Digital product execution control - Patent Review 6073256

What is claimed is:

1. A method of manufacturing a digital product, said method comprising the steps:

a first manufacturing step providing said digital product in an original form including an original executable file, said original executable file upon loading for execution by a given computing device and given operating system would cause establishment in said computing device of a first operating environment including access to at least one of a start address, an external function, and a relocatable table necessary for execution of said original executable file and upon executing would present said digital product; and

a second manufacturing step following said first manufacturing step and modifying said original executable file to provide a controlled form of said digital product including a controlled executable file, said modifying including attaching to said original executable file execution control programming whereby upon loading for execution by said given computing device and said given operating system said controlled executable file causes establishment in said computing device of a second operating environment excluding said access to at least one of said start address, said external function, and said relocatable table and thereby insufficient to allow execution of said original executable file in presentation of said digital product but sufficient to allow execution of said controlled executable file, said control programming further including programming selectively allowing presentation of said digital product, upon selecting to allow presentation of said digital product said control programming establishing said first operating environment in said computing device and passing execution control to a start address of said original executable file.

2. A method according to claim 1 wherein said first operating environment comprises references in memory devices of said computing device corresponding to functions external of said original executable file and called by said first executable file.

3. A method according to claim 2 wherein said functions are utility functions provided by at least one of said operating system and said digital product in said original form.

4. A method according to claim 1 wherein said second operating environment comprises references in memory devices of said computing device corresponding to programming functions external of said execution control programming.

5. A method according to claim 1 wherein said control programming emulates a load procedure normally executed by said given operating system when said control programming selects to allow presentation of said digital product.

6. A method according to claim 1 wherein said selectively allowing execution of said original executable digital product step comprises reference to an allowed execution condition established for an evaluation use of said digital product.

7. A method according to claim 6 wherein said execution condition corresponds to a time period.

8. A method according to claim 6 wherein said execution condition corresponds to an allowed number of executions.

9. A method of execution control relative to an original executable digital product, said original executable digital product causing, when loaded for execution on a given computing device by a given operating system, establishment of a first operating environment necessary for execution of said original executable digital product, said first operating environment including access to at least one of a first start address, an external function, and a relocatable table, said method comprising the steps:

attaching control programming to said original executable digital product to provide a controlled executable digital product, said controlled executable digital product causing when loaded for execution on said given computing device by said given operating system establishment of a second operating environment, said second operating environment including a second start address, said second operating environment excluding said access to at least one of said first start address, said external function, and said relocatable table and thereby being insufficient for execution of said original executable digital product, said control programming selectively allowing execution of said original executable digital product by selectively establishing said first operating environment and selectively passing execution control to said first start address following selective establishment of said first operating environment.

10. A method according to claim 9 wherein said first operating environment comprises references in memory devices of said computing device corresponding to functions external of said original executable file and called by said first executable file.

11. A method according to claim 10 wherein said functions are utility functions provided by at least one of said operating system and said original executable digital product.

12. A method according to claim 9 wherein said second operating environment comprises references in memory devices of said computing device corresponding to programming functions external of said execution control programming.

13. A method according to claim 9 wherein said control programming emulates a load procedure normally executed by said given operating system when allowing presentation of said original executable digital product.

14. A method according to claim 9 wherein said selectively allowing execution of said original executable digital product step comprises reference to an allowed condition established for an evaluation use of said digital product.

15. A method according to claim 14 wherein said execution condition corresponds to a time period.

16. A method according to claim 14 wherein said execution condition corresponds to an allowed number of executions.

17. A controlled digital product, said controlled digital product including and selectively executing an original digital product as provided by an original product manufacturer, said controlled digital product comprising:

a first executable portion comprising programming presenting said original digital product, said first executable portion requiring for execution on a given computing device and given operating system a first operating environment, said first operating environment including access to a first start address as a step in said first executable portion first receiving execution control upon execution of said first executable;

a second executable portion attached to said first executable portion in modification thereof and thereby causing upon loading for execution on said computing device by said operating system establishment of a second operating environment, said second operating environment including indication of a second start address as a step in said second executable portion first receiving execution control, said second operating environment excluding said access to said first start address and thereby being insufficient to allow execution of said first executable portion, said second executable portion selectively allowing execution of said first executable portion by selectively establishing said first operating environment and selectively passing execution control to said first start address.

18. A controlled digital product according to claim 17 wherein said first operating environment comprises references in memory devices of said computing device corresponding to functions external of said first executable portion and called by said first executable file.

19. A controlled digital product according to claim 18 wherein said functions are utility functions provided by at least one of said operating system and said first executionable component.

20. A controlled digital product according to claim 17 wherein said second operating environment comprises references in memory devices of said computing device corresponding to programming functions external of said second executable portion.

21. A controlled digital product according to claim 17 wherein said second executable emulates a load procedure normally executed by said given operating system when loading said first executable portion.

22. A controlled digital product according to claim 17 wherein said selectively allowing execution of said first executable portion comprises reference to an allowed condition established for an evaluation use of said digital product.

23. A controlled digital product according to claim 22 wherein said execution condition corresponds to a time period.

24. A controlled digital product according to claim 22 wherein said execution condition corresponds to an allowed number of executions.

25. A controlled digital product according to claim 17 wherein said first executable portion is integral to said second executable portion.

Description Submit all comments and votes

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to product production and distribution, and particularly to digital product production and distribution including distribution of digital products in an execution controlled form.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Digital products, e.g., computer software and data, have been published

widely through a variety of methods and mediums. Publishers have sold and distributed digital products like other products, e.g., packaged and available at retail outlets or through catalog and mail-order delivery. The nature of digital products, however, lends itself to non-traditional methods of distribution. Because common devices, e.g., personal computers and modems, duplicate digital material without degradation, consumers can copy and distribute reliably most digital products. Examples include shareware and distribution by modem via computer bulletin boards or the well-known Internet global communication medium. A second popular digital product distribution mechanism is CD-ROM, a relatively inexpensive medium having vast storage capacity, allowing publishers to distribute on a single disk a large volume of digital material including supporting documentation and manuals.

Such methods of broad distribution attract both publishers and end-users of digital products. Widespread distribution of fully functional digital products occurs accurately and without significant cost to the publisher. End-users access a variety of products for comparison with opportunity to actually try each product before making a decision to purchase. In essence, the end-user receives the fully functional digital product as an offer to purchase based on an opportunity to fully evaluate the actual product. The publisher profits when the evaluation process yields sufficient purchasers. This "try-before-you-buy" distribution mechanism is especially attractive in the context of global communication networks such the Internet where distribution occurs globally at minimal cost and where an enormous number of potential purchasers of digital products interact.

Unfortunately, the ability to accurately copy and make use of digital products lends itself to unauthorized use of digital products by unauthorized users. For example, persons using the digital product fully and indefinitely beyond an initial evaluation period take value from the publisher. Digital products may be easily reproduced and the publisher can take advantage of this characteristic as a distribution mechanism, however, the publisher risks unauthorized use and lost sales under such a distribution mechanism without some form of control over product execution. The digital product publisher taking advantage of such broad distribution schemes must implement some form of control to prevent unauthorized use of the digital product while still making the product widely available for consumer-evaluation.

Early attempts to control use of published digital products included distribution of an "evaluation" copy of a digital product. The evaluation copy, "diminished" relative to the actual product, introduced the consumer to the product, but wouldn't allow or even include code supporting fully functional use. To produce the evaluation copy, the product author, e.g., programmer, would rewrite the product in an alternate, i.e., less functional, form. In such product re-design process, difficult issues arose with respect to the degree of inoperability established relative to the fully operational form of the product. Furthermore, a consumer wishing to purchase the product following trial use of the evaluation copy had to obtain a fully functional version through traditional, e.g., retail, distribution mechanisms.

A second, but only slightly more successful, approach contemplated distribution of a "crippled" form of the fully functional product. Distribution material would include a fully functional digital product, but also safeguards incorporated into the product to prevent fully functional use until authorization, i.e., purchase, occurred. For example, a word processing program could not, in its crippled form, print a document or save a document to disk. When, following an evaluation period, the user decided to purchase the product, a purchase procedure "de-crippled" the product for fully functional use. For example, the purchaser received a "key", i.e., a predetermined coded value, required to convert the crippled form of the product to a truly fully functional form. The consumer need not physically obtain a new copy of the product at the time of purchase.

Unfortunately, users demand a truly fully functional form of the product during the evaluation period. To meet such user demand, providers of digital content now distribute a fully functional form of the digital product for evaluation, yet control in some manner the use of the product to prevent unauthorized use, i.e., prevent use beyond an allowed trial evaluation.

A "metering" mechanism used in association with a published "try before you buy" digital product places a limitation on a potential purchaser's use of the digital product. A metering mechanism is required for distribution of a fully functional version of a digital product. Otherwise, the potential purchaser has no reason to become an actual purchaser. A metering limitation might include a time period of allowed use followed by a purchase requirement for continued use. Another common metering limitation is a limited number of uses, e.g., limited number of executions, followed by a purchase requirement for continued use. Important to note, during evaluation the potential purchaser has full use of the product.

Unfortunately, converting a fully functional digital product to a metered form for distribution introduces not only a new and significant production step, but also introduces an opportunity to create flaws or "bugs" in the product. This also tends to introduce complexity into the published product not related to operation of the product itself as designed by the software developer, but complexity as related to implementation of a reliable metering function.

As digital products evolve, especially computer program products, overall size and complexity increase. Software developers hesitate to implement quick solutions for known problems, fearing introduction of yet additional problems. A particular condition or "bug" sometimes requires many specific ordered steps to manifest itself. Software developers use sophisticated software testing scripts providing repeatable recursion testing for past or known "bugs" to insure the quality of the latest version of a given program. Developers endeavor to minimize the resource usage of their products and to keep the size of the programs as small as possible. This can be an especially sensitive problem if the proposed growth of a product requires an increase in the number or type of distribution medium, e.g., adding an additional diskette to a software product is considered a costly requirement.

The need to produce a fully functional demonstration version of a product, i.e., a "try before you buy" version of a product, normally introduces a higher order magnitude of difficulty. Creating a "crippled" version of the full-functioning product and/or controlling usage and maintaining version control of both the crippled version and the non-crippled version is a daunting task, not to mention the need to execute elaborate, e.g., recursion, testing of both versions of the product. In essence, the manufacturer must provide two products instead of one, i.e., doubles the product inventory and associated testing and product management.

Most solutions for such problems faced by software developers require extensive involvement of software programmers, quality control labs, version/source control managers and, most importantly, time. Any "automated" solution to metering or to execution control usually requires the original software programmers to reprogram their final product to utilize the "automated" solution. The "automated" solution is usually in the form of additional development software provided by a third party that needs to be integrated with a final product via programming. This type of solution is commonly referred to as an "SDK" (software development kit) approach. An SDK approach to metering, however, introduces complexity and potential for programming errors unrelated to operation of the product itself. Further, and far from trivial, the use of an SDK approach adds time and cost to the development cycle.

Developers of digital products prefer to simply create the digital product without limitation or additional production steps unrelated to use and operation of the fully functional form of the product. In other words, it is difficult enough to produce a fully functional form of the product as designed without the additional complexity of incorporating safeguards against unauthorized use beyond a trial evaluation.

Thus, distribution of digital products according to the "try before you buy" method should not require that the creator of the digital product modify its design to meet a particular distribution scheme. At present, "try before you buy" distribution schemes typically require some modification of the digital product by the original developer to implement distribution in a metered form, i.e., a controllable form allowing distribution and evaluation of a fully functional product but not allowing long term use.

Ideally, digital products are produced without use limitations or safeguards, leaving the creator of the digital product exclusively to the task of implementing the digital product itself. The present invention allows a creator of a digital product to concentrate on the product itself without requiring the creator to incorporate safeguards or limitations against unauthorized use.

Digital product distribution according to the "try before you buy" distribution method is an example of a need to impose execution control over a digital product. Such execution control has nothing to do with the digital product as designed, but represents an auxiliary feature imposed upon the product and unrelated to the product's operation or function as designed. Other forms of execution control, i.e., other forms unrelated to product execution as designed, include encryption and decryption functions applied for security purposes, compression and decompression functions to conserve media storage space, long term metering of usage for billing purposes or license usage enforcement, and interfacing with other programs or systems or controlling agents to enforce ongoing authorization of use. Generally, these auxiliary control features imposed upon a digital product have purposes unrelated to the execution of the digital product as designed, but rather are imposed for other reasons.

Thus, it is desirable to impose execution control over a digital product, but undesirable to require that such execution control be integrated into the design and production of the digital product. The subject matter of the present invention advantageously isolates digital product design from imposition of auxiliary execution control.

One form or mechanism for imposing control over the execution of an application has previously been available through the use of "TSR" (terminate and stay resident) programs. A TSR program loads into a computer and remains available while any other application might be called upon to run. A TSR is normally thought of as a "DOS"-based facility, but it can provide similar services for Windows (TM) based applications as well. A Windows (TM) "device driver" or "VxD" (virtual device driver) can provide similar services only for Windows (TM)-based applications. However, the use of such TSRs or VxDs to provide execution control, e.g., for metering, is impractical because there is no mechanism to enforce the presence of such a control. The control device must accompany the application to be metered. And more importantly, it is mandatory that it be done in such fashion that metering cannot be avoided, i.e., that the application cannot run unless the metering function or control device permits it. Generally, TSRs and VxDs cannot guarantee such execution control.

Thus, there remains need for improvement in the area of execution control over existing applications. Execution control can be designed into an application. The application designer, however, most preferably ignores any such auxiliary control issues and designs the product strictly according to its intended function. Auxiliary control, preferably, is imposed upon the digital product in its final form as produced according to its design without reference to any such auxiliary control in its original design. The subject matter of the present invention provides a mechanism for imposition of execution control over an application without requiring that the application design include such control features. Under the present invention, the application may be first designed and manufactured to final form as intended with execution control imposed subsequently upon the digital product as taken in its final form.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A method of manufacturing a digital product according to the present invention includes a first manufacturing step providing the digital product in an original form including an original executable file. The original executable file upon loading for execution, causes establishment of a first operating environment necessary for execution of the original executable file. A second manufacturing step modifies the original executable file to provide a controlled form of the digital product including a controlled executable file. The controlled executable file upon loading for execution causes establishment of a second operating environment, insufficient for operation of the original executable file. The controlled executable file then selectively allows execution of the original executable file, including establishment of the first operating environment necessary for execution of the original executable file.

A method of execution control relative to an original executable digital product under the present invention may be applied to an original executable digital product causing, when loaded for execution on a given computing device by a given operating system, establishment of a first operating environment necessary for execution of the original executable digital product. By attaching control programming to the original executable digital product, a controlled executable digital product is created and provides execution control under the present invention. The controlled executable digital product when loaded for execution creates a second operating environment, insufficient for operating of the original executable digital product. The control programming selectively allows execution of the original executable digital product by selectively establishing the first operating environment and selectively passing execution control to a start address indicated in the original executable digital product.

A controlled digital product under the present invention includes a first executable portion comprising programming presenting an original digital product. The first executable portion requires for execution on a given computing device and given operating system a first operating environment and a start address. A second executable portion attaches to the first executable portion in modification thereof and thereby causes upon loading for execution establishment of a second operating environment, insufficient for execution of the first executable portion. The second executable portion selectively allows execution of the first executable portion by selectively establishing the first operating environment and selectively passing execution control to the start address indicated in the first executable portion.

The subject matter of the present invention is particularly pointed out and distinctly claimed in the concluding portion of this specification. However, both the organization and method of operation of the invention, together with further advantages and objects thereof, may best be understood by reference to the following description taken with the accompanying drawings wherein like reference characters refer to like elements.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

For a better understanding of the invention, and to show how the same may be carried into effect, reference will now be made, by way of example, to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a flow chart illustrating production and distribution of metered digital products according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a prior art illustrates schematically various components of a digital product in its fully functional form as designed and produced by the developer without incorporating any metering function therein.

FIG. 3 illustrates partially a prior art format for an executable component of the digital product of FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 illustrates partially the structure of the prior art executable file of FIG. 3, but as modified under the present invention to implement execution control establishing a metering function relative to the

original digital product of FIG. 2.

FIG. 5 is a prior art illustrating generally conventional steps executed when an operating system loads and executes the executable file of FIG. 3.

FIG. 6 illustrates by flow chart steps executed under the present invention when an operating system loads and executes the executable file of FIG. 4.

FIG. 7 illustrates by flow chart steps executed when converting an original digital product into an execution controlled digital product.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

The present invention provides an ability to add various types of control functionality and/or characteristics to a digital product after its final creation by its original developer, i.e., without involving effort or even knowledge on behalf of the original developer and without use of a software development kit (SDK).

FIG. 1 illustrates generally one embodiment of the present invention whereby a metering function is incorporated into a previously manufactured fully functional digital product. Generally, the present invention imposes execution control over a given product to establish additional functionality, e.g., to establish a metering function relative to use of the fully functional digital product. Thus, while a metering function is shown to illustrate the present invention, other execution control functions may be incorporated into a digital product including, but not limited to, compression of critical parts of the product to allow more content to be stored on the distribution media and/or less space consumed on the final storage media (typically a hard drive); encryption of critical parts of the product providing a degree of security; long term metering of usage for billing purposes or license usage enforcement; and, interfacing with other programs or systems or controlling agents to enforce authorization of use.

In FIG. 1, digital product metering according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention begins in block 100 where a software developer manufactures a digital product 200 (FIG. 2) in its fully functional and unmodified form as intended for use by an end-user. The software developer need not be concerned with functions or design associated with a later implemented distribution scheme, e.g., a metering function or auxiliary features such as encryption or compression. The software developer need only design and implement the digital product 200 as desired without use of unrelated SDK resources. In block 102, the software developer delivers the unmodified digital product 200 to a metered product distributor, i.e., one who converts the fully functional product 200 into a fully functional but metered digital product 200' to allow controlled "try before you buy" distribution. By imposition of the present invention on the original digital product 200, one converts the original digital product 200 into a metered digital product 2