Hardware ID to prevent software piracy

• US 7,503,072 B2
• Filed: 05/17/2001
• Issued: 03/10/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/29/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Pearce, David Barnaby, Hughes, Aidan T.
• Primary Examiner(s): Smithers; Matthew B
• Application Number:
  US09/859,915
• Publication Number:
  US 20010044782A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,854 Days
• Field of Search: 380/201, 380/203, 380/231, 380/232, 705/51, 705/52, 705/56, 705/57, 705/58, 705/59, 726/26
• US Class Current: 726/26
• 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]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/121 Restricting unauthorised execution of programs
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6272 by registering files or documents with a third party
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/73 by creating or determining hardware identification, e.g. serial numbers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2129 Authenticate client device independently of the user
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00086 Circuits for prevention of unauthorised reproduction or copying, e.g. piracy indicating unauthorised use of record carriers in general G11B23/28; scrambling for television signal recording H04N5/913; network architectures or network protocols for network security H04L63/00; cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for secret or secure communication H04L9/00
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00166 involving measures which result in a restriction to authorised contents recorded on or reproduced from a record carrier, e.g. music or software
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00188 involving measures which result in a restriction to authorised devices recording or reproducing contents to/from a record carrier

Abstract

In one embodiment, the invention is a 64 bit hardware ID (H/W ID) for tying a software product to a particular computer to prevent software piracy. The 64 bit hardware ID represents ten different components of the user'"'"'s computer: the CD-ROM device, the disk adapter, the disk device, the display adapter, the first drive serial number, the MAC address, the processor serial number, the processor type, the RAM size in Mb, and the SCSI adapter. Each time the software product is opened, the expanded H/W ID is compared to the hardware on the computer to determine whether a predetermined minimum number of components match. In one embodiment, the expanded H/W ID allows for expansion of the user'"'"'s computer because so long as the component originally listed in the expanded H/W ID can be found on the computer, then that component matches the expanded H/W ID. Typically, seven out of ten components in the expanded H/W ID must match the computer before the software product will fully operate.

Claims

1. A detection system for use with the Internet for generating information related to pirating of a software product, comprising:

a server in communication with said Internet, a database associated with said server;

said software product being associated with a product id that identifies said software product;

a software program stored in a plurality of customer computers utilizing said software product, said software program generating a hardware id for each of said customer computers so as to uniquely identify each of said plurality of customer computers,

said software program automatically transferring said product id and said hardware id over said Internet to said server,

said server receiving and storing in said database said product id and said hardware id for each of said plurality of customer computers,

said software program being installed on said plurality of customer computers along with other program modules, including an operating system or network communication; and

an activation unit utilized by said server for determining if said product id is associated with more than one of said plurality of customer computers.