Patent ID: 8640102

Claim:
An image forming apparatus in which an activation of a program providing a function is allowed according to license information indicating that a user activating the program is authorized to activate the program, comprising: a processor; a login accepting unit to accept a user login; a program storing unit to store a program; a function introducing unit to obtain a given program licensed to an individual user and license information about the given program from an external source and to store the given program in the program storing unit; a user information storing unit to store user information that includes the license information about the given program that is stored by the function introducing unit, the license information being associated with a user ID of the individual user in the user information; a removal timing receiving unit to receive a setting of removal timing at which the given program stored by the function introducing unit is removed from the program storing unit; and a removal unit to remove the given program stored by the function introducing unit from the program storing unit upon arrival of the removal timing received by the removal timing receiving unit, wherein in case that removal of the given program has failed, the removal unit removes upon passage of a predetermined time the given program for which the removal timing has already arrived.