Method and apparatus for protecting information and privacy

1. A method used by a protection center of sending protection information for protected software to a class of user devices having common properties comprising the steps of:

signing a message including said protection information to be sent, the common properties, and an expiration time for said protection information;

sending the signed protection information from a protection center to a class of user devices, such that the protection information identifies the protected software without revealing information about a user to whom the protected software was sold;

verifying the signed protection information using a verification key;

receiving said signed message by a supervising program on each user device;

at each user device, using the protection information to detect and prevent infringing use of the protected software by verifying, using the supervising program, that the message has been signed by said protection center using a verification key on said user device, that said common properties correspond to one or more of a set of actual properties of the user device and a set of properties listed in the supervising program, and that the expiration time is greater than a current time, where the protection information facilitates the detection and prevention of infringing use of the protected software without requiring modification of the protected software; and

upon successful verification, accepting the message by the user device.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising the steps of:

sending said signed message to user devices; and

downloading said signed message by one of the user devices from one of said other user devices.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the step of sending sends to at least one storage device and the step of downloading downloads from the at least one storage device.

4. A system used by a protection center of sending protection information to a class of user devices having common properties comprising:

means for signing a message including said protection information to be sent, the common properties, and an expiration time for said protection information;

means for sending the signed protection information from a protection center to a class of user devices, such that the protection information identifies the protected software without revealing information about a user to whom the protected software was sold;

means for verifying the signed protection information using a verification key;

means for receiving said signed message by a supervising program on each user device;

at each user device, means for using the protection information to detect and prevent infringing use of protected software by verifying, using the supervising program, that the message has been signed by said protection center using a verification key on said user device, that said common properties correspond to one or more of a set of actual properties of the user device and a set of properties listed in the supervising program, and that the expiration time is greater than a current time, the protection information facilitating the detection and prevention of infringing use of the protected software without requiring modification of the protected software; and

upon successful verification, accepting the message by the user device.

5. A system of controlling use of protected software on a user device, the system comprising:

one or more processors configured to process a call-up message generated by a user device, the call-up message facilitating prevention of piracy of the protected software, the call-up message configured to include:

a tag table identifier value associated with the protected software;

a set of user device descriptive values, where one or more of the user device descriptive values provide information concerning a state associated with the user device;

a nonce; and

a one-way function; and

said one-way function is applied to said set of user device descriptive values and said nonce to provide a one-way function result value that conceals the user device descriptive values from other devices, where the concealing of the user device descriptive values from other devices provides privacy protection for a user of the user device; and

the call-up message configured to prevent the tag table identifier value associated with the protected software from being used simultaneously on more than one user device.

6. The system of claim 5 wherein the user device sends the call-up message to a guardian center; and

the guardian center responding to the call-up message by invalidating the tag table identifier value if the tag table identifier value has been associated with more than a specified number of call-ups over a period of time.

7. The system of claim 5 wherein the user device sends the call-up message to a guardian center; and

the guardian center responds to the call-up message by securely sending a signed continuation message including said tag table identifier value and said one-way function value in the call-up message.

8. The system of claim 7 wherein the continuation message is used in connection with controlling use of the protected software on the user device.

9. The system of claim 7 further comprising a supervising program executing on the user device;

the supervising program verifying the signature on the continuation message;

the supervising program verifying that the continuation message includes said call-up message;

the supervising program invalidating the associated tag table, for each said invalidated tag table identifier value; and

the supervising program storing the continuation message on the user device.

10. The system of claim 9 wherein the supervising program invalidates all tags associated with said invalidated tag tables.

11. The system of claim 9 wherein in response to receiving a new tag table identifier value, the supervising program includes said new tag table identifier value in a future call-up message;

the guardian center verifying an association between said new tag table identifier value and said original tag table identifier value; and

the guardian center performing further processing based on said original tag table identifier value.

12. The system of claim 5 wherein the user device descriptive values include one or more of the following: number of files on the user device, size of files on the user device, number of directories on the user device, characteristics of indexes used to access data, a processor identifying number, a BIOS identifier, or a network interface identifier.

13. The system of claim 5 wherein the user device descriptive values include biometric information about a particular individual associated with the user device.

14. The system of claim 5 wherein the user device descriptive values are chosen such that they are slowly changing, if at all, during use of the user device.

15. The system of claim 9 wherein the supervising program determines credits associated with the tag table identifier value, where the credits represent the total time available to postpone a call-up message; and

the supervising program preventing the use of credits if the user device descriptive values have changed since the occurrence of a previous continuation message.

16. The system of claim 9 wherein the supervising program determines credits associated with the tag table identifier value, where the credits represent the total time available to postpone a call-up; and

the guardian center decreasing the credits if the user device indicates in a call-up message that its user device descriptive values have changed.

17. The system of claim 5 wherein the call-up message is processed at the guardian center to facilitate detection of use of an infringing copy of software on the user device; and

the guardian center responding to a tag table identifier value that is being used simultaneously on multiple user devices by sending a continuation message specifying that the tag table identifier value is invalid.

18. The system of claim 9 wherein processing, by an authorized server, call-up messages to detect use of an infringing copy of software on the user device further includes responding to determining that a tag table identifier value is being used simultaneously on multiple user devices by sending a continuation message specifying that the tag table identifier value is invalid.

19. The system of claim 18 wherein the other device is the authorized server.

20. A system of re-establishing ownership of a tag table, the system comprising:

an authorized server in communication with a user device, the authorized server receiving a message regulated to re-establishing ownership of a tag table;

the message including a new tag table identifier, an original tag table identifier, an original tag table identifier and an ownership certificate pertaining to the original tag table identifier, where the new tag table identifier identifies a tag table having one or more tags, the tags indicating a right to use protected software;

the authorized server verifying that said ownership certificate pertains to the original tag table identifier and securely sending to the user device a digitally signed message allowing the user device to employ the new tag table identifier; and

the authorized server creating an association between said new tag table identifier and said original tag table identifier, said new tag table identifier and said tag table identifier both related to said original tag table identifier.