JPH11102396A - License managing method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To easily manage license information for preventing digital contents including many copyrighted articles such as an electronic encyclopedia from being illegally used by generating the license information of hybrid digital contents from license information of digital content components used as its components. SOLUTION: To impart license information of copyrighted articles stored in a license information storage means 208, all pieces of license information assigned to copyrighted articles that a hybrid copyrighted article use as its components are integrated and the remainder obtained by dividing the result by P as a sufficiently large prime number is given as license information to the hybrid copyrighted article. In the license information storage means 208, not the pieces of license information of the copyrighted articles used as the components, but only the license information assigned to the hybrid copyrighted article using those copyrighted articles is stored.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention distributes copyrighted materials (digital contents) such as software, electronic pictorial books, and electronic dictionaries that can be used on a computer while being protected from unauthorized use, and releases the protected state. The present invention relates to a method for protecting a license of a complex digital content using a combination of digital contents having a plurality of protection functions in a distribution form of digital contents such as software for separately distributing license information to be provided.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Due to the dramatic reversal of computer technology, the use of computers is not only limited to large-scale commercial use such as found in bank online systems, but also for home use,
It is rapidly expanding its field of use with school education systems. Also, due to the rapid development of a network environment including the Internet in recent years, it has become possible to distribute various kinds of information over a network very easily and at low cost.

[0003] However, a problem of the current personal computer and the network is a flood of illegal information ignoring copyrights and other rights. Traditionally, books, paintings,
Since literary works such as photographs have been distributed as printed matter mainly on paper, there has been a defect that the quality of paintings, images, and the like deteriorates at the time of copying as compared with the originals. Also, copying the entire book was troublesome.

[0004] On the other hand, now that information has been digitized and books, paintings, photographs, and the like have been used on computers, the use of copyrighted materials, which is mainly based on paper, has become extremely difficult. Complete copying can be performed easily and at low cost. For this reason, distribution of information ignoring copyrights has become a social issue.

[0005] In order to solve such a problem, a so-called hardware protect key, which does not operate unless special hardware storing user ID information or the like is added when using a computer program, may be used. is there. However, this solution is not suitable for the purpose of distributing a large amount of copyright information in small units via a network, since a hardware protection key must be distributed each time.

As disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 60-191322, "Software Use Management System", it is determined whether or not software can be used by using software unique data and user unique data. In some cases, unauthorized use is prohibited by performing processing such as charging based on the use status of software.

Further, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 8-305560, "Software sales management method and system", license information is provided together with distribution of software to users, and the software usage status of users is recorded and managed. In some cases, unauthorized access is prevented.

[0008]

However, in the method of individually protecting copyrighted materials such as software as described above, there is a complex method including a large amount of copyrighted materials as in an electronic encyclopedia. When performing license management of digital contents, it is necessary to give license information for all of the digital contents to be protected included in the material to the user, and the user to register all the information on the computer using the information. For this reason, when digital contents including many copyrighted materials, such as an electronic encyclopedia, are distributed as a material, there is a problem that the user takes a lot of trouble.

[0009] On the other hand, if the license information of the composite copyrighted material is given, it means that the complete license information is also given to the material. For example, the use of the material in the composite copyrighted material is limited. There is a problem that it is impossible to give license information.

[0010] In addition, with respect to a material used as a composite copyrighted material, it is conceivable that a material whose protection function has been released in advance under a contract with the right holder may be provided. In such a case, the protection function may be provided. There is a problem in that the copyrighted material having no protection function and the copyrighted material without the protection function must be separately managed, and the license management becomes complicated.

[0011] Further, when considering the distribution of copyrighted material on a network, it is important to distribute the copyrighted material as a material and a composite type of copyrighted material without distinction, thereby increasing the convenience of the user and the creator of the copyrighted material. On the contrary, there is a danger of distributing copyrighted materials without protection.

An object of the present invention is to provide a license management method capable of facilitating the management of license information for preventing unauthorized use of digital contents including many copyrighted materials such as electronic encyclopedias. It is in.

[0013]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a computer-readable storage medium storing digital content in a protected state,
License information for releasing the protection of the digital contents in the storage medium is provided separately, and in the license management method for releasing the protection state of the digital contents by the license information, digital contents each having a protection function are provided. It is characterized in that license information of composite digital content constructed by combining components is generated from license information of digital content components used as the components.

[0014] Further, the license information of a digital content with a protection function used as a component thereof is restored from the license information given to the composite digital content, and the protection state of the individual digital content is released. Features.

Further, the present invention is characterized in that the validity of license information is determined by the same license information and license confirmation method even when digital content is used alone or as a component.

Further, even when the composite digital content hierarchically includes the composite digital content as a component, the validity of the license information is determined by the same license information and license confirmation method as when the digital content is used alone. It is characterized by the following.

Here, the storage medium storing the digital contents is a computer-readable medium, but may be a device having the same function as the computer. For example, it includes all devices such as an electronic encyclopedia browsing device for releasing the protected state of digital content and providing the browsing.

Further, the protection of the digital content itself is performed by a known encryption technique.

[0019]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram illustrating a configuration example of a composite copyrighted material targeted by the present invention.

The complex copyrighted material is a copyrighted material constructed by using a material as a copyrighted material. For example, an electronic book containing a large number of images is a compound copyrighted material. Also, a computer program constructed as a component of a computer program holding a copyright is a composite copyrighted material.

FIG. 1 schematically shows a situation in which the copyrighted material A 101 utilizes copyrighted materials B 102, C 103 and D 104 as components. Of these, copyrighted material D
Reference numeral 104 further uses a copyrighted material E105 as a part.

An object of the present invention is to realize license management of a composite copyrighted material constituted by using many copyrighted materials as components as schematically shown in FIG.

FIG. 2 shows the basic system configuration of the present invention. Composite copyrighted material license management device 20
1, an input device 202 and a display device 203 are connected, and a user operation instruction input from the input device 202 is analyzed and analyzed.
A user information storage unit 206 having an operation instructing unit 204 to be executed, and further storing a user ID (identification information) and ancillary information in order to check whether the user is a valid user
And a user confirmation unit 205 for confirming whether information of a user who operates the input device 202 corresponds to the user information stored in the user information storage unit 206, and illegal use by a method such as encrypting copyrighted material. Copyrighted material storage means 210 for storing the copyrighted material in a protected state, a license information storage device 208 for storing license information given to the copyrighted material, and a copyrighted work designated by the user using the input device 202. A license confirmation unit 207 for checking whether or not valid license information is given to the copyrighted material in the copyrighted material storage unit 210; and a display device for displaying the copyrighted material in the copyrighted material storage unit 210 whose license has been confirmed. A data access unit 209 for making an access to display the data 203 is provided.

The license information storage means 208 stores the license information of the copyrighted material obtained by means such as payment by the user. The user information storage unit 206 has a user ID for identifying the user, password information used for user authentication, and license information and copyrighted material stored in the license information storage unit 208 and the copyrighted material storage unit 210. Also, key information for encrypting the information is stored. The information in the license information storage means 208 and the copyrighted material storage means 210 is encrypted with a different key for each user based on the information in the user information storage means 206.

The user is authenticated by the user I
A method of inputting a D and a password, or having an IC card or the like for each individual and inputting a user ID from the IC card when using the IC card is used.

The copyrighted material storage means 204 stores a copyrighted material in a protected state. The copyrighted material cannot be accessed from the copyrighted material access unit 205 unless the license confirmation unit 207 confirms that the copyrighted material has valid license information.

The license confirmation means 207 checks whether license information corresponding to the ID of the copyrighted material stored in the copyrighted material storage means 210 is stored in the license information storage means 208, and determines whether the copyrighted material is valid. In the case of a composite copyrighted material, the license information of all the copyrighted material of the material used is restored from the license information, and the protection of the copyrighted material of the material is released.

FIG. 3 shows information in the license information storage means 208 included in the license management device 201. In the license information storage unit 208,
One copyrighted material ID 302, license information 303, additional information and the like are stored corresponding to one copyrighted material. The copyrighted material ID 302 stores an ID assigned to a copyrighted material to be distributed and distributed to uniquely identify the copyrighted material.

The license information 303 stores license information used by the license confirmation unit 207 to check the validity of using the copyrighted material. When the user confirmation means 205 is based on input of a user ID and a password or the like, the security is lower than that using an IC card. Therefore, the information shown in FIG. Security measures such as storing by encrypting with a different encryption key are implemented.

Next, a description will be given of a method of assigning the license information of the copyrighted matter stored in the license information storage means 208. First, let P be a sufficiently large prime number. For copyrighted material of complete material that does not contain copyrighted material inside, select one from the number from "2" to "(P-1)",
Assign as license information. Next, for the composite copyrighted material, all license information assigned to the copyrighted material that the composite copyrighted material uses as a component is integrated, and the remainder divided by P is used as the composite copyrighted material. Assigned as license information for the right.

Taking the decrypted copyrighted material 101 of FIG. 1 as an example,
Assuming that “P = 7” for simplicity, if “2” is assigned to the copyrighted material B102, “3” is assigned to C103, and “5” is assigned to D104 as license information of the copyrighted material, the three materials are Copyrighted material A101 used as a part
Is 2 × 3 × 5 = 4 × 7 + 2 ”, license information“ 2 ”is assigned, and“ 2 ”is recorded.

The license information storage means 208 does not store the license information of the copyrighted material used as a part of the complex copyrighted material, but decodes the decrypted copyrighted material using the copyrighted material. Only the license information assigned to the right is stored.

FIG. 4 shows information of the copyrighted material stored in the copyrighted material storage means 210. The copyrighted material is not only information (digital content) of the copyrighted material itself such as an image, a sound, a video, and a computer program, but also a copyrighted material ID 401, a protection state 402, license confirmation information 403, a used copyrighted material ID list. Along with 404, copyrighted material data (digital content) 405, which is the copyrighted material itself, is stored. Copyrighted material ID 40
1 is an ID uniquely assigned to identify a copyrighted work.
D and the same ID as the copyrighted material ID 302 in FIG.
Is stored. The protection status 402 indicates whether the copyrighted material is protected and cannot be used by the user, or the license is given correct license information and can be used. The license management device 201 puts the copyrighted material stored in the copyrighted material storage unit 210 into a protected state when the system is started. The license confirmation information 403 stores information for the license confirmation unit 207 to confirm the validity of the license information in advance. License confirmation information 403
Is the license information 303 assigned to each copyrighted material.
Assign information that is uniquely determined corresponding to. For example, when a is assigned as the license information 303, the license confirmation information 403 stores a positive integer b that is smaller than P and whose remainder obtained by dividing “a * b” by P is “1”. In the above example where P = 7, the license information 303
Is “2”, “2 × 4 = 8 = 7 + 1”, so “4” is stored as license confirmation information.

Next, the used work ID list 404 includes:
The copyrighted material ID of the copyrighted material used as a part by the copyrighted material is stored. FIG. 5 shows the license management device 20.
1 is a processing flow when using a copyrighted material in 1. First, user authentication is performed by inputting a user ID and a password using the input device 202 (step 501). There are a method of inputting a user ID and a password in the user authentication by a method of directly inputting by a user using input means such as a keyboard, and a method of inputting using an IC card.

Next, the designation of the copyrighted material that the user intends to use (view) is input from the input device 202 to the copyrighted material ID.
302 (step 50).
2). In response, the license management device 201 extracts the license information 303 from the license information storage unit 208 using the copyrighted material ID 302 of the designated copyrighted material (step 503). If the license information 303 corresponding to the copyrighted material ID 302 is not stored in the license information storage unit 208, the license information input by the user is regarded as not valid, and the process ends.
However, if the license information 303 corresponding to the copyrighted material ID 302 is stored in the license information storage unit 208, the license confirmation unit 207 performs a process of confirming the license information 303 (step 504). FIG. 6 shows specific processing contents of the license confirmation unit 207. If the license information 303 is confirmed to be invalid by confirming the license information 303, the process is terminated.

If the license information 303 entered by the user is found to be correct by the license confirmation means 207, the copyrighted material is released from protection and the use is started (step 505). At this stage, the copyrighted information is taken out by the data access means 209 and displayed on the display device 203.
Will be used by the user.

Note that the ID of the part copyrighted work ID list 404 is
If is registered in step 503,
The license information of each component work is restored from the license information 303 first given by the user. Then, using the restored license information of each copyrighted material, step 5
At 04, the protection status of each copyrighted material is released.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the processing contents of the license confirmation means 207. The license confirmation unit calculates the product of the passed license information 303 and the license confirmation information 403 of the copyrighted material to be confirmed (step 60).
1). Next, it is determined whether the remainder obtained by dividing the product by P is "1" (step 602).

If the remainder is not "1", it is determined that the license information 303 is incorrect, and the process is terminated (step 611). If the remainder is "1", the number of copyrighted materials included in the part copyrighted material ID list 404 of the copyrighted material to be confirmed is then substituted into a variable N (step 60).
3). Next, the license information of the copyrighted material included in the part copyrighted material ID list 404 is restored, and the ID of the copyrighted material and the restored license information are arranged in an array ID.
[N] and L [N] are stored (step 604). The contents of the license information restoration process will be described with reference to FIG.

Next, 1 is substituted for the variable I (step 60).
5) Check whether the value of variable I is N or less (step 6)
06). If the value of the variable I is larger than N, it is determined that the licenses of all the copyrighted materials included in the part copyrighted material ID list 404 and used by the copyrighted materials as parts can be confirmed. The protection state of the object is released, and the process ends (step 610).

However, when the value of the variable I is smaller than the value of N, the license information of the I-th copyrighted material is confirmed. For this reason, the license is confirmed by the license confirmation unit 207 to confirm whether ID [I] and L [I] are correct license information (step 6).
07). It is determined whether the license confirmation by the license confirmation unit 207 is correct (step 608). If the license confirmation is not correct, the process ends with the license information as an error. If the license confirmation is correct, 1 is added to the variable I, and the process proceeds to the comparison between I and N in step 606 again (step 609).

In this way, the license information of the copyrighted material itself and the license information of the copyrighted material included in the part copyrighted material ID list 404 used as a part by the copyrighted material are confirmed.

In this processing, since the license is recursively checked in step 607, even when the copyrighted material is used hierarchically, the license information of all the copyrighted material can be confirmed.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the procedure for restoring license information in step 503. The procedure shown here is performed when the license confirmation information of the I-th copyrighted material is stored in the array B [I], assuming that the complex copyrighted material includes N copyrighted materials. , The license information of each copyrighted material is calculated in the array A [I]. First, "1" is substituted for the variable I (step 701). Next, it is checked whether the value of the variable I is N or less (step 70).
2). If not more than N, the remainder obtained by dividing the product of B [I] and C [I-1] by P is substituted into C [I] (step 70).
3). Next, "1" is added to the value of the variable I (step 7).
04). Next, the process returns to step 702 to check whether the value of I exceeds N again.

If the value of I exceeds N in step 702, then N is substituted for I (step 705), and it is determined whether or not the value of I is positive (step 706). If the value of I is positive, C [I-1] is substituted for A [I] (step 707).

Next, N is substituted for a variable J (step 70).
8) It is determined whether the value of the variable J is greater than the value of the variable I (step 709). If the value of the variable J is larger, the remainder obtained by dividing the product of A [I] and B [J] by P is A
Substitute for [I] (step 710).

Next, 1 is subtracted from the value of the variable J (step 711). Then, returning to step 709 again, J and I
Compare the magnitude of the value of. In step 709, the value of J is I
If the value becomes equal to or smaller than the value of the variable I, the value of the variable I is reduced by 1 in step 712, and the process returns to step 706 again to check whether I is positive. If I becomes "0" and the condition is not satisfied, the process is terminated.

At this stage, the license information of the I-th copyrighted material is obtained in the array A [I].

Next, another embodiment of the present invention will be described. FIG. 8 shows another configuration example of the information stored in the license information storage unit 208 included in the license management device 201. License information storage means 2
08 stores one copyrighted material ID 802, license information 803, additional information, and the like corresponding to one copyrighted material. The copyrighted material ID 802 stores an ID assigned to a copyrighted material to be distributed / distributed to uniquely identify the copyrighted material. The license information 803 stores license information used by the license confirmation unit 207 to check the validity of using the copyrighted material. When the user confirmation means 205 is based on input of a user ID and a password, the security is lower than that using an IC card.
In FIG. 8, security measures such as storing the information shown in FIG. 8 by encrypting it with a different encryption key for each user are implemented.

Next, a method of assigning the copyright information license information 803 stored in the license information storage means 208 will be described. In this embodiment, first, P is a sufficiently large prime number. For a copyrighted material of a complete material that does not contain a copyrighted material inside, four are selected from the numbers from "2" to "(P-1)" and the license information 803 has a prime number as an element. Assigned as a regular array of 2 rows. Since P is a prime number, M is a finite ring (ad-bc ≠
0).

[0051]

(Equation 1)

Next, for the composite copyrighted material, the result of integrating all the license information assigned to the copyrighted material used as a part by the composite copyrighted material is used as the composite copyrighted material. Is given as license information for

[0053]

## EQU2 ## C = M1 * M2 *... Mn (*
Is a multiplication symbol. In the case of the composite copyrighted material shown in FIG. 1, B102, C10
The product of the license information 803 of each material component is recorded as the license information 803 in the copyrighted material A101 using the three materials D3 and D104 as components.

[0054]

[Mathematical formula-see original document] MA = MB * MC * MD The license information storage means 208 does not store the license information of the copyrighted material used as a part for the composite copyrighted material, but uses those copyrighted materials. In this case, only the license information 803 assigned to the combined copyrighted material is stored.

The information possessed by the copyrighted material stored in the copyrighted material storage means 210 is the same as in FIG. However, information that is uniquely determined corresponding to the license information 803 assigned to each copyrighted material is assigned to the license confirmation information 403. In this embodiment, when the matrix A is assigned as the license information, Stores the inverse matrix of A shown in “Equation 4”.

[0056]

(Equation 4)

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing the processing contents of the license confirmation means 207. First, a primary determination is made based on the provided license information 803 and license confirmation information 403 as to whether the license information is correct (step 90).
1).

FIG. 10 shows a flow of a primary determination process on whether the license information is correct.

If it is determined that the license information 803 is incorrect as a result of the primary determination, the process ends (step 91).
0). However, when it is determined that the license information is correct or incorrect or unknown, the number of copyrighted materials included in the part copyrighted material ID 404 list of the copyrighted material to be confirmed is then substituted into a variable n (step 902). , 903).

Next, the license information of the copyrighted material included in the part copyrighted material ID 404 list is restored, and the ID of the copyrighted material and the restored license information are arranged in array ID [n], A [n ] (Step 904).

The process of restoring the license information of the I-th part is obtained by the following recurrence formula.

[0062]

(Equation 5)

Next, "1" is substituted for the variable i (step 905). It is checked whether the value of the variable i is equal to or less than n (step 906). If the value of the variable i is larger than n, it is determined that the licenses of all the copyrighted materials included in the part copyrighted material ID list 404 and used by the copyrighted materials as components can be confirmed. The protection state of the object is released, and the process ends (step 911).

However, when the value of the variable i is smaller than the value of n, the license information of the i-th copyrighted material is confirmed. For this reason, the license is confirmed by the license confirmation unit 207 to confirm whether A [i] is the correct license information in the ID [i] (step 90).
7).

Then, it is determined whether the license confirmation by the license confirmation means 207 is correct (step 90).
8). If the license confirmation is incorrect, the process ends with the license information being incorrect. However, if the license confirmation is correct, "1" is added to the variable I, and the process proceeds to the comparison between i and n in step 906 again (step 90).
9).

In this way, the license information of the copyrighted material itself and the license information of the copyrighted material included in the part copyrighted material ID list 404 used as a part by the copyrighted material are confirmed.

In this process, since the license confirmation means is performed recursively in step 907, even when the copyrighted material is used hierarchically, the license information of all the copyrighted material can be confirmed. .

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing a procedure for restoring license information 803 in the second embodiment.
Corresponds to the processing of step 503. Assuming that the complex copyrighted material includes N copyrighted materials, when the license confirmation information 403 of the I-th copyrighted material is stored in the array E [I], the license of each copyrighted material is Information 403 is calculated in array C [I].

First, the given license information is stored in the array C
(Step 1001), and then the part copyrighted material ID
The number of copyrighted materials included in the list 404 is substituted for a variable n (step 1002). Next, "1" is substituted for the variable I (step 1003), and it is checked whether the value of the variable I is n or less (step 1004). If it is less than n, the I-th license confirmation information and the cough of C are obtained and set as a new C (step 1005). Next, the value of the variable I is set to “1”.
Is added (step 1006), and the process returns to step 1004.

If the variable i is greater than or equal to n, it is checked whether C = E (step 1007). If C = E, it is determined that the given license information is correct or incorrect (step 1008). ), And terminate the process. If C = E is not satisfied, it is determined that the given license information is incorrect (step 1009), and the process ends.

[0071]

As described above, according to the present invention,
When managing the license of a copyrighted material that uses other copyrighted materials comprehensively, the license information of the copyrighted material used comprehensively is used based on the license information of the copyrighted material used as a part. The generation and utilization has the following effects.

(1) A license can be provided for a composite copyrighted material using a plurality of pieces of license information without registering the license information of all the copyrighted materials used as its components.

(2) The same license management mechanism can be used to check the license of a copyrighted work, whether it is used alone or as a part of another copyrighted work. Becomes

(3) There is also an effect that license management can be performed on a complex copyrighted material while the function of protecting the license of the copyrighted material used as a component remains effective.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram schematically showing a composite copyrighted material to be managed by a license according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a basic configuration example of a license management device according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing information stored in a license information storage device in the basic configuration example of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing copyrighted material information stored in a copyrighted material storage device in the basic configuration example of FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is a schematic flowchart showing a processing procedure according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing processing of a license confirmation unit.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing details of license information restoration processing in the flowchart of FIG. 5;

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating an example of information stored in a license information storage device according to a second embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing processing of a license confirmation unit in the second embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing details of license information confirmation processing in the flowchart of FIG. 6;

[Description of sign]

201: License management device, 202: Input device, 20
3 display device, 204 operation instruction means, 205 user confirmation means, 206 user information storage means, 207 license confirmation means, 208 license information storage means, 2
09: data access means, 210: copyrighted material storage means.

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A computer-readable storage medium storing digital content in a protected state,
License information for releasing protection of digital contents in the storage medium is provided separately, and in the license management method for releasing the protection state of the digital contents based on the license information, the digital contents each having a protection function are provided. A license management method comprising: generating license information of composite digital content constructed by combining components from license information of digital content components used as the components. 2. Restoring the license information of a digital content with a protection function used as a component from the license information given to the composite digital content to release the protection state of the individual digital content. The license management method according to claim 1, wherein: 3. The license management method according to claim 2, wherein the validity of the license information is determined by the same license information and license confirmation method even when the digital content is used alone or as a component. 4. Even when the composite digital content hierarchically includes the composite digital content as a component, the validity of the license information is determined by the same license information and license confirmation method as when the digital content is used alone. The license management method according to claim 2, wherein: