JP4706453B2 - Printing system, electronic document processing method and program in the system - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a printing system that prints an electronic document received from a computer via a transmission path, and more particularly to a printing system that has a function of notifying a destination of an event that has occurred during electronic document printing processing.

  When printing an electronic document created by application software, the file of the electronic document is conventionally opened on the PC (personal computer) by the application software or viewer software corresponding to the file format of the electronic document. It is common to issue a print instruction from the menu of the software. When a print instruction is issued, the printer driver receives electronic document data from the software, converts the data into print data in a page description language that can be handled by the printing apparatus, and sends it to the printing apparatus.

  On the other hand, in recent years, a printing apparatus having a so-called direct print function that can accept and print an electronic document that is a file format of application software has been developed (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

  Further, the conventional printing apparatus has a function of notifying events such as printing completion and error occurrence to a print requesting PC using a print protocol. However, with this function, notification can be made only to the requesting PC.

  On the other hand, in the system shown in Patent Document 2, when an address (for example, an e-mail address) of information notification is set on the printer driver on the PC, the printing apparatus that receives the print instruction from the printer driver When a predetermined event such as completion occurs, the information is notified to the set notification destination.

  The printing apparatus of Patent Document 2 can perform event notifications other than a PC that has issued a printing instruction, such as a system administrator. For example, in order to use this function, a user who issues a printing instruction can send an event notification. Since it is necessary to set a notification destination, a burden is imposed on the user.

  In recent years, protection of copyrights and other rights for electronic documents has become an important issue. As a mechanism for protecting the copyright holder and distribution right holder of an electronic document, a DRM (Digital Rights Management) system such as Windows Media (registered trademark) Rights Manager of Microsoft Corporation is known. A general DRM system distributes an electronic document protected by encryption or the like to a user. The user obtains the license data by paying a fee, and uses the electronic document by releasing the protection of the electronic document using the license data on software such as a DRM-compliant browser or media player. Make it possible. Also, specific operations on electronic documents such as editing and printing are prohibited by software on the PC in accordance with the contents of the license.

  As described above, the conventional DRM system assumes protection on a PC. Since a printing apparatus that receives a print instruction from a PC is often shared by a plurality of users on a network such as a LAN (local area network), the conventional DRM system framework that assumes protection on the PC is used as it is. It cannot be applied. When printing an electronic document received from a PC, it would be beneficial from the viewpoint of rights holder protection if the printing device can perform processing that contributes to protecting the rights of the person who created the electronic document or the person who distributed it. A printing apparatus that can perform such processing is not known.

JP 2004-050722 A JP 2000-259383 A

  The present invention solves at least one of the problems of the prior art.

A printing system according to the present invention is a printing system that prints a received electronic document, and extracts subject information extracting means for extracting subject information of an electronic signature from the received electronic document, and the electronic device attached to the electronic document. Signature verification means for verifying an electronic signature; information notification means for notifying information generated in processing of the electronic document in the printing system to the subject indicated by the subject information extracted by the subject information extraction means; A printing unit that prints the electronic document, and the information notification unit is configured to allow printing of the electronic document when verification of the electronic signature by the signature verification unit is unsuccessful. After the printing of the electronic document by the printing unit is completed, a notification including information indicating that the content of the electronic document has been modified and printed is transmitted to the subject. If the setting for allowing printing of the electronic document is not made when the verification of the electronic signature by the signature verification unit is unsuccessful, the signature verification is unsuccessful without printing the electronic document by the printing unit. The notification including the information to that effect is transmitted to the subject .

  In one aspect of the present invention, when the subject information extracted by the subject information extraction means includes the subject's email address, the information notification means includes the information with respect to the email address. Send an email.

In yet another aspect, the printing system further comprises authentication information receiving means for receiving an input of authentication information for releasing protection applied to the received electronic document, and the information notifying means is configured to receive the authentication information. If the protection applied to the received electronic document is not released by the authentication information received by the means , a notification including information indicating that the electronic document is requested to be printed without printing the electronic document To the subject.

In still another aspect, the information notification unit transmits a notification including information on an instructor who has instructed printing of the electronic document to the subject .

Further, in another aspect of the present invention, extracting Ru executed in the printing system for printing an electronic document, a method of processing an electronic document, the subject's information of the electronic signature from the received electronic document received, A signature verification step of verifying the electronic signature attached to the electronic document, and an information notification step of notifying a subject indicated by the extracted subject information of information generated in the processing of the electronic document in the printing system; In the information notification step, if the electronic document verification by the signature verification step is unsuccessful, the electronic document is printed by the printing system. After completion, a notification including information indicating that the content of the electronic document has been modified and printed is transmitted to the subject, and the signature verification is performed. If the setting for permitting printing of the electronic document is not made when the verification of the electronic signature by the step is unsuccessful, the fact that the signature verification is unsuccessful without printing the electronic document by the printing system. An electronic document processing method is provided , wherein a notification including information is transmitted to the subject .

Further, in another aspect of the present invention, a program for executing a process for printing the received electronic document to a printing device to a computer system to extract the principal's information of the electronic signature from the received electronic document A step of verifying the electronic signature attached to the electronic document, and processing of the electronic document by the program or printing of the electronic document in the printing apparatus for the subject indicated by the extracted subject information A program for causing the computer system to execute an information notifying step for notifying information generated in the processing, and in the information notifying step, when the verification of the electronic signature by the signature verifying step is unsuccessful If the electronic document is set to be allowed to be printed, the electronic document mark is printed by the printing device. After completion, when a notification including information indicating that the content of the electronic document has been modified and printed is transmitted to the subject, and verification of the electronic signature by the signature verification step is unsuccessful If the setting for permitting printing of the electronic document is not made, a notification including information indicating that the signature verification is unsuccessful without printing the electronic document by the printing apparatus is transmitted to the subject. A program characterized by the above is provided.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention (hereinafter referred to as “embodiments”) will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of the configuration of a system including a printing apparatus 14. In this system, PCs (personal computers) 10 and 16 and a printing apparatus 14 are connected to a network 12 for data communication such as a LAN (local area network) and the Internet. The PC 16 is a PC of a user who has rights to the electronic document 20 such as the owner or distributor of the electronic document 20, and the PC 10 is a PC of a user who intends to acquire and use the electronic document 20. A printer driver for executing direct printing of the electronic document 20 is installed in the PC 10. The electronic document 20 is a document in a file format of application software.

  Further, it is assumed that the electronic document 20 is digitally signed using secret key information such as the owner and distributor of the electronic document 20. For example, software that can embed an electronic signature in a created document, such as Microsoft's word processor software “Word” and Adobe Systems ’“ Acrobat ”, has become widespread. Can be created by software.

  As is well known in the XML signature and the like, in general, the electronic signature information incorporated in the electronic document 20 includes a verification key for verifying the signature value in addition to the signature value of the electronic signature (that is, the owner of the electronic document 20). For identifying the public key). This information may be the verification key itself, the signer's public key certificate, or both. For example, X. Like the public key certificate 509, the public key certificate includes information on the “subject” who is the owner of the certificate. The subject's information is described in a DN (Distinguished Name) format, and often includes the subject's e-mail address.

  In the present embodiment, when the user who has acquired the electronic document 20 instructs the printing apparatus 14 to directly print the electronic document 20 from the PC 10, the printing apparatus 14 is the subject included in the signature information of the electronic document 20 (that is, the subject) The electronic mail address of the electronic document 20 or the like is obtained, and notification information 22 related to the printing process is transmitted to the electronic mail address.

  Next, a processing procedure executed by the printer driver of the PC 10 will be described with reference to FIG. When the printer driver receives the designation of the electronic document 20 to be directly printed from the user, the printer driver acquires the electronic document (S1), and further, the user information (user name, Information such as the user's DN), machine information for identifying the PC (IP (Internet Protocol) address, MAC (Media Access Control) address, etc.), and the time when the direct print instruction is received is acquired (S2). In addition, the printer driver may receive print job attribute information such as a printing apparatus that performs printing, a paper size, the number of copies, and the like from the user (S3). The printer driver creates job control information in which user information, machine information, job attributes, and the like are described in a job description language that can be interpreted by the printing apparatus 14 (S4), and issues a print instruction including the job control information and the electronic document 20. The data is transmitted to the printing device 14 (S5).

  The job control of the printing apparatus 14 that has received the print instruction is performed by the configuration shown in FIG. The data receiving unit 32 receives a print instruction. The switcher 34 determines whether the received print instruction is a print instruction for print data described in PDL (page description language) or a direct print instruction for an electronic document by a known method. Data is passed to the print data parser 36, and in the case of direct printing, the electronic document is passed to the document parser 48.

  The print data parser 36 parses (analyzes) print data described in PDL. The print data processing unit 38 obtains a list of drawing commands for drawing an image to be printed according to the parsing result. The drawing command list processing unit 40 sequentially passes the drawing commands shown in the list to the drawing processing unit 42, and the drawing processing unit 42 draws an image on the image memory according to the received drawing command. As a result, a bitmap image to be printed is generated. The print engine in the printer 14 prints this bitmap image on paper. The processes performed by the print data parser 36, the print data processing unit 38, the drawing command list processing unit 40, and the drawing processing unit 42 are conventionally known processes, and conventional units can be used as these units.

  When printing on the paper is completed, the print completion notification processing unit 44 creates an e-mail including a print completion notification message, and the e-mail transmission processing unit 46 transmits the e-mail. The e-mail destination at this time is set in advance using a conventional technique such as Patent Document 2.

  On the other hand, in the case of direct printing, the document parser 48 analyzes the document according to the file format (for example, “Word” format, PDF format, etc.) of the electronic document 20 to be printed, and the document data processing unit 50 outputs the analysis result. Based on this, a list of drawing commands is created. The document parser 48 and the document data processing unit 50 may be the same as those used in a conventional printing apparatus having a direct print function. Then, the drawing command list processing unit 40 and the drawing processing unit 42 generate a bitmap image according to the drawing command list.

  The printing apparatus 14 according to the present embodiment further includes a signature extraction unit 52, a signature parser 54, and a destination setting unit 56. The signature extraction unit 52 extracts electronic signature information included in the electronic document 20 from the analysis result of the document parser 48. The signature parser 54 analyzes the electronic signature information and obtains information on the subject who performed the electronic signature from the information included therein. If the public signature certificate of the subject is included in the electronic signature information, the subject information can be obtained from the certificate. Even if the public key certificate itself is not included, since the identification information of the public key certificate is included in the electronic signature information, the signature parser 54 uses the identification information to obtain a certificate authority or directory. The public key certificate can be obtained from the server. If the subject information obtained by the signature parser 54 includes an email address, the destination setting unit 56 sets the email address in the print completion notification processing unit 44 as the destination of the print completion notification. Note that when the subject information does not include an e-mail address, the destination setting unit 56 may inquire the e-mail address corresponding to the subject's DN from the directory server.

  In the case of direct printing, the print completion notification processing unit 44 creates a print completion notification email addressed to the email address set by the destination setting unit 56, and the email transmission processing unit 46 sends the email to the destination. Send to.

  With such a configuration, when direct printing of the electronic document 20 is instructed, it is possible to send a print completion notification e-mail to the signer who applied the electronic signature to the electronic document 20.

  The print completion notification generated by the print completion notification processing unit 44 in the case of direct printing includes (1) the document name of the electronic document 20 and (2) a message indicating that the electronic document 20 has been printed. Yes. (3) If the user information of the print instructor who has instructed direct printing is incorporated in the print completion notification, the signer (that is, the owner of the electronic document 20 or the like) knows who printed the document that he signed. be able to. (4) If the machine information of the PC 10 that issued the direct print instruction is incorporated in the print completion notification, the signer can know from which PC the print instruction of the electronic document 20 was issued. (5) If the electronic document 20 includes the electronic certificate of the user who instructed direct printing, the electronic certificate itself or the DN of the user included in the electronic certificate has been printed. It can also be incorporated into the notification. (6) If information on the number of copies is incorporated in the print completion notification, the signer can know how many copies of the electronic document 20 to which he / she has rights. Further, (7) If the time of printing is incorporated in the print completion notification, the signer can know when the electronic document 20 is printed.

  As described above, according to the printing apparatus 14 of the present embodiment, the owner or distributor who has the rights to the electronic document 20 has printed the electronic document 20 and when it has been printed to whom. Therefore, it is possible to investigate whether or not the electronic document 20 is correctly used by using the information.

  In this embodiment, when a print completion notification is sent to the signer of the electronic document 20, neither the print instructor nor the signer needs to set the destination address of the notification in the printing device 14. Therefore, the operation burden on the user can be reduced.

  The embodiment described above is merely an example, and various modifications are conceivable within the scope of the present invention. For example, in the above-described embodiment, the case where the print completion notification when the printing of the electronic document is completed is sent to the signer. However, it is also possible to send information related to print processing other than the print completion to the signer.

  For example, when the user who acquired the electronic document 20 modifies the content of the electronic document 20 and performs direct printing, the signer can be notified of the modification. The processing procedure of the printing apparatus 14 in this modification is shown in FIG. In this procedure, when receiving the direct print instruction for the electronic document 20 with the electronic signature, the printing apparatus 14 verifies the electronic signature by a well-known method (S11), and the verification is successful (that is, the electronic document 20 is updated). It is determined whether or not there is no alteration / falsification (S12). If successful, the electronic document 20 is printed (S13). Then, a print completion notification is transmitted to the e-mail address of the signer obtained by the same processing as in the above-described embodiment (S14). This print completion notification may be the same as that exemplified in the above embodiment.

  If the signature verification fails, it means that the content of the electronic document 20 has been altered or altered after the signer signed. In this case, it is determined whether or not the setting of the printing apparatus 14 is set to allow printing when signature verification fails (S15). This setting is performed in advance by the administrator of the printing apparatus 14. If the setting is such that printing is permitted when verification fails, the printing apparatus 14 prints the electronic document 20 (S16), and when printing is completed, sends a print completion notification to the signer (S17). In addition to the document name of the printed document, a message indicating that the document has been modified is incorporated in the print completion notification transmitted in step S17. As a result, the signer can know that the electronic document 20 has been printed with the contents modified. If the setting is such that printing is not permitted when signature verification fails, the printing apparatus 14 does not print the electronic document 20, but notifies the signer that there has been a print request for a modified document (S18). ). The notification in step S18 includes the document name of the electronic document 20 and an explanation that the document has not been printed because the content of the document has been altered. In addition, information such as the user who requested printing of the electronic document 20 and the time may be incorporated in this notification, as in the above embodiment.

  As another example, when a direct print of the electronic document 20 protected with a password or the like is requested, the signer can be notified of such a request. In other words, some software for creating an electronic document can protect the created electronic document, such as “Word” and “Acrobat” described above. To open a protected document, it is necessary to input authentication information such as a password. Information that someone tried to print a document protected by a password or the like by the owner (creator) of the electronic document is important information for the owner or the like in protecting his rights. The processing procedure of the printing apparatus 14 in this modification is shown in FIG.

  In this procedure, first, when the electronic document 20 instructed to be printed directly from the PC 10 is a document protected by authentication information such as a password, the printing apparatus 14 tries a process for canceling the protection (S20). . When correct authentication information is input from the PC 10 corresponding to the electronic document 20, the protection is successfully released. Otherwise, the removal of protection fails. The printing apparatus 14 determines whether or not the cancellation is successful (S21). If the cancellation is successful, the electronic document 20 is printed (S22), and a print completion notification is transmitted to the signer as in the above embodiment. (S23). On the other hand, if the cancellation of the protection fails, the printing apparatus 14 does not print the electronic document 20, but notifies the signer that there is a print request for the protected document (S24). The notification in step S24 includes the document name of the electronic document 20 and an explanation that the document is protected and not printed. In addition, information such as the user who requested printing of the electronic document 20 and the time may be incorporated in this notification, as in the above embodiment.

  As illustrated above, not only the print completion notification but also the notification indicating that there was a print request and the notification indicating that the print was not performed are sent to the signer to protect the signer's rights. Can provide important information.

  In the above example, e-mail is used for notification to the signer, but other notification means such as an instant message may be used.

  In the above example, the printing apparatus 14 receives a print instruction from the user and makes various notifications to the signer of the electronic document. However, the same method can be applied to a system including a print server and a printing apparatus. . That is, in this system, the print server receives an instruction to print an electronic document, converts the electronic document into a data format (for example, PDL format or image data) that can be processed by the printing apparatus, and passes the conversion result to the printing apparatus. Print. The print server may verify the signature, or may perform a process of canceling the protection when the electronic document is protected such as encryption.

  In this case, the print server extracts an electronic signature attached to the electronic document and obtains subject information (for example, an e-mail address) included therein. When the print server receives a notification indicating completion of printing of the electronic document from the printing apparatus, the print server transmits a notification of completion of printing of the electronic document to a destination corresponding to the subject information. Of course, not only the print completion notification but also the various information described above can be notified. The information to be notified may be generated by processing of the printing apparatus (for example, printing completion or printing failure), may be generated by processing of the print server (for example, failure of signature verification, or fact of document modification found based thereon), or In some cases, the user receives a print instruction for a protected document. The processing procedure performed by the print server for notifying information to the signer of the electronic signature may be the same as that shown in FIG. 3 or FIG.

  In this case, the computer functioning as a print server has a circuit configuration in which a CPU (central processing unit), a memory (primary storage), various I / O (input / output) interfaces, and the like are connected via a bus as hardware. Have In addition, a hard disk drive, a drive for reading portable non-volatile recording media of various standards such as a CD, a DVD, and a flash memory is connected to the bus via, for example, an I / O interface. Such a drive functions as an external storage device for the memory. A program describing the processing contents of the above-described embodiment is stored in such an external storage device and installed in a computer. The program may be held in a ROM (read only memory) accessible from the CPU. The program stored in the external storage device is read into the memory and executed by the CPU, or the program on the ROM is executed from the CPU, whereby the processing of the above-described embodiment is realized. Information of the signer (subject) extracted from the electronic document by the processing is stored in the memory or the external storage device, and is referred to when information to be notified is generated.

It is a figure which shows the example of a structure of the system provided with the printing apparatus of embodiment. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a processing procedure of a printer driver for direct printing. It is a figure which shows the structure of the control part of the printing apparatus of embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the process sequence of the modification which notifies a signer of the modification of an electronic document. 14 is a flowchart illustrating a processing procedure of a modified example in which a signer is notified that there is a request for printing a protected electronic document.

Explanation of symbols

  10, 16 PC (personal computer), 12 network, 14 printing device, 32 data receiving unit, 34 switcher, 36 print data parser, 38 print data processing unit, 40 drawing command list processing unit, 42 drawing processing unit, 44 printing completed Notification processing unit, 46 Email transmission processing unit, 48 Document parser, 50 Document data processing unit, 52 Signature extraction unit, 54 Signature parser, 56 Destination setting unit

Claims (6)

A printing system for printing received electronic documents,
Subject information extraction means for extracting subject information of the electronic signature from the received electronic document;
Signature verification means for verifying the electronic signature attached to the electronic document;
Information notifying means for notifying the subject indicated by the subject information extracted by the subject information extracting means of information generated in the processing of the electronic document in the printing system;
Printing means for printing the electronic document;
Equipped with a,
The information notification means includes
If the electronic document verification by the signature verification unit is unsuccessful, and the electronic document is set to be printed, the content of the electronic document is altered after the printing unit prints the electronic document. A notification including information indicating that the information has been printed has been sent to the subject,
If the setting for allowing printing of the electronic document is not made when the verification of the electronic signature by the signature verification unit is unsuccessful, the signature verification is unsuccessful without printing the electronic document by the printing unit. Sending a notification containing information to the effect to the subject;
A printing system characterized by that . The printing system according to claim 1,
The information notifying means, when the subject information extracted by the subject information extracting means includes an email address of the subject, sends an email containing the information to the email address;
A printing system characterized by that. The printing system according to claim 1,
Authentication information receiving means for receiving an input of authentication information for releasing protection applied to the received electronic document,
If the protection applied to the received electronic document is not released by the authentication information received by the authentication information receiving unit , the information notification unit prints the electronic document without printing the electronic document. Sending a notification to the subject containing information that the request has been made;
A printing system characterized by that. The printing system according to claim 1,
The information notification means transmits a notification including information of an instructor who has instructed printing of the electronic document to the subject ;
A printing system characterized by that. An electronic document processing method executed in a printing system for printing a received electronic document,
Extracting Subject information of the electronic signature from the received electronic document,
A signature verification step of verifying the electronic signature attached to the electronic document;
An information notification step of notifying the subject indicated by the extracted subject information of information generated in the processing of the electronic document in the printing system ;
Including
In the information notification step,
If the electronic document verification is unsuccessful in the signature verification step and the electronic document is set to be printed, the content of the electronic document is modified after the printing of the electronic document by the printing system is completed. A notification including information indicating that the information has been printed has been sent to the subject,
If the setting for allowing printing of the electronic document is not made when the verification of the electronic signature by the signature verification step is unsuccessful, the signature verification is unsuccessful without printing the electronic document by the printing system. Sending a notification containing information to the effect to the subject;
An electronic document processing method characterized by the above . A program for causing a computer system to execute processing for causing a printing device to print a received electronic document,
Extracting Subject information of the electronic signature from the received electronic document,
A signature verification step of verifying the electronic signature attached to the electronic document;
An information notifying step for notifying the subject indicated by the extracted subject information of the information generated in the processing of the electronic document by the program or the printing processing of the electronic document in the printing apparatus ;
The A program for causing the computer to execute system,
In the information notification step,
If the electronic document is verified to be unsuccessfully verified in the signature verification step, the electronic document is modified after the printing apparatus finishes printing the electronic document. A notification including information indicating that the information has been printed has been sent to the subject,
If the setting for allowing printing of the electronic document is not made when the verification of the electronic signature by the signature verification step is unsuccessful, the signature verification is unsuccessful without printing the electronic document by the printing apparatus. Sending a notification containing information to the effect to the subject;
A program characterized by that .

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