Patent ID: 8584260

Claim:
An information processing system comprising a program storage medium and an information processing apparatus main body capable of attaching the program storage medium thereto, the program storage medium comprising: a master program storage unit for storing a program therein; and an ID registration area for storing therein a main body ID which is an ID unique to the information processing apparatus, and the information processing apparatus comprising: an attaching unit for attaching the program storage medium thereto; a main body ID storage unit having the main body ID stored therein; a copy program storage unit for storing in a nonvolatile memory therein as a copy program, the program stored in the master program storage unit; a copyability determining unit for determining whether or not the main body ID is stored in the ID registration area of the program storage medium attached to the attaching unit; a copying unit for copying the program stored in the master program storage unit into the copy program storage unit when the copyability determining unit determines that the main body ID is not stored; a main body ID registering unit for reading the main body ID from the main body ID storage unit and storing the read main body ID into the ID registration area, in tandem with the copying unit making the copy when the copyability determining unit determines that the main body ID is not stored; an execution program selecting unit for selecting, from the program copied in the copy program storage unit and from the program stored in the master program storage unit of the program storage medium attached to the attaching unit, a program to be executed; and an executing unit for executing the program selected by the execution program selecting unit, wherein when it is determined that a second main body ID, different from the main body ID, is stored in the ID registration area, the program stored in the master program storage unit cannot be copied into the copy program storage unit of the information processing apparatus, but the program can still be executed from the master program storage unit of the program storage medium.