Extracting information from software

• US 20030070164A1
• Filed: 10/04/2001
• Published: 04/10/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 10/04/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Berstis, Viktors
• Granted Patent: US 7,392,517 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/178
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/125 by manipulating the program code, e.g. source code, compiled code, interpreted code, machine code
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/16 Program or content traceability, e.g. by watermarking

Abstract

A method and implementing computer system are provided in which selected information is embedded within computer program structures without requiring separate bit strings. In an exemplary embodiment, the embedded selected information includes an identification of a licensed user together with a serial number of the associated licensed program. That information is converted into a binary representation, and a transfer function is used to embed the binary representation into the structure of the licensed program. In the example, when a licensed program is compiled, linked and downloaded over an interconnection network, the order or sequence of the modules of the licensed program is arranged in a manner to correspond to the embedded selected information. The embedded information can then be extracted from the program by analysis of the organization of the modules comprising the program.

Claims

1. A method for extracting information from a software package, said software package including a number of software modules, said method comprising:

determining an organization of said software modules within said software package; and

extracting said information from said organization of said software package.

2. The method as set forth in claim 1 wherein said software package comprises software modules coupled together in a manner representative of said information.

3. The method as set forth in claim 2 wherein said software modules are coupled together by compiling said software modules into an executable form of said software package.

4. The method as set forth in claim 2 wherein said software modules are coupled together by linking said software modules into an executable form of said software package.

5. The method as set forth in claim 1 and further including:

analyzing said software package to determine an organizational relationship among said software modules; and

determining a first format from said organizational relationship of said software modules.

6. The method as set forth in claim 1 and further including transmitting said organization over a network to a requesting terminal, said requesting terminal being enabled to extract said information from said organization of said software package.

7. The method as set forth in claim 6 wherein said software package is transmitted from a user terminal over an Internet network to a server.

8. The method as set forth in claim 6 wherein said user terminal is a wireless device.

9. The method as set forth in claim 6 wherein said user terminal is a personal computer system.

10. The method as set forth in claim 1 wherein said information includes an identification of a user of said software package.

11. The method as set forth in claim 1 wherein said information includes an identifying number related to said software package.

12. The method as set forth in claim 11 wherein said information further includes an identification of a user of said software package.

13. The method as set forth in claim 1 wherein said software modules are organized in a series of sets of software modules, each of said sets comprising a predetermined number of software modules.

14. The method as set forth in claim 13 wherein said first format is a binary format, and each of said sets comprises first and second software modules, said first format being determined in accordance with an order of sequence of said first and second software modules within said sets of said software modules.

15. The method as set forth in claim 13 wherein said first format is other than a binary format, each of said sets comprising a number of said software modules other than two, said first format being determined according to an order in which said number of software modules are sequenced within said sets of software modules.

16. A medium including machine readable coded indicia, said machine readable coded indicia being selectively operable in combination with a processing circuit for extracting embedded information from a software package by determining an organization of said software package, said software package being organized into a number of software modules wherein relationships between said software modules are representative of said information embedded within said software package.

17. The medium as set forth in claim 16 wherein said medium is an optically encoded disk.

18. The medium as set forth in claim 16 wherein said medium is a magnetically encoded magnetic diskette.

19. The medium as set forth in claim 16 wherein said software package resides on a storage device within a computer device.

20. The medium as set forth in claim 16 wherein software package resides on a memory device within a computer device.

21. The medium as set forth in claim 16 wherein said predetermined information includes an identification of a user of said software package.

22. The medium as set forth in claim 16 wherein said information includes an identifying number related to said software package.

23. The medium as set forth in claim 22 wherein said information further includes an identification of a user of said software package.

24. A network arranged to enable extracting of organizational information of an organization of software modules within a software package at a user terminal and transferring said organizational information to a server for use in deriving information embedded within said organizational information, said network comprising:

a user terminal at which said software package resides;

a server; and

an interconnection between said server and said user terminal, said user terminal being responsive to a request to upload said organizational information of said software package for determining said organizational information and transferring said organizational information to said server.