Method of controlling use of digitally encoded products

A computer program, on a computer readable medium, directly loadable into a working memory of a data processing system for performing a method of controlling use of a digitally encoded product on the data processing system including:

• providing a product license certificate indicative of an authorization granted to use the product, wherein the license certificate identifies basic conditions of use of the product as initially authorized by a provider of the product and a list of allowed changes to the basic conditions of use of the product,
• monitoring operation of the data processing system for detecting a condition of use of the product,
• providing reconciliation information indicative of the detected condition of use over a corresponding period of time to a controller system of a controller, and
• automatically updating licensing information stored on the controller system, and indicative of a licensing condition of the product, according to the reconciliation information, wherein updating licensing information comprises modifying a previous licensing condition for the corresponding period of time to be a modified licensing condition that corresponds to the detected condition of use of the product as identified by the reconciliation information, and wherein the modified licensing condition governs a relationship between a user of the product and a provider of the product for the corresponding period of time.

A structure for controlling use of a digitally encoded product on a data processing system including:

• means for providing a product license certificate, to the system, indicative of an authorization granted to use the product, wherein the license certificate identifies basic conditions of use of the product as initially authorized by a provider of the product and a list of allowed changes to the basic conditions of use of the product,
• means for monitoring operation of the data processing system for detecting a condition of use of the product,
• means for providing reconciliation information indicative of the detected condition of use over a corresponding period of time to a controller system, and
• means for automatically updating licensing information stored on the controller system and indicative of a licensing condition of the product according to the reconciliation information, wherein the means for updating licensing information comprises means for modifying a previous licensing condition for the corresponding period of time to be a modified licensing condition that corresponds to the detected condition of use of the product as identified by the reconciliation information, and wherein the modified licensing condition governs a relationship between a user of the product and a provider of the product for the corresponding period of time.