[Infowarrior] - New Apple DRM patent

[Richard Forno]

http://www.macrumors.com/2007/12/20/apple-applies-for-autmoatic-shutdown-and
-piracy-fighting-patents/

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The other filing, patent application #20070288886, deals with attempts to
fight software piracy.

A digital rights management system permits an application owner to cause
code to be injected into the application's run-time instruction stream so as
to restrict execution of that application to specific hardware platforms. In
a first phase, an authorizing entity (e.g., an application owner or platform
manufacturer) authorizes one or more applications to execute on a given
hardware platform. Later, during application run-time, code is injected that
performs periodic checks are made to determine if the application continues
to run on the previously authorized hardware platform. If a periodic check
fails, at least part of the application's execution string is
terminated--effectively rendering the application non-usable. The periodic
check is transparent to the user and difficult to circumvent.
Apple has thus-far resisted industry trends towards activation of software,
and currently only uses such methods in some of its most costly professional
software. While it is clear that Apple has been working on methods to combat
piracy, it remains to be seen how far Apple will employ the methods in its
software. Readers are reminded that only a portion of the applications filed
end up making it to shipping products.