Protecting against software piracy

• US 7,971,262 B2
• Filed: 07/23/2004
• Issued: 06/28/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 07/23/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: WSOU Investments, LLC (WSOU Holdings, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent USA, Inc. (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Nandam, Venkateshwar, Jindal, Dinesh K.
• Primary Examiner(s): Smithers, Matthew B
• Assistant Examiner(s): Fields, Courtney D
• Application Number:
  US10/897,805
• Publication Number:
  US 20060021067A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,531 Days
• Field of Search: 726/29, 726/26, 726/27
• US Class Current: 726/29
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/10 Protecting distributed programs or content, e.g. vending or licensing of copyrighted material protection in video systems or pay television H04N7/16 ; Digital rights management [DRM]

Abstract

Methods and software products are disclosed for protecting against software piracy. When a customer purchases software, the seller performs an activation process by identifying a unique computer identifier (ID) for the computer system of the customer, and activating the software based on the computer ID, such as by encoding the computer ID on the media storing the software. When the customer attempts to install the software on a computer system, the computer system executes an installation process. The computer system identifies its own computer ID and the computer ID used to activate the software. The computer system determines if its computer ID corresponds with the computer ID used to activate the software. If the computer IDs correspond, then the computer system is allowed to install the software. If not, the computer system is prevented from installing the software.

Claims

1. A method of protecting against piracy of software, the method comprising the steps of:

at the activation system,

identifying a computer identifier (ID) for a computer system of a customer purchasing software;

activating the software based on the computer ID for installation of the software on the computer system by encoding the media storing the software with the computer ID; and

upon initiating installation of the software on the computer system from the media,

identifying the computer ID for the computer system;

identifying the computer ID encoded on the media;

and determining if the computer ID for the computer system corresponds with the computer ID encoded on the media; and

allowing installation of the software on the computer system responsive to a determination that the computer ID for the computer system corresponds with the computer ID encoded on the media.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of:

preventing installation of the software on the computer system responsive to a determination that the computer ID for the computer system does not correspond with the computer ID encoded on the media.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the computer ID for the computer system comprises a unique identifier that distinguishes the computer system from other computer systems.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the computer ID is non-modifiable.

5. The method of claim 3 wherein the computer ID is available to the operating system of the computer system at run-time.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of:

maintaining a database of a plurality of computer IDs for a plurality of computer systems.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the step of identifying the computer ID for the computer system comprises:

accessing the database to identify the computer ID for the computer system.

8. The method of claim 7 further comprising the step of:

tracking the computer systems in the database for which the software has been activated.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising the steps of:

after installation of the software on the computer system,

proving un-installation of the software on the computer system;

identifying another computer ID for another computer system; and

activating the software based on the other computer ID for installation of the software on the other computer system.

10. A non-transitory computer readable medium tangibly embodying programmed instructions which, when executed by a computer system, are operable to perform a method of activating and installing software, the method comprising:

at the activation system,

identifying a computer identifier (ID) for a computer system of a customer purchasing software;

activating the software based on the computer ID for installation of the software on the computer system by encoding the media storing the software with the computer ID; and

upon initiating installation of the software on the computer system from the media,

identifying the computer ID for the computer system;

identifying the computer ID encoded on the media; and

determining if the computer ID for the computer system corresponds with the computer ID encoded on the media; and

allowing installation of the software on the computer system responsive to a determination that the computer ID for the computer system corresponds with the computer ID encoded on the media.

11. The computer readable medium of claim 10 wherein the computer ID for the computer system comprises a unique identifier that distinguishes the computer system from other computer systems.

12. The computer readable medium of claim 10 wherein identifying a computer identifier (ID) for a computer system comprises accessing a database containing a plurality of computer IDs for a plurality of computer systems.

13. The computer readable medium of claim 10 wherein the method further comprises preventing installation of the software on the computer system responsive to a determination that the computer ID for the computer system does not correspond with the computer ID encoded on the media.