Patent ID: 7117493

Claim:
An image formation system comprising: an image formation apparatus connected to a network, said image formation apparatus having one or more hardware resources of a display section, an operation panel section, a printing section, and an image pickup section, wherein said image formation apparatus is capable of providing one or more services of a printer, a copier, or a facsimile; and a server connected to the network, said server providing a software component to said image formation apparatus via said network, wherein said image formation apparatus includes: a selection unit that selects a desired software component from a list of software components accumulated in said server and displayed on said display section; an acquisition unit that acquires the software component selected by said selection unit and authentication information from said server; and a control unit that controls processing operation of the software component acquired by said acquisition unit based on the authentication information acquired by said acquisition unit, wherein said control unit restricts the hardware resources available in said image formation apparatus for the acquired software component based on the authentication information, and when authentication based on the authentication information has failed, said control unit specifies minimum resources so that said display section and operation panel section of the resources become available for the software components, and when the authentication based on the authentication information has succeeded, said control unit specifies that all the resources are available for the software components.