JP3477494B2 - Program distribution method and apparatus - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a program distributing method and apparatus for synthesizing a program created by a third party with an advertisement or the like in an inseparable form and providing it to users.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there has been software capable of displaying advertisements to a user while executing on a computer. However, such software had to be produced with the intention of functioning as an advertising medium at the stage of creating a program. Also, when a third party who is not the developer of Program A tries to present an advertisement to a user who wants to execute arbitrary Program A,
Program A and advertisement had to be provided to users independently. When a user who already owns any program A transfers program A to another user who desires program A, it is not generally expected that the advertisement information independent of program A will be transferred at the same time. It was

With software in which the use of software and the presentation of advertisements are inseparable, the user is not given the option to reject only advertisements when he / she does not want to see the advertisement. There was no way to avoid paying money to see any advertising, and paying money to use software or information without presenting any personal information.

It is not so difficult to integrate program A and program B in an inseparable manner.
When distributing programs on the Internet, "self-extracting compression" is sometimes used. The self-extracting compression is to compress a certain program and then embed a small program for expanding itself into the original program at the head of the compressed program. A small program for unpacking decompresses itself. After that, the user starts the target program A.

FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining such compression and decompression. Generally, programs are stored in files in a format called executable format (left side of the figure).
By loading the program of the execution form on the memory and setting the program counter at the head address of the memory loaded with the program, the program is executed from the head part. On the other hand, a self-extracting program is a program in which the main body of the program to be executed is compressed and stored, and an executable "decompression program" is attached to the beginning (right side of the figure). In this method as well, the decompressing program in the execution format and the program body in the compression format are loaded on the memory and the decompression program is executed first. The decompression program converts the compressed format program into the execution format, loads it on the memory, passes the execution right to the program newly loaded on the memory as it is (that is, resets the program counter), and ends. A program similar to the self-extracting program is a "self-extracting program". This means that the compressed program body is expanded as a file. Generally, it can be handled as a normal file after decompression, but in the case of a self-extracting program, it will be loaded in memory after decompression, so it should be retrieved as a file from the user. I can't. Each time the user executes the program, the compressed format is expanded on the memory and used.

In any case, such a program cannot have any two different effective programs in a single structure. All that is needed is to compress each executable program itself and attach the executable decompression program. In addition to the software provided by the company itself, the company asks for information provided by the user, labor provided, and cooperation for experiments and questionnaires by paying the user's software usage fee. Or, it was not possible to request the viewing of advertisements (there was no software to set a small fee, mainly due to the high cost of the fee collection system). In other words, software with a one-time charge of 10 yen cannot exist at present (there is no system to collect 10 yen each). However, it is possible that such software exists as an economic value.

When an arbitrary program A is distributed on the Internet, it is difficult to charge only the expenses associated with the transfer of the program A independently of the program A. In addition, even if you try to count the number of users who want to use program A, how many users will end up if you are allowed to copy and transfer program A freely? It was extremely difficult to investigate what was happening. If Program A is pre-assigned with a "key that can be used by registering", it will be sufficient to count how many users have requested the key, but Program A is independent of the entity that wants to count the number of users. It is not available if it is being developed. It is generally difficult to expect that all users of Program A will cooperate, even if they are completely independent of Program A. Also, it was generally difficult to investigate the time spent using any program A.

Further, the user cannot exclusively select only one of the advertisements provided by the advertisers. In the past, (a) there were some advertisements that were displayed using software, and (b) Netscape Navigator (Netscape
In software like Communications Corporation, it's just used to display ads.

[0009] However, first, (a) software for displaying an advertisement at the same time when the software is used, generally needs to be provided with the source code of the software, and the code for displaying the advertisement needs to be incorporated therein. there were. For example, it was necessary to embed advertising code in the source code of software created by researchers. If the source code is available, it can be embedded.
Conversely, if the source code is not available for the software, the advertisement cannot be embedded.

[0010]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention makes it possible to use a program that is not made by the user, that is, a program for which the source code is not available, as an advertising medium. Alternatively, it is possible to eliminate the program development process that has occurred to incorporate an advertisement in the program body. The program synthesized with the advertisement in this system cannot be easily separated, and the advertisement will be spread as it is even if it is transferred to a third party. By recommending copies to many people, the interests of the provider and the user are the same.

As described above, the present invention has an object to solve the above-mentioned problems and to make it possible to provide a user with a program created by a third party by synthesizing an advertisement in an inseparable form later. There is. Further, the present invention not only simply "combines an advertisement presentation program with an existing program and distributes it so that it cannot be separated", but also allows the viewer to choose to reject the advertisement. In the past, the software could not reject the advertisement if it had to see the advertisement, but the present invention allows the advertisement to be rejected by paying a predetermined fee. Can be left to the viewer.

[0012]

According to the program distribution method of the present invention, a compressed main program and an attached program other than the main program are combined in an inseparable form and provided to users. This attached program is executed before the main body program, and after performing the desired function, decompresses the main body program when the set conditions are satisfied,
It is characterized by loading on the memory and transferring the execution right.

Further, the program distributing apparatus of the present invention provides the user with the compressed main body program and the attached program different from the main body program in an inseparable form. And, the present invention executes the attached program before the main body program to perform a desired function,
And a means for decompressing the main body program when the set conditions are satisfied, loading the main body program on the memory, and transferring the execution right.

[0014]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Hereinafter, description will be given based on specific examples to which the present invention is applied. FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram illustrating a program distribution method and device of the present invention. The program distributed to users is provided in the form shown in (A) or (B) of the figure. The form shown in (A) is a compressed main program,
In addition to this , a compressed attachment program is combined in an inseparable form, and an execution format decompression program for decompressing the compressed attachment program is combined.

When the user tries to execute the program file, the decompression program is first activated, and the "attached program" is decompressed on the memory first and executed. Present an advertisement here or request the user to do some work.
When the "attached program" confirms that the work has been completed, the "main body program" is decompressed, loaded on the memory, and the execution right is transferred. When the content of the attached program is sufficiently small, the "attached program" may be provided without being compressed (as it is in the execution format) as shown in (B).

In the present invention, the expansion of the attached program is performed unconditionally, but the expansion of the main program is determined by the execution of the attached program. That is, it becomes possible to prevent the main body program from being expanded unless the conditions set by the attached program are satisfied.

This will be described in more detail by taking the case where the attached program is not compressed as an example. First, the user starts the program by clicking the mouse or the like in the same procedure as starting a single program (in some cases, it is recognized that the main body program A is started). Then, the computer does not expand it as a file, but expands the main program A and the attached program B on the memory, and first, the attached program
Execute from B. Then, the main program A is started according to the instruction of the attached program B. The main body program A is always instructed to start by the attached program B.
When expanded as a file, the main program A after expansion becomes available, but the main program A expanded in memory cannot generally be obtained independently (from the attached program B). . Even if it is expanded to a file, if it is generally difficult to obtain it independently (from attached program B), it is not necessary to expand everything in memory, but a part of memory By expanding it above, the separation of programs A and B becomes much more difficult.

Also, the attached program B can have a function of starting before the main body program A, verifying its own final creation date and time and size, and confirming that there is no evidence of alteration. Furthermore, the attached program B starts up before the main program A, counts the number of times it starts itself, and after every preset number of times of start, or every time, always "advertise"" It is possible to have a function of presenting two or more of "work", "information provision", and "payment of fee" and selecting one of them. Furthermore, the attached program B can be started before the main body program A, and the presentation time, time, size, etc. of the advertisement can be changed according to the selection at the time of using the attached program B previously.
It is possible to provide an advertisement presentation control device that makes it possible to change the timing at which an advertisement is presented each time the main body program A is executed.

Next, a case where the main body program A requires installation work on a computer will be described. Installation generally means writing multiple files to the hard disk of a computer, but the file to be started is not always known to a third party in advance. For example, if the main program A is an installation program such as setup.exe,
The present invention is applicable, but in this case the advertisement can only be combined into the first file launched for installation.

However, in some cases, it may be desired to present an advertisement each time the program is executed. In that case,
The attached program B can be set to embed a "program that monitors whether the main program A has been started", and when the attached program B is started, the monitoring program can be made resident on the user's computer. .

First, it is assumed that there is a useful main program A described by a third party, and here there is an attached program B for presenting an advertisement. The attached program B is always started before the main program A. And
Make them decide whether it was the first time or how many times it was started (Keep some record of how many times it was started). If it is the first activation, the user is allowed to choose between billing, advertising and work. The operation thereafter will be set differently depending on the idea of the advertiser and the advertisement fee. Attached program B not only always presents the same advertisement at the same timing, but it also presents new advertisements, fetches new advertisements from the Internet, uses new presentation methods, and presents them every few times. There are various possibilities. The advertisement can be presented not only at the start of the program, but also during execution of the main program A, at the end of the program, when the user performs a specific operation, or the like.

[0022]

[Example] [Specific example of work] 1. On the screen, "Read out the displayed string. The read out voice is recorded and transferred to the center. From the sample voices of many people, Calculate the average voice. ”And make them read a specific character string. 2. On the screen, it says "We are investigating the average speed of character input. Please input the displayed character string from the keyboard. The speed with which the button is pressed is recorded and transferred to the center." Then, a specific character string is typed. 3. In the same way, show "Please compose your favorite melody" and collect it. 4. In the same manner, present “Please input the current weather (temperature and humidity).” And collect weather information with high resolution. 5. Similarly, "I am collecting words used in Shiritori.
Enter a place name that starts with "ke" and does not end with "n". 6. Similarly, if you do not perform a manual screening (appropriate inspection of data) by proposing, "If there are inappropriate words used in place name shiritori, please enter the number." Many people can share data that cannot be processed. 7. In the same way, "Please select the one that cannot be said to be correct pronunciation." 8. Similarly, "Please point out the typographical error in the presented sentence." Please use a word that is appropriate as a word. "In general, it is effective for things that cannot be automated and that allow parallel work.

[Specific example of advertisement and work selection and advertisement presentation] Choose to watch ads or pay for yourself. 2. Whether to watch the advertisement of Company A or the advertisement of Company B,
Do you pay the fee yourself? 3. Choose to perform the work or pay a fee to be exempt. Four. Choose to watch Company A's advertisement in the first half of the program, and watch Company B's advertisement in the second half. Five. Choose to advertise the first few times you run the program, pay a fee and stop advertising. 6. Pay the amount equivalent to several times of program execution,
After that, if the advertisement is presented until the next payment,
Choose how much you want to pay (how many times you use the program without advertising).

[Example of timing of advertisement or work presentation]
When the attached program B starts for the first time, the above selection screen is always displayed. At this time, if advertisement presentation or work is selected, the advertisement presentation device operates in the computer and presents the advertisement. The selection becomes effective the next time the main body program A'is started. The advertisement presentation device can present an advertisement or work presentation at any of the following timings. 1. N seconds after the main program A'starts up (n = any number greater than 0) 2. Every m seconds after main program A'starts up (any number greater than or equal to 0) 3． When the user performs a specific action (a specific keystroke sequence or mouse operation) 4. When the main program A is executed k times or more without advertising (k = 1 or more) 5. When exiting main unit program A. 6. Even after the main program A is finished, the function can be continued.

[0025]

Industrial Applicability The present invention makes it possible to use a program that is not made by the user, that is, a program whose source code is not available, as an advertising medium.
The advantage of this is that the program developer can write the software without assuming that the advertisement will be embedded, and without the cost of another staff modifying the source code to incorporate the advertisement, The point is that you can incorporate ads.

Further, the present invention is not limited to simply "combining an advertisement presenting program with an existing program and distributing it so that it cannot be separated", but it is possible to entrust the viewer with the option of rejecting the advertisement. . In the past, the software could not reject the advertisement if it had to see the advertisement, but the present invention allows the advertisement to be rejected by paying a predetermined fee. Can be left to the viewer. In other words, it becomes possible to make the user strongly aware that the advertiser will take charge of the software usage fee.

As a result, it is possible to allow a user who wants to use the software free of charge, rather than simply presenting the advertisement, to perform some work (including the viewing of the advertisement). The collection rate is improved for troublesome surveys such as social psychology surveys, so it can be an effective system when you want to conduct some sort of questionnaire survey. Also, such as typing handwritten sentences and collecting voice data for voice recognition,
It is useful for various applications where data collection from a large amount of data is required.

The program combined with the advertisement in this system cannot be easily separated, and the advertisement will be spread as it is even if it is transferred to a third party. By recommending copying to many people, the interests of the user and the provider are the same. Furthermore, according to the present invention, a plurality of main programs and a plurality of attached programs can be combined as a single file so as to be executed in an arbitrary order. With this function, it is possible not only to mix multiple advertisers, but also to differentiate the handling within the program depending on the ratio of the advertising cost.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram illustrating a program distribution method and device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining compression and decompression of a general program.

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Claims (6)

(57) [Claims] 1. A method of distributing a program, wherein an attached program different from the attached program is inseparably combined with a compressed main program and provided to the user, wherein the attached program precedes the main program. The last created date and time and the size of the attached program.
Function to verify that there is no evidence of alteration.
A program distribution method comprising decompressing the main body program, loading it on the memory, and transferring the execution right when the set condition is satisfied after the desired function is fulfilled. 2. The attached program is for a user.
Of "Advertising viewing", "Work", "Information provision", and "Payment"
2. The program distribution method according to claim 1, which has a function of presenting two or more and selecting one of them . 3. The program distribution method according to claim 2 , wherein the presentation to the user is performed after the preset number of times of activation, counting the number of times of activation of the attached program. 4. The program distribution method according to claim 2 , wherein the attached program changes the presentation time, the time, the size, etc. of the advertisement according to the selection at the time of using the previous attached program. . 5. The program distribution method according to claim 2, wherein the attached program changes the timing at which an advertisement is presented each time it is executed. 6. A program distribution device for synthesizing a compressed main program with another attached program in an inseparable form and providing the same to a user, wherein the attached program precedes the main program. The last created date and time and the size of the attached program.
Function to verify that there is no evidence of alteration.
A program distribution device comprising means for performing a desired function and means for decompressing the main body program when the set conditions are satisfied, loading it on the memory, and transferring the execution right.