A system add method for controlling the execution or display to one or more pieces of software developed using the developer's software is provided. The system permits the developer to receive revenue for use of the software without inconveniencing the customer or the user. In more detail, the system has a customer site with one or more locations containing one or more assets wherein a master key is purchased by the customer from the developer that specifies the one or more locations on the site of the customer where the software is located. The master key is stored at a particular location on the site of the customer and each asset contains a content key that identifies the location of the master key. The system further includes a user computer that determines if the execution or display of the asset downloaded from the customer's site is authorized by the developer. To determine the authorization of an asset, the asset is downloaded from the customer's site, the location of the master key based on the content key in the asset is determined, the master key is downloaded from the determined location on the customer's site and the locations contained in the master key are compared to the location of the asset to determine if the asset is accessible by the user computer.
A system for security and authorization processing in digital terminals. The processing load of a security processor (250) at the terminal (150) is reduced by configuring a multiple applications manager (MAM) (240) to determine if frequently-transmitted application data should be downloaded. The security processor is used by the MAM to build a local virtual application table (260) that indicates which applications are authorized for downloading. The security processor configures the terminal with an authorization state so that it knows which applications it is authorized to download, i.e., the applications (316', 334', 376') whose required authorization state correlate with the terminal's configured authorization state. The security processor is accessed when the terminals authorization state changes, or when a required authorization state of an application changes. These events are typically relatively infrequent.
A method and a system for the combined licensing of one or more software programs (3) protected by a software protection (5), is provided. Each software protection (5) can be deactivated by a key (6). An additional software program (4) functions as a license manager (4), which has access to the key (6) or a key (6) for each software program protection. This license manager (4) can be licensed by a manager or master key (6). When the license manager (4) is licensed by the manager or master key (6), the license manager (4) deactivates the software protection (5) of a software program or software protection (5) for each of the software programs by means of the corresponding key (6).
