Method and apparatus for enforcement of software licence protection

1. A method of enforcing protection of a software license, comprising;

receiving, at a remote computer system controlled by a first entity, from a primary computer system controlled by a second entity in connection with a software licensing service, code that has been morphed and is in data form prior to distribution,

wherein the code is a program subject to the software license,

wherein the code has been morphed by application of a reversible morphing procedure to modify an entire file of the code, and

wherein the reversible morphing algorithm is uniquely seeded with control information associated with the remote computer system;

receiving, at the remote computer system, a key supplied by the primary computing system through the communication link; and

incorporating, at the remote computer system, an un-morphing procedure as part of a pre-fetch operation by the remote computer system to be executed as the morphed file of code stored in data form is loaded into a processor internal cache of the remote computer system

wherein incorporating the un-morphing procedure includes incorporating a crypto component as part of a processor core such that native code exists only in an L1 cache and morphed data exists in L2 and L3 caches.

2. A method, as described in claim 1 , wherein control information comprises information unique to the remote computer system.

3. A method, as described in claim 1 wherein control information comprises information unique to a processor in the remote computer system.

4. A method, as described in claim 1 wherein control information comprises information supplied by a software supplier at time of sale, the second entity being the software supplier.

5. A method, as described in claim 1 wherein control information comprises information supplied by a software supplier at time of execution, the second entity being the software supplier.

6. A method, as described in claim 5 wherein control information is supplied by hardware peripheral device attached to the remote computer system.

7. A method, as described in claim 5 wherein control information is supplied by a remote computer system user.

8. A method, as described in claim 5 wherein control information is supplied by a software supplier, the second entity being the software supplier.

9. A method, as described in claim 8 wherein control information is supplied by a software supplier through a remote data connection, the second entity being the software supplier.

10. A method, as described in claim 1 wherein receiving, at a remote computer system includes loading the morphed data stored on electrical or optical media to the remote computer system.

11. A method, as described in claim 1 wherein receiving, at a remote computer system includes receiving the morphed data through a remote data connection.

12. A method, as described in claim 1 further comprising:

receiving, to the crypto component, the key along with an address of the morphed file of code to be moved and a direction of the move;

decrypting information moving to a processor; and

encrypting information moving from the processor.

13. A method, as described in claim 1 further comprising using the key for executing the un-morphing procedure with respect to the entire file of the code.

14. A method, as described in claim 1 further comprising using the key uniquely for executed the un-morphing procedure with respect to a particular segment of the entire file of the code.

15. A method, as described in claim 1 further comprising:

receiving, at the remote computer system, a plurality of keys supplied by the primary computing system through the communication link; and

determining which of the plurality of keys to use during execution of the un-morphing procedure based on data stored with the morphed file of code stored in data form.

16. A method of enforcing protection of a software license, comprising;

receiving morphed data of a reversible morphing procedure corresponding to an entire file of code, the code being a program subject to the software license,

wherein the reversible morphing procedure is uniquely seeded with control information;

storing the morphed data on a computer system; and

de-morphing morphed data as part of an operation whereby the morphed data is moved from a first one of a processor's internal cache memory to a second one of the processor's internal cache memory prior to processing by the processor, resulting in de-morphed data being stored in the second one of the processor's internal cache memory,

wherein incorporating the un-morphing procedure includes incorporating a crypto component as part of a processor core such that native code exists only in an L1 and morphed data exists in an L3 cache.

17. A method, as described in claim 1 wherein incorporating the un-morphing procedure includes incorporating a crypto component as part of a processor core such that native code exists only in an L1 and an L2 cache and morphed data exists in an L3 cache.

18. A method, as described in claim 16 wherein incorporating the un-morphing procedure includes incorporating a crypto component as part of a processor core such that native code exists only in an L1 cache and morphed data exists in an L2 cache and an L3 cache.

19. A method of enforcing protection of a software license, comprising:

receiving, at a remote computer system controlled by a first entity, from a primary computer system controlled by a second entity in connection with a software licensing service, code that has been morphed and is in data form prior to distribution,

wherein the code is a program subject to the software license,

wherein the code has been morphed by application of a reversible morphing procedure to modify an entire file of the code, and

wherein the reversible morphing algorithm is uniquely seeded with control information associated with the remote computer system;

receiving, at the remote computer system, a key supplied by the primary computing system through the communication link; and

incorporating, at the remote computer system, an un-morphing procedure as part of a pre-fetch operation by the remote computer system to be executed as the morphed file of code stored in data form is loaded into a processor internal cache of the remote computer system,

wherein incorporating the un-morphing procedure includes incorporating a crypto component as part of a processor core such that native code exists only in an L1 cache and an L2 cache and morphed data exists in an L3 cache.