USING FLASH STORAGE DEVICE TO PREVENT UNAUTHORIZED USE OF SOFTWARE

摘要

A flash storage device and a method for using the flash storage device to prevent unauthorized use of a software application are provided. An identifier may be encoded within specific sectors of the flash storage device. One bits of the identifier may be encoded as unusable ones of the specific sectors and zero bits of the identifier may be encoded as usable one of the specific sectors. Alternatively, the zero bits of the identifier may be encoded as the unusable ones of the specific sectors and the one bits of the identifier may be encoded as the usable ones of the specific sectors. The software application may be permitted to execute on a processing device connected to the flash storage device only when the identifier is encoded within the flash storage device.

主权项

1. A machine-implemented method of employing a flash storage device in selectively controlling use of software, the machine-implemented method comprising:
accessing license information encoded in the flash storage device, wherein writeability or non-writeability of respective sectors of a plurality of sectors of the flash storage device corresponds to values of a plurality of data bits of at least a portion of the license information; and selectively controlling the use of the software based at least in part on the accessed license information.