a software manufacturer lends an application program such as a CAD system to a user for a fixed period of time agreed upon for the purpose of evaluating the program, the manufacturer The rental deadline corresponding to the contracted fixed period is set in the deadline setting section 24 of the rental deadline management device 2, and the rental deadline management device 2 is lent to the user side together with the application program to be managed.

On the user side, the application program is set in the ROM 12 of the computer 1, and the interface unit 21 of the loan term management device 2 is connected to the I10 channel 14, and the computer 1 is operated. Then, when executing the application program, an application program execution request is always made to the rental term management device 2. As a result, the rental deadline management device 2 compares the current date and time clocked by the clock section 23 with the rental deadline preset in the deadline setting section 24, and determines that the current date and time is within the rental deadline. If so, execution permission information for the application program is output to the computer 1, and the computer 1 executes the application program. On the other hand, if the current date and time is outside the lending period, application program execution prohibition information is output to the computer 1, and execution of the application program is prohibited in the computer 1.

As described above, according to this embodiment, when an application program is executed on the computer 1, it is necessary to connect the loan expiration management device 2 that manages the loan expiration date of this application program to the computer 1, and The deadline management device 2 compares the current date with the rental deadline of the application program, and the application program cannot be executed unless it is determined that the rental deadline is within the deadline.

The rental deadline of the application program is stored in a deadline setting section made of ROM of the rental deadline management device 2, and cannot be rewritten. Therefore, even if the user side decodes the application program, the lending term cannot be rewritten, and the expiration date is prevented from being illegally extended by rewriting the lending term. Further, the current number 1-j is read from the clock unit 23 in the rental term management device 2. Therefore, when calculating ml, even if the i1 function is delayed, the rental deadline management device 2
This does not affect the comparison results between the current date and time and the loan deadline.

In this way, it is difficult for the user to commit fraud regarding the lending deadline, and the deadline management of the lending application program becomes reliable. In other words, even in a business system in which application programs are loaned to users for a fixed period of time contracted for the purpose of evaluating the program, the intellectual property rights to the program can be sufficiently protected.

Note that the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments,
Of course, various modifications can be made without departing from the spirit of the invention.

[Effects of the Invention] As described in detail above, according to the present invention, it is possible to reliably manage the expiration date of an application program to be lent, and if the expiration date has passed, the execution of the program is blocked. It is possible to provide an application program rental term management device that can sufficiently protect intellectual property rights.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

The figures are diagrams showing one embodiment of the present invention, in which Fig. 1 is a block diagram of the overall configuration, Fig. 2 is a flowchart showing the operation of the computer related to the present invention, and Fig. 3 is the operation of the lending term management device. FIG. 1... Calculator, 2... Loan deadline management device, 21.
...Interface section, 23...Clock section, 24...
Deadline setting section, 25...control section.

Claims (1)

[Claims] a clock means for measuring the current date and time; a memory retaining means for storing and retaining the rental deadline of the application program; Comparison means for comparing the stored lending deadline; and when the comparing means determines that the current date and time is within the lending deadline, outputs program execution permission information, and determines that the current date and time is outside the lending deadline. and a determination information output means for outputting program execution prohibition information.