LICENSE MANAGEMENT APPARATUS, LICENSE MANAGEMENT METHOD, AND COMPUTER READABLE MEDIUM

• US 20100169982A1
• Filed: 04/16/2009
• Published: 07/01/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/25/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fujifilm Business Innovation Corp. (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Fuji Xerox Company Limited (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Inventors: Kyojima, Masaki, KAKEHI, Rumiko
• Granted Patent: US 8,799,321 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/28
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/105 Arrangements for software license management or administration, e.g. for managing licenses at corporate level
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 2220/18 Licensing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/10 for controlling access to devices or network resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/101 Access control lists [ACL]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/104 Grouping of entities

Abstract

A license management apparatus includes: a license information storage; a reproduced user information storage; an invalidation information storage; a compare unit; an update unit; and a setting unit.

Claims

1. A license management apparatus comprising:

a license information storage that stores license information generated for each license issued to a user;

a reproduced user information storage that stores user information managed by a user management apparatus or reproduced user information consisting of a reproduced version of a portion of the user information in such a manner that change content information for specifying content of a change executed on the user information is made to correspond to the user information;

an invalidation information storage that associates each of pieces of the content change information with license invalidation rules generated due to the change made on the user information, and that stores the each of pieces of the content change information associated with the license invalidation rules;

a compare unit that obtains user information corresponding to the reproduced user information stored in the reproduced user information storage from the user management apparatus, and that compares the obtained user information with the reproduced user information;

an update unit that, when a comparison result obtained by the compare unit shows that the user information and the reproduced user information do not coincide with each other, specifies the content of the change made on the user information, and that, according to not only the content change information corresponding to the specified content change but also the user information, updates the content change information and the reproduced user information stored in the reproduced user information storage; and

a setting unit that, of the each of pieces of license information stored in the license information storage, sets the license information invalid according to an invalidation rule corresponding to the change content information updated by the update unit with reference to the invalidation information storage.

2. The license management apparatus as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

a policy storage that stores a policy set by the user;

an accept unit that accepts a license authentication request including at least user identification information and license identification information;

a check unit that, according to the user identification information and the license identification information included in the license authentication request, checks whether the license is valid by searching the license information storage;

an obtain unit that, when the license is set as an invalidity by the setting unit, obtains a policy set by the user by searching the policy storage according to the user identification information included in the license authentication request;

a determine unit that, according to the policy obtained by the obtain unit, determines whether the license can be issued;

an issue unit that, when the determine unit determines that the license can be issued, issues the license; and

a registration unit that registers license information about the license issued by the issue unit in the license information storage.

3. The license management apparatus as claimed in claim 1,

wherein

the license information storage stores, for each license, validity setting information expressing validity of the license in such a manner that it is made to correspond to the license, and

the setting unit invalidates the corresponding license information by setting information expressing invalidity in the validity setting information.

4. A license management method comprising:

storing license information generated for each license issued to a user;

storing user information managed by a user management apparatus or reproduced user information consisting of a reproduced version of a portion of the user information in such a manner that change content information for specifying content of a change executed on the user information is made to correspond to the user information;

associating each of pieces of the content change information with license invalidation rules generated due to the change made on the user information, and that stores the each of pieces of the content change information associated with the license invalidation rules;

obtaining user information corresponding to the reproduced user information from the user management apparatus, and that compares the obtained user information with the reproduced user information;

specifying, when a comparison result shows that the user information and the reproduced user information do not coincide with each other, the content of the change made on the user information, and updating, according to not only the content change information corresponding to the specified content change but also the user information, the content change information and the reproduced user information; and

setting, of the each of pieces of license information, the license information invalid according to an invalidation rule corresponding to the change content information.

5. A computer readable medium storing a program causing a computer to execute a process for managing license information, the process comprising:

storing the license information generated for each license issued to a user;

storing user information managed by a user management apparatus or reproduced user information consisting of a reproduced version of a portion of the user information in such a manner that change content information for specifying content of a change executed on the user information is made to correspond to the user information;

associating each of pieces of the content change information with license invalidation rules generated due to the change made on the user information, and that stores the each of pieces of the content change information associated with the license invalidation rules;

obtaining user information corresponding to the reproduced user information from the user management apparatus, and that compares the obtained user information with the reproduced user information;

specifying, when a comparison result shows that the user information and the reproduced user information do not coincide with each other, the content of the change made on the user information, and updating, according to not only the content change information corresponding to the specified content change but also the user information, the content change information and the reproduced user information; and

setting, of the each of pieces of license information, the license information invalid according to an invalidation rule corresponding to the change content information.