Information processing apparatus and method and recording medium

• US 6,820,200 B2
• Filed: 04/24/1998
• Issued: 11/16/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/1997
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Nanba, Shinji, Takeuchi, Akikazu
• Primary Examiner(s): Barrón, Gilberto
• Assistant Examiner(s): MEISLAHN, DOUGLAS J
• Application Number:
  US09/065,432
• Publication Number:
  US 20020046345A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,398 Days
• Field of Search: 713/176, 713/179, 713/187, 713/188, 705/59
• US Class Current: 713/179
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/121 Restricting unauthorised execution of programs
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2211/008 Public Key, Asymmetric Key, Asymmetric Encryption

Abstract

An application program that was encrypted by using a predetermined secret key is input to an input section that is a part of a program execution system, and encrypted sentences as the encrypted application program are supplied to a decoding section as they are. The decoding section is supplied not only with the encrypted sentences from the input section but also with a publicized key corresponding to a secret key that was used in generating the encrypted sentences. The decoding section decodes the encrypted sentences by using the publicized key and supplies Java byte codes as a decoding result to a Java virtual machine. The Java virtual machine interprets and executes the Java byte codes that are supplied from the decoding section.

Claims

1. An information processing system which executes a process for executing a program, comprising:

transmitting means for transmitting by a software developer the program and software developer identification information to a program certificate authority center;

encrypting and certifying means included in the program certificate authority center for encrypting and certifying the transmitted program, based on the software developer identification information, as being licensed to execute in a predetermined proprietary program execution environment in which the program was developed, and for sending to the software developer an encrypted and certified version of the program;

receiving means included in a user terminal for receiving the encrypted and certified version of the program from the software developer;

decoding means included in the user terminal for decoding the received encrypted and certified version of the program using a decode key and outputting the decoded program; and

executing means included in the user terminal for executing the decoded program that is output from the decoding means.

2. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the decoding means decodes the encrypted version of the program by using a predetermined decode key corresponding to a predetermined encryption key that was used for encrypting the program.

3. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a predetermined decode key corresponding to an encryption key that was used for encrypting the program, wherein the decoding means decodes the encrypted version of the program by using the predetermined decode key.

4. An information processing method for executing a process for executing a program, comprising the steps of:

transmitting by a software developer the program and software developer identification information to a program certificate authority center;

encrypting and certifying at the program certificate authority center the transmitted program, based on the software developer identification information, as being licensed to execute in a predetermined proprietary program execution environment in which the program was developed, and sending to the software developer an encrypted and certified version of the program;

receiving at a user terminal the encrypted and certified version of the program from the software developer;

decoding in the user terminal the received encrypted and certified version of the program using a decode key; and

executing in the user terminal the decoded program that is obtained by the step of decoding.