US 8,015,608 B2 · Systems and methods for preventing unauthorized use of digital content

Abstract

Theft, distribution, and piracy of digital content (software, video, audio, e-books, any content of any kind that is digitally stored and distributed) is generally accomplished by copying it, if possible, or, if it is protected from being copied in any fashion, such piracy is based upon a number of reverse engineering techniques. Aside from the straightforward copying of unprotected content, all of these other methods require first an understanding of the protective mechanism(s) guarding the content, and finally an unauthorized modification of that protection in order to disable or subvert it. Methods which prevent a skilled individual from using reverse engineering tools and techniques to attain that level of understanding and/or prevent anyone from performing such modifications can offer significant advantages to content creators who wish to protect their products.

Claims18

Dependent claims

A method for preventing unauthorized use of digital content data hosted on a system, the method comprising:

launching a first assassin process;
determining, using the first assassin process, whether a second assassin process is executing a function;
monitoring, using the first assassin process, an operating system via an operating system interface to determine whether an unauthorized attempt at accessing the digital content data by a threat entity occurs;
determining, using the first assassin process, whether the second assassin process has exited from executing the function;
and
deterring a detected unauthorized attempt in response to the second assassin process having exited by using the first assassin process to terminate processes through the operating system interface that enable access to the digital content data.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Systems and methods for preventing unauthorized use of digital content

Life of this patent

Systems and methods for preventing unauthorized use of digital content

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims18