JP2016035777A - License automatic selection system, license automatic selection method, and program - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a license automatic selection system and the like which allow automatic selection of a suitable license from a plurality of licenses of content.SOLUTION: A server 5 issues a license 25 to a terminal 3 at the time of trail reading, purchase, or lending to another user of content 18. The terminal 3 holds the license 25 received from the server 5 in a license holding part 16. The license 25 has use rules 26 such as a browsing frequency 41, a start date 42, an end date 43, and an invalid license value 44 of the content 18. When a user browses the content 18 from the terminal 3, a calculation execution unit 12 of the terminal 3 performs calculation, according to a calculation rule held in a calculation rule holding part 17, in response to a value of the use rules 26 of each license 25 held in the license holding part 16, and selects a license 25 whose score of calculation result is high to allow the user to browse the content 18.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

The present invention relates to an automatic license selection system and the like capable of performing automatic selection from a plurality of content licenses in an online content distribution service.

In recent years, portable terminals such as smartphones have become widespread, and online distribution services for books that are copyrighted works such as music and video, or comics and magazines are widely used. In order to manage the copyright of content such as a book, in order to use the content, a license that defines usage conditions and the like is acquired.
In the future, as content services diversify, it becomes necessary to rewrite license usage conditions when content is read, borrowed with a fixed term, etc., and the handling of licenses becomes complicated.

  The system of Patent Document 1 issues a license rule in addition to an existing license of content, performs content viewing control using the logical sum of the existing license and the license rule, and adds the number of viewing times or the viewing period. Discloses a method of overwriting with a license rule.

Patent No. 4612475

  However, in the method of Patent Document 1, since only one license is held for each content, it is necessary to rewrite the license usage conditions every time a service such as a fixed-term loan or trial reading is received. The license usage conditions need to be rewritten via a server, and the usage conditions cannot be rewritten in an offline state, which is inconvenient for the user. For example, when lending a content from a certain user to another user for a limited time, the lending user initially holds a “license that can be viewed at any time”, but when lending to another user, “ It is necessary to acquire a “license that cannot be viewed during the lending period” and acquire a “license that can be viewed at any time” again after the lending period ends. Here, the “license that can be viewed at any time” initially held by the user of the lending source and the “license that can be viewed at any time” acquired after the end of the lending period are the same license. As described above, it is not convenient for the user to connect to the server and acquire the same license again every time the usage conditions are changed, such as when the content is rented or when the rent is completed.

  Although there is a method of rewriting the license usage conditions on the client side without going through the server, it is not preferable in terms of security to allow the user to modify the license.

  The present invention has been made in view of such problems, and an object thereof is to provide an automatic license selection system that can automatically select an appropriate license from a plurality of licenses of content. It is to be.

In order to achieve the above-described object, the first invention is an automatic license selection system comprising a terminal and a server that issues one or more licenses having content usage rules. , anda license issue means for issuing the license to the terminal, the terminal includes a license request means for requesting the issuance of the license to the server, and license holding means for holding the license, computation rules An automatic license selection system comprising: a calculation rule holding means for holding the calculation rule; and a calculation execution means for executing a calculation according to a predetermined calculation rule and selecting the license according to the calculation result.
According to the first invention, an appropriate license can be automatically selected from a plurality of licenses of contents.

  In addition, since the terminal itself holds the license and the calculation rule, access to the server is kept to a minimum and convenience is improved.

In addition, the usage rule of the first invention includes, for example, a browsing count indicating the remaining number of times the content can be browsed, a start date when the license is valid, an end date when the license is invalid, and an invalid license. An invalidation license indicating whether the license is an activation license is included.
As a result, the server can issue licenses having various usage rules.

Further, it is preferable that the calculation rule transmitting means included in the server of the first invention transmits the calculation rule to the terminal when there is an addition of the usage rule item and a change of the calculation rule.
As a result, a new license can be applied while maintaining user convenience.

A second invention is an automatic license selection method in an automatic license selection system comprising a terminal and a server that issues one or more licenses having content usage rules, wherein the terminal is connected to the server. and requesting the issuance of the license, the server, and issuing the license to the terminal, the terminal, the step of holding the license, the previous SL terminal, a step of holding the arithmetic rules An automatic license selection method characterized in that: the terminal executes a calculation according to a predetermined calculation rule, and executes a calculation execution step of selecting the license according to a calculation result.
Secondly, according to the invention, an appropriate license can be automatically selected from a plurality of licenses of contents.

  In addition, since the terminal itself holds the license and the calculation rule, access to the server is kept to a minimum and convenience is improved.

A third invention is a program for causing a plurality of computers to function as the terminal of the first invention and the server.
The first invention can be constructed by installing the third invention on a general-purpose computer.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to provide an automatic license selection system that can automatically select an appropriate license from a plurality of licenses of content.

The figure which shows the outline | summary of the license automatic selection system 1 which concerns on embodiment of this invention. Hardware configuration diagram of a computer for realizing the terminal 3 and the server 5 The figure which shows the detail of the usage rule 26 of the license 25 The figure which shows the detail of the calculation rule 27 The flowchart which shows the flow of the process which the calculation execution part 12 of the terminal 3 performs according to the calculation rule 27 of FIG. The figure which shows the example of a setting of the usage rule 26 of the license 25 in the case of reading the content 18 The figure which shows the example of a setting of the usage rule 26 of the license 25 at the time of purchasing the content 18 The figure which shows the example of a setting of the usage rule 26 of the license 25 at the time of lending the content 18 to another user.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the following description and the accompanying drawings, the same reference numerals are given to components having substantially the same functional configuration, and redundant description will be omitted.

First, the outline of the automatic license selection system 1 according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. The usage rule and calculation rule setting for automatic license selection, and automatic selection processing will be described with reference to FIGS.
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an overview of an automatic license selection system 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention.
The automatic license selection system 1 is a system in which a user can use content such as comics, magazines, and books. The license automatic selection system 1 includes a terminal 3, a server 5, and the like.

The server 5 issues licenses for contents used by the user's terminal 3 and manages calculation rules for automatic license selection. The server 5 includes a license issuing unit 21, a calculation rule transmission unit 22, a calculation rule holding unit 23, and the like.
The license issuing unit 21 issues a license 25 for content use to the terminal 3 that is a client. The license 25 has a content usage rule 26 and a key for browsing the content. Details of the usage rule 26 will be described later.

The calculation rule holding unit 23 holds calculation rules for calculation for determining which license the terminal 3 uses. As will be described later, the terminal 3 calculates the score of each license 25 according to the value of the usage rule 26 held by each license 25. Then, the terminal 3 enables browsing of the content using the license 25 having the highest score.
The calculation rule transmission unit 22 transmits the calculation rule 27 from the calculation rule holding unit 23 (calculation rule holding unit) to the terminal 3 when an item of the usage rule 26 is added, or the calculation rule is changed.

The terminal 3 is a terminal device capable of browsing content such as a smartphone, a reading terminal, and a mobile phone owned by the user. The terminal 3 includes a license request unit 11, a calculation execution unit 12, a calculation rule reception unit 13, an input unit 14, a display unit 15, a license holding unit 16, a calculation rule holding unit 17, and content 18.
The license request unit 11 browses the content 18 as necessary, such as when purchasing the content 18, when renting the content 18 to another user, at the end of the rental period of the lent content 18, when reading the content 18. The license 25 is requested to the server 5, and the acquired license 25 is stored in the license holding unit 16.
The license holding unit 16 holds a plurality of licenses 25 acquired from the server 5 by the license request unit 11.

The calculation execution unit 12 refers to the usage rule 26 of each license 25 from one or a plurality of licenses 25 corresponding to the content 18 held by the license holding unit 16 when the user wants to browse the content 18. An operation is performed in accordance with the operation rules held in the operation rule holding unit 17, and the optimum license 25 is determined. Since the calculation result varies depending on the value of the usage rule 26, an optimal one can be determined from the plurality of licenses 25 held by the license holding unit 16.
The calculation rule holding unit 17 holds calculation rules for calculations executed by the calculation execution unit 12.
When the item of the usage rule 26 of the license 25 is added or the calculation rule holding unit 23 held by the server 5 is changed, the calculation rule receiving unit 13 receives a new calculation from the calculation rule transmission unit 22 of the server 5. The rule 27 is received and held in the calculation rule holding unit 17.

The input unit 14 receives an operation instruction, an operation instruction, a data input, and the like for the terminal 3 by the user.
The display unit 15 displays the contents of the content 18 and the like.

FIG. 2 is a hardware configuration diagram of a computer that realizes the terminal 3 and the server 5. Note that the hardware configuration in FIG. 2 is an example, and various configurations can be adopted depending on the application and purpose.
In the computer, a control unit 31, a storage unit 32, an input unit 33, a display unit 34, a communication unit 35, and the like are connected via a bus 36.

The control unit 31 includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit), a ROM (Read Only Memory), a RAM (Random Access Memory), and the like.
The CPU calls a program stored in the storage unit 32, ROM, recording medium or the like to a work memory area on the RAM, executes it, drives and controls each device connected via the bus 36, and will be described later. Realize processing.
The ROM is a non-volatile memory and permanently stores programs, data, and the like.
The RAM is a volatile memory, and temporarily stores a program, data, and the like loaded from the storage unit 32, ROM, recording medium, and the like, and includes a work area used by the control unit 31 for performing various processes.

  The storage unit 32 is a flash memory or the like, and stores a program executed by the control unit 31, data necessary for program execution, and the like. These program codes are read by the CPU of the control unit 31 as necessary, transferred to the RAM, and executed as various means.

The input unit 33 inputs data and includes an input device such as a touch panel and a key. An operation instruction, an operation instruction, data input, and the like can be performed on the computer via the input unit 33.
The display unit 34 includes a logic circuit or the like (video adapter or the like) for realizing a video function of a computer in cooperation with a display device such as a liquid crystal panel. The input unit 33 and the display unit 34 may be integrated like a touch panel display.
The communication unit 35 is a communication interface that mediates communication between the computer and the network, and communicates with other computers and the like via the network. The network may be wired or wireless.
The bus 36 is a path that mediates transmission / reception of control signals, data signals, and the like between the devices.

Next, the usage rule 26 of the license 25 for browsing the content 18 on the terminal 3 will be described.
FIG. 3 is a diagram showing details of the usage rule 26 of the license 25.
The usage rule 26 includes browsing count 41, start date 42, end date 43, invalidation license 44, and the like as items.

The number of browsing times 41 is data indicating the remaining number of times that the user can browse the content 18 on the terminal 3. The browsing count 41 is decremented by 1 every time the user browses the content 18 on the terminal 3. When the value of the browsing count 41 is 0, the user cannot browse the corresponding content 18 on the terminal 3. When the content 18 is purchased, the user is not limited in the number of browsing of the content 18 on the terminal 3, and therefore, the browsing count 41 is set to a MAX value such as “9999999”.
The start date 42 is data indicating the start date on which the license 25 becomes valid. The start date 42 is set to the date when the terminal 3 receives the license 25 from the server 5.
The end date 43 is data indicating an end date when the license 25 becomes invalid. In the case of trial reading of the content 18 or rental with a time limit, the end date of the trial reading period or the end date of the rental deadline is set. When the user purchases the content 18, the user can permanently browse the content 18 on the terminal 3, and therefore, for the end date 43, a MAX value such as “9999999” is set.

The invalidation license 44 is a flag indicating whether or not the license 25 is an invalidation license, and has a value of “true” or “false”.
When the value of the invalidation license 44 is “true”, the license 25 is “a license that cannot be browsed”, and the invalidation license that the user cannot browse the content 18 on the terminal 3 from the start date 42 to the end date 43. It becomes.
When the value of the invalidation license 44 is “false”, the license 25 is a “browsing license”, and the user can browse the content 18 on the terminal 3 from the start date 42 to the end date 43. Become.

  The usage rule 26 includes the number of browsing times 41, the start date 42, the end date 43, the invalidation license 44, a group indicating a lentable range, browsing time by the user, the content purchased by the license 25, or You may make it have the flag etc. which show whether it is the content borrowed from the other user as an item.

Next, the calculation rule 27 used in the calculation for determining the license 25 for browsing the content 18 on the terminal 3 will be described.
FIG. 4 is a diagram showing details of the calculation rule 27.
The calculation rule 27 has a calculation condition 51, a calculation content 52, and a calculation priority 53.
The calculation priority 53 indicates the priority of calculations executed by the calculation execution unit 12 of the terminal 3.
The calculation condition 51 indicates a condition as to whether or not the calculation execution unit 12 of the terminal 3 performs the calculation indicated by the calculation content 52. When the calculation condition 51 is set, the process shown in the calculation content 52 is performed only when the calculation condition 51 is satisfied.

For example, when the calculation rule 27 shown in FIG. 4 is applied, the calculation execution unit 12 of the terminal 3 uses the value of the usage rule 26 of each license 25 corresponding to the content 18 to set the calculation priority 53 from “1”. Calculations are performed in the order of “5”.
When the calculation priority 53 is “1”, the calculation condition 51 “when the start date 42 of the usage rule 26 is greater than the current date”, that is, when the current date is before the start date 42, the calculation content 52 “× 0”. Perform the operation.
When the calculation priority 53 is “2”, the calculation condition 51 “when the end date 43 of the usage rule 26 is less than or equal to the current date”, that is, when the current date is after the end date 43, is the calculation content 52 “× 0”. Perform the operation.
When the calculation priority 53 is “3”, the calculation condition 51 “when the end date of the usage rule 26 is not a MAX value”, that is, when the corresponding content 18 is not purchased, is calculated 52 “÷ ( End date-present) ". Here, “MAX” means the maximum value that can be handled by the computer.
In the processing with the calculation priority 53 of “4”, the calculation condition 51 is not set, and therefore the calculation content 52 “× N” is calculated unconditionally.
For the processing with the calculation priority 53 being “5”, the calculation result 51 is set to “−1” according to the calculation condition 51 “when the invalidation license is false”.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the flow of processing performed by the calculation execution unit 12 of the terminal 3 according to the calculation rule 27 of FIG. Hereinafter, in order to make the explanation easy to understand, the processing of the terminal 3 is described mainly with each program. Actually, the control unit 31 of the terminal 3 executes each process.
The calculation execution unit 12 of the terminal 3 sets an appropriate value such as “100” as the initial value of the variable x for calculation.
When the start date 42 of the usage rule 26 is greater than the current date (Yes in step S101), the calculation execution unit 12 of the terminal 3 calculates the variable x × 0 (step S102). When the start date 42 of the usage rule 26 is currently equal to or less (No in step S101), the calculation for the variable x is not performed.

Subsequently, when the end date 43 of the usage rule 26 is currently less than or equal to the current rule (Yes in step S103), the calculation execution unit 12 of the terminal 3 calculates the variable x × 0 (step S104). When the end date of the usage rule 26 is larger than the current date (No in step S103), the calculation for the variable x is not performed.
If the end date 43 of the usage rule 26 is not the value of MAX (Yes in step S105), the calculation execution unit 12 of the terminal 3 performs a calculation of variable x ÷ (end date−current) (step S106). When the end date 43 of the usage rule 26 is a value of MAX (No in step S105), the calculation for the variable x is not performed.
The calculation execution unit 12 of the terminal 3 unconditionally calculates the variable x × the number of browsing times 41 (step S107).
The calculation execution unit 12 of the terminal 3 sets the value of the variable x to “−1” when the invalidation license 44 of the usage rule 26 is “false” (step S109).
The calculation execution unit 12 of the terminal 3 uses the obtained variable x as a calculation result, compares the calculation results of the licenses 25, and selects the license 25 having the largest calculation result value.

Next, setting examples of the usage rule 26 for the license 25 in various situations in the automatic license selection system 1 will be described with reference to FIGS.
6 is a diagram illustrating an example of setting of the usage rule 26a of the license 25 when the content 18 is sampled, and FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of setting of the usage rule 26b of the license 25 when the content 18 is purchased. These are figures which show the example of a setting of the usage rule 26c of the license 25 at the time of lending the content 18 to another user.

  When the user trial-reads the content 18 using the terminal 3, the number of times the content 18 is browsed and the period during which the trial-reading is possible are limited. For example, in the case of trial reading, if the browsing is up to 3 times and the period during which the trial reading is possible is 10 days, the server 5 sets the value of the number of browsing times 41 to “3” and the start date 42 is the license 25 as shown in FIG. Is a date 25 for downloading from the server 5 to the terminal 3 and a trial license 25 having a usage rule 26a in which the end date 43 is set to "2011/09/10" nine days after the start date. Issue. Since the content 18 can be browsed by trial reading, the invalidation license 44 is set to “false”.

  When the user purchases the content 18 after the trial reading, or when the user purchases the content 18 without the trial reading, the server 5 issues a purchase license 25. As shown in FIG. 7, the usage rule 26 b of the license 25 of the purchased content 18 has the value of the browsing count 41 as “MAX”, and the start date 42 is the date when the license 25 is first downloaded from the server 5 to the terminal 3. The value of “2011/09/01” and end date 43 is set to “MAX”. Since the content 18 can be viewed by purchase, the invalidation license 44 is set to “false”.

When the user purchases the content 18 on the same day after reading the content 18 on September 1, 2011, the license holding unit 16 of the terminal 3 has two licenses 25a of the usage rule 26a and a license 25b of the usage rule 26b. Hold the license.
In this case, when the user tries to browse the content 18 on the terminal 3 on September 5, 2011, the calculation execution unit 12 of the terminal 3 performs a calculation on the license 25a and the license 25b. As a result of the calculation shown in FIG. 5, the score of the trial license 25a is “59”, the score of the purchased license 25b is “MAX-1”, and the calculation execution unit 12 of the terminal 3 is the license 25b which is the purchased license. Select. Although September 5, 2011 is still within the period during which the trial reading can be performed, since the user has already purchased the content 18, it is appropriate to browse with the license 25b which is the purchased license.

  When the license holding unit 16 of the terminal 3 holds the license 25a and the license 25b, and the user tries to view the content 18 on the terminal 3 on September 11, 2011 after the end of the trial reading period, the calculation of the terminal 3 is executed. The unit 12 performs an operation on the license 25a and the license 25b. As a result of the calculation shown in FIG. 5, the score of the trial reading license 25a is "-1", the score of the purchased license 25b is "MAX-1", and the calculation execution unit 12 of the terminal 3 is a license that is a purchased license. Select 25b. Since the trial reading period has ended on September 11, 2011, the user has already purchased the content 18, so it is appropriate to browse with the license 25b that is a purchased license.

  When the user lends the content 18 to another user for 7 days after purchasing the content 18, the server 5 issues a license 25 that is being lent. As shown in FIG. 8, the usage rule 26c of the license 25 of the purchased content 18 indicates that the value of the browsing count 41 is “MAX”, and the start date 42 is a date when the content 18 is lent to another user “2011/09”. / 11 "and end date 43 are set to" 2011/09/17 "when the lending ends. Since the user cannot browse the content 18 by lending, the invalidation license 44 is set to “true”.

When the user lends the content 18 to another user on September 11, 2011, the license holding unit 16 of the terminal 3 uses the license 25a of the usage rule 26a, the license 25b of the usage rule 26b, and the license 25c of the usage rule 26c. Hold three licenses.
When the user tries to view the content 18 on the terminal 3 on September 12, 2011 while renting the content 18 to another user, the calculation execution unit 12 of the terminal 3 applies the license 25a, the license 25b, and the license 25c. Perform the operation. As a result of the calculation shown in FIG. 5, the score of the trial license 25a is “−1”, the score of the purchased license 25b is “MAX-1”, and the score of the license 25c being lent is “MAX”. The calculation execution unit 12 selects the license 25c that is a lent license. Since September 11, 2011 is within the lending period to other users and the user cannot view the content 18, the license 25c, which is a rented license, is selected, and the user cannot view on the terminal 3 It becomes.

When the user tries to view the content 18 on the terminal 3 on September 21, 2011 after the ending period for lending to other users, the calculation execution unit 12 of the terminal 3 applies the license 25a, the license 25b, and the license 25c. Perform the operation. As a result of the calculation shown in FIG. 5, the score of the trial license 25a is “−1”, the score of the purchased license 25b is “MAX-1”, and the score of the license 25c for lending is “0”. The calculation execution unit 12 selects the license 25b which is a purchased license. On September 21, 2011, since the lending period to other users has ended, it is appropriate to browse with the license 25b which is a purchased license.
Moreover, since the initial license 25b from which the user purchased the content 18 is automatically selected after the rental period to other users is ended by the calculation by the calculation execution unit 12 of the terminal 3, the server 5 There is no need to reissue a license to the terminal 3.

As described above, in the automatic license selection system according to the present invention, calculation is performed according to the license usage rules and calculation rules set in advance for content, the score of each license is obtained, and the license with the highest score is selected. As a result, it is possible to determine an appropriate license from among a plurality of licenses for content browsing.
Even if the usage rule of the content license is added or the calculation rule is changed, the terminal 3 downloads and holds the calculation rule 27 from the server 5, so that the user's terminal 3 holds the content to other users. When renting out, it is not necessary to inquire about the license or to request reissuing of the server 5 every time the status of the content 18 changes, such as during renting or ending, and the terminal 3 Since the content can be browsed even in an offline environment where it is not possible to connect to the user, convenience for the user is improved.

  The preferred embodiments of the automatic license selection system according to the present invention have been described above with reference to the accompanying drawings, but the present invention is not limited to such examples. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various changes or modifications can be conceived within the scope of the technical idea disclosed in the present application, and these naturally belong to the technical scope of the present invention. Understood.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ......... License automatic selection system 3 ......... Terminal 5 ......... Server 11 ......... License request part 12 ......... Calculation execution part 13 ......... Calculation rule receiving part 14 ......... Input part 15 ......... Display unit 16... License holding unit 17... Calculation rule holding unit 18... Content 21... License issuing unit 22... Calculation rule transmitting unit 23 ......... Calculation rule holding unit 25. 26 ………… Usage rules 27 ……… Calculation rules

Claims (4)

An automatic license selection system comprising a terminal and a server that issues one or more licenses having content usage rules,
The server
License issuing means for issuing the license to the terminal ;
Equipped with,
The terminal
License request means for requesting the server to issue the license;
A license holding means for holding the license ;
And calculating rule holding means for holding the computation rules,
Calculation execution means for executing calculation according to a predetermined calculation rule and selecting the license according to the calculation result;
An automatic license selection system comprising:   The usage rule includes a viewing count indicating the remaining number of times that the content can be browsed, a start date when the license is valid, an end date when the license is invalid, and an invalidation indicating whether the license is an invalid license. The license automatic selection system according to claim 1, further comprising a license. A license automatic selection method in a license automatic selection system comprising a terminal and a server that issues one or more licenses having content usage rules,
The terminal requesting the server to issue the license;
The server issuing the license to the terminal;
The terminal holding the license ;
Before SL terminal, a step of holding the computation rules,
A calculation execution step in which the terminal performs a calculation according to a predetermined calculation rule and selects the license according to a calculation result;
The license automatic selection method characterized by performing this. A program for causing a plurality of computers to function as the terminal according to claim 1 or 2 and the server.

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