Method and apparatus for metering usage of software products using multiple signatures

• US 20060021061A1
• Filed: 06/28/2005
• Published: 01/26/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 07/07/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Pastorelli, Bernardo, Carbone, Giancarlo, Cerri, Fabio, Marinella, Calogero Bufalino, Censi, Francesco
• Granted Patent: US 7,860,239 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/26
• 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 2221/2137 Time limited access, e.g. to a computer or data

Abstract

A method and a corresponding apparatus (200) for metering usage of software products on a computer are proposed. The solution of the invention is based on the idea of associating (225) each product with an installation signature (indicative of the installation of the product on the computer) and with a running signature (indicative of the running of the product on the computer). The products that are installed on the computer are asynchronously determined (235) according to their installation signatures; in this way, any ambiguities (for example, caused by different versions and/or configurations of a product sharing the same executable modules) can be resolved in advance. Therefore, when at run-time the invocation of an executable module is detected (245) it is possible to use only the running signatures to identify the corresponding product uniquely (without the need of additional information about the executable module, such as its size).

Claims

1. A method of metering usage of software products on a data processing system, the method including the steps of:

associating each product with an installation signature indicative of the installation of the product on the system and with a running signature indicative of the running of the product on the system,

detecting that a product has been launched on the system, and

identifying the launched product according to a combination of the installation signature and the running signature.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of identifying the launched product includes:

determining the products installed on the system according to the corresponding installation signatures, and

determining the launched product among the installed products according to the corresponding running signature.

3. The method according to claim 2, further including the steps of:

providing a global catalogue, for each product the global catalogue specifying the corresponding installation signature and running signature,

extracting a reduced catalogue from the global catalogue, for each installed product the reduced catalogue specifying the corresponding running signature, and

accessing the reduced catalogue to identify the launched product.

4. The method according to any claim from 1, wherein at least one of the running signatures is associated with a plurality of products.

5. The method according to any claim from 1, wherein each installation signature includes an indication of at least one condition, the corresponding product being considered installed on the system when each one of the at least one condition is satisfied.

6. The method according to any claim from 1, wherein each running signature includes an indication of at least one executable module, the corresponding product being considered running on the system when one of the at least one executable module is invoked.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein each executable module is identified by a corresponding name.

8. A computer program including program code means directly loadable into a working memory of a data processing system for performing the method of any claim from 1 when the program is run on the system.

9. A program product including a computer readable medium embodying the program of claim 8.

10. An apparatus for metering usage of software products on a data processing system, the apparatus including:

means for associating each product with an installation signature indicative of the installation of the product on the system and with a running signature indicative of the running of the product on the system,

means for detecting that a product has been launched on the system, and

means for identifying the launched product according to a combination of the installation signature and the running signature.