Patent ID: 7593121

Claim:
An image forming apparatus comprising a program for performing a process concerning image formation by using a hardware resource, and a slot which a recording medium is inserted into and removed from, comprising: a status monitoring part configured to monitor insertion of the recording medium into the slot and removal of the recording medium from the slot; a recording medium starting part configured to make the recording medium inserted into the slot into an accessible state; and a program starting part configured to read a program from said recording medium made into the accessible state, and to start said program read out from the recording medium, wherein the program starting part stops the program read out from the recording medium and started, upon being notified of the removal of the recording medium from the slot by said status monitoring part, wherein the program starting part, upon being notified of the removal of the recording medium from the slot by said status monitoring part, determines whether the removal of the recording medium is treated as an abnormal event according to whether predetermined information from the recording medium includes license information, and determines that the removal of the recording medium is treated as the abnormal event and prevents the image forming apparatus from further image formation when the predetermined information does not include the license information.