Licensing duplicated systems

• US 20040054909A1
• Filed: 08/30/2002
• Published: 03/18/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 08/30/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Inventors: Serkowski, Robert J., Walker, William T.
• Granted Patent: US 7,216,363 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/176
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/10 Protecting distributed programs or content, e.g. vending or licensing of copyrighted material protection in video systems or pay television H04N7/16 ; Digital rights management [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/629 to features or functions of an application
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2137 Time limited access, e.g. to a computer or data

Abstract

The present invention is directed to a system, comprising: (i) first and second computational components 102a and b having, respectively, first and second unique identifiers; (ii) a license file 112 comprising third and fourth identifiers 212a and b respectively associated with the first and second computational components; (iii) a license manager 113 operable to (a) obtain, from the first and second computational components, the first and second unique identifiers, (b) access the license file to obtain the third and fourth identifiers, (c) compare each of the first and second unique identifiers with one or both of the third and fourth identifiers; and (iv) a mode setting agent 124 operable to permit the one or both of the first and second computational components to perform an operation, when both the first and second identifiers match one of the third and fourth identifiers, and not permit the first and second computational components to perform the operation, when only one of the first and second identifiers matches one of the third and fourth identifiers.

Claims

1. A method for protecting actuation of a computational component, comprising:

retrieving, from at least first and second computational components, at least first and second unique identifiers respectively associated with the at least first and second computational components;

accessing a license file to obtain at least third and fourth identifiers;

comparing each of the at least first and second unique identifiers with at least one of the at least third and fourth identifiers;

when both the first and second identifiers matches a respective one of the third and fourth identifiers, permitting at least one of the at least first and second computational components to perform an operation; and

when both of the first and second identifiers do not match a respective one of the third and fourth identifiers, not permitting the at least one of the at least first and second computational components to perform an operation.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the not permitting step is performed when only one of the first and second identifiers does not match one of the third and fourth identifiers and wherein in the not permitting step the at least one of the at least first and second computational components is permitted to execute a first set of instructions but not a second set of instructions.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving a first message from a third computational component requesting permission to execute and/or continue execution and wherein the obtaining, accessing and comparing steps are performed in response to the first message.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the third computational component is one of a plurality of controlled applications, wherein the first message requests permission to continue execution and/or execute identification of ones of a plurality of features that are to be provided by the one of the plurality of controlled applications, wherein the first and 5 second computational components are respectively first and second processors and at least one of the first and second processors will execute the one of the plurality of controlled applications, and wherein the third and fourth identifiers are associated with the first and second processors.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein each of the permitting and not permitting steps comprises sending a second message to the third computational component indicating whether or not the third computational component can execute.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the license file comprises a plurality of unique identifiers associated with computational components, a duplication flag, a platform type, and a platform identifier.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein the license file comprises a plurality of controlled application definitions, each application definition corresponding to one of the plurality of controlled applications.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein each of the controlled application definitions comprises release information, license expiration information, and one or more types feature keyword information.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the permitting step comprises the step of setting an operational mode of at least one of the at least first and second computational components to a license normal mode and wherein the not permitting step comprises the step of setting an operational mode of at least one of the at least first and second computational components to one of a license error mode and a no license mode.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the not permitting step comprises the steps of:

setting the operational mode of the at least one of the at least first and second computational components to the license error mode; and

after a predetermined time, if the license error mode is not changed to the license-normal mode setting the operational mode of the at least one of the at least first and second computational components to the no-license mode.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether or not a duplication flag is set.

12. The method of claim 4, wherein the step of sending comprises the step of including a first version number of the one of the plurality of controlled applications in the first message, wherein the step of accessing comprises the step of reading a second version number from the license file of a set of the plurality of controlled applications that are allowed to execute on the at least one of the first and second processors defined by one of the first and second identifiers, wherein the step of comparing further compares the first version number with the second version number, and wherein the step of permitting further requires the first and second version numbers to match.

13. A computer readable medium storing instructions for performing the steps of claim 1.

14. An apparatus for performing the method of claim 1.

15. A system for protecting actuation of a computational component, comprising:

means for obtaining, from at least first and second computational components, at least first and second unique identifiers respectively associated with the at least first and second computational components;

means for accessing a license file to obtain at least third and fourth identifiers;

means for comparing each of the at least first and second unique identifiers with at least one of the at least third and fourth identifiers;

means for, when both the first and second identifiers matches a respective one of the third and fourth identifiers, permitting at least one of the at least first and second computational components to perform an operation and, when both of the first and second identifiers do not match a respective one of the third and fourth identifiers, not permitting the at least one of the at least first and second computational components to perform the operation.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the means for permitting and not permitting performs the not permitting step when only one of the first and second identifiers does not match and permits the at least one of the at least first and second computational components to execute a first set of instructions but not a second set of instructions.

17. The system of claim 15, further comprising:

means for receiving a first message from a third computational component requesting permission to execute and/or continue execution and wherein the obtaining, accessing and comparing steps are performed in response to the first message.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the third computational component is one of a plurality of controlled applications, wherein the first message requests permission to continue execution and/or execute identification of ones of a plurality of features that are to be provided by the one of the plurality of controlled applications, wherein the first and second computational components are respectively first and second processors and at least one of the first and second processors will execute the one of the plurality of controlled applications, and wherein the third and fourth identifiers are associated with the first and second processors.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the means for permitting and not permitting sends a second message to the third computational component indicating whether or not the third computational component can execute.

20. The system of claim 15, wherein the license file comprises a plurality of unique identifiers associated with computational components, a duplication flag, a platform type, and a platform identifier.

21. The system of claim 18, wherein the license file comprises a plurality of controlled application definitions, each application definition corresponding to one of the plurality of controlled applications.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein each of the controlled application definitions comprises release information, license expiration information, and one or more types feature keyword information.

23. The system of claim 15, wherein the for permitting and not permitting sets a first operation of at least one of the at least first and second computational components to a license normal-mode and a different, second operation of at least one of the at least first and second computational components to one of a license-error mode and a no-license mode.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein the means for permitting and not permitting sets an operational mode of the at least one of the at least first and second computational components to the license-error mode and, after a predetermined time, if the license-error mode is not changed to the license-normal mode sets the operational mode of the at least one of the at least first and second computational components to the no-license mode.

25. The system of claim 15, further comprising:

means for determining whether or not a duplication flag is set.

26. The system of claim 18, wherein the first message includes a first version number of the one of the plurality of controlled applications, wherein the accessing means reads a second version number from the license file of a set of the plurality of controlled applications that are allowed to execute on the at least one of the first and second processors defined by one of the first and second identifiers, wherein the comparing means further compares the first version number with the second version number, and wherein the means for permitting or not permitting further requires the first and second version numbers to match to permit the at least one of the at least first and second computational components to perform the operation.

27. A system for protecting actuation of a computational component, comprising:

at least first and second computational components having, respectively, at least first and second unique identifiers;

a license file comprising at least third and fourth identifiers;

a license manager operable to retrieve, from the at least first and second computational components, the at least first and second unique identifiers, access the license file to obtain the at least third and fourth identifiers, compare each of the at least first and second identifiers with at least one of the at least third and fourth identifiers; and

a mode setting agent operable to permit the at least one of the at least first and second computational components to perform an operation, when both the first and second identifiers match a respective one of the third and fourth identifiers, and not permit the at least one of the at least first and second computational components to perform the operation, when both of the first and second identifiers do not match a respective one of the third and fourth identifiers.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein the mode setting agent does not permit the at least one of the first and second computational components to perform the operation when only one of the first and second identifiers does not match one of the third and fourth identifiers and permits the at least one of the at least first and second computational components to execute a first set of instructions but not a second set of instructions.

29. The system of claim 27, further comprising:

an input operable to receive a first message from the mode setting agent requesting permission to execute and/or continue execution and wherein the license manager performs the obtaining, accessing and comparing steps are performed in response to the first message.

30. The system of claim 29, wherein the operation is associate with a plurality of controlled applications, wherein the first message requests permission to continue execution and/or execute identification of ones of a plurality of features that are to be provided by the one of the plurality of controlled applications, wherein the first and second computational components are respectively first and second processors and at least one of the first and second processors will execute the one of the plurality of controlled applications, and wherein the third and fourth identifiers are associated with the first and second processors.

31. The system of claim 29, wherein the license manager sends a second message to the mode setting agent indicating whether or not the operation can be performed.

32. The system of claim 27, wherein the license file comprises a plurality of unique identifiers associated with computational components, a duplication flag, a platform type, and a platform identifier.

33. The system of claim 30, wherein the license file comprises a plurality of controlled application definitions, each controlled application definition corresponding to one of the plurality of controlled applications.

34. The system of claim 32, wherein each of the application definitions comprises software name and/or release information, license expiration information, and one or more types feature keyword information.

35. The system of claim 27, wherein the mode setting agent is operable to set a first operation of at least one of the at least first and second computational components to a license normal mode and set a different, second operation of at least one of the at least first and second computational components to one of a license error mode and a license-error mode.

36. The system of claim 27, wherein the mode setting agent is operable to set an operational mode of the at least one of the at least first and second computational components to the license-error mode and, after a predetermined time if the license-error mode is not changed to a license-normal mode, set the operational mode of the at least one of the at least first and second computational components to a no-license mode and wherein a common set of call processing functions are enabled in the license-normal and license-error modes and wherein at least some of the call processing functions in the set of call processing functions are disabled in the no-license mode.

37. The system of claim 27, wherein the license manager is operable to determine whether or not a duplication flag is set.

38. The system of claim 30, wherein the first message includes a first version number of the one of the plurality of controlled applications, wherein the license manager is operable to read a second version number from the license file of a set of the plurality of controlled applications that are allowed to execute on the at least one of the first and second processors defined by one of the first and second identifiers, wherein the license manager is operable to compare the first version number with the second version number, and wherein the license manager further requires the first and second version numbers to match to permit the at least one of the at least first and second computational components to perform the operation.

39. A license file for use in controlling activation of a computational component, comprising:

at least one unique identifier corresponding to at least a first computational component and

a duplication flag indicating whether or not a computational system associated with the first computational component is a duplicated system.

40. The license file of claim 39, further comprising at least a second unique identifier corresponding to at least a second computational component.

41. The license file of claim 39, further comprising at least one application definition comprising expiration information relating to expiration of a license associated with the license file, release information, and feature keyword information.

42. The license file of claim 39, further comprising platform-type information and a platform identifier.