🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Aug11.193753.29423@dartvax.dartmouth.edu> Robert.H.Gross@dartmouth.edu (Robert H. Gross) writes:

>...refresh the expiration date of the currently running program. The
>company would then mark that serial number as "updated". If a
>subsequent user calls and tries to update the license, he/she would be
>told that it was already updated and the company could not update
>another copy.
>
>This would periodically "purge" non-valid copies

   This would really only purge stolen copies.  It would not prevent
   "friends" from copying software for others and distributing the
   "password" to them as well.  (This is the bulk of non-valid software
   copies in the U.S.)

   More protection is needed at the machine level, for example, unique
   IDs for each machine on which the software is to run.

   Networked computers would have to support a similar system at the
   network level.

Leonard