Method and system for invisibly embedding into a text document the license identification of the generating licensed software

1. A method of embedding into a text document generated by a licensed software a License Identification Signature of the software, the method comprising:

converting all space characters of the text document to identical black space characters comprising a black color;

after said converting, computing a Document Hash Value (DHV) comprising a one-way hash of the text document, wherein each original copy of the software has been assigned a unique Software License Code (SLC) and a unique License Identification Key (LIK) by a Licensing Authority;

computing a License Identification Code (LIC) comprising a cryptographic digest of the DHV by applying a cryptographic hash function to the DHV and using the LIK as a key;

forming a License Identification Signature (LIS) comprising the SLC, the DHV, and the LIC;

forming an encoded LIS by mapping the digits of the LIS to corresponding character attributes, said encoded LIS comprising the corresponding character attributes respectively corresponding to the digits of the LIS; and

embedding the corresponding character attributes into respective consecutive black space characters starting with the first black space character at the beginning of the text document.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the LIS comprises digits expressed in base 10.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the LIS comprises digits expressed in a numerical base that is less than a total number of different attribute values of the corresponding character attributes.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the corresponding character attributes comprise character color.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the corresponding character attributes comprise a presence or absence of an italic format of a character.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the corresponding character attributes comprise a combination of character color and a presence or absence of an italic format of a character.

7. A computer program product, comprising a computer readable storage medium not including carrier waves having computer readable program code embodied therein, said program code configured to be executed on a computer to implement a method for embedding into a text document generated by a licensed software a License Identification Signature of the software, said method comprising:

converting all space characters of the text document to identical black space characters comprising a black color;

after said converting, computing a Document Hash Value (DHV) comprising a one-way hash of the text document, wherein each original copy of the software has been assigned a unique Software License Code (SLC) and a unique License Identification Key (LIK) by a Licensing Authority;

computing a License Identification Code (LIC) comprising a cryptographic digest of the DHV by applying a cryptographic hash function to the DHV and using the LIK as a key;

forming a License Identification Signature (LIS) comprising the SLC, the DHV, and the LIC;

forming an encoded LIS by mapping the digits of the LIS to corresponding character attributes, said encoded LIS comprising the corresponding character attributes respectively corresponding to the digits of the LIS; and

embedding the corresponding character attributes into respective consecutive black space characters starting with the first black space character at the beginning of the text document.

8. The computer program product of claim 7 , wherein the LIS comprises digits expressed in base 10.

9. The computer program product of claim 7 , wherein the LIS comprises digits expressed in base 5.

10. The computer program product of claim 7 , wherein the corresponding character attributes comprise character color.

11. The computer program product of claim 7 , wherein the corresponding character attributes comprise a presence or absence of an italic format of a character.

12. The computer program product of claim 7 , wherein the corresponding character attributes comprise a combination of character color and a presence or absence of an italic format of a character.

13. A system for embedding into a text document generated by a licensed software a License Identification Signature of the software, said system method comprising:

means for converting, by a processor of a computer, all space characters of the text document to identical black space characters comprising a black color;

means for computing, by said processor, a Document Hash Value (DHV) comprising a one-way hash of the text document, wherein each original copy of the software has been assigned a unique Software License Code (SLC) and a unique License Identification Key (LIK) by a Licensing Authority;

means for computing, by said processor, a License Identification Code (LIC) comprising a cryptographic digest of the DHV by applying a cryptographic hash function to the DHV and using the LIK as a key;

means for forming, by said processor, a License Identification Signature (LIS) comprising the SLC, the DHV, and the LIC;

means for forming, by said processor, an encoded LIS by mapping the digits of the LIS to corresponding character attributes, said encoded LIS comprising the corresponding character attributes respectively corresponding to the digits of the LIS; and

means for embedding, by said processor, the corresponding character attributes into respective consecutive black space characters starting with the first black space character at the beginning of the text document.

14. The system of claim 13 , wherein the LIS comprises digits expressed in base 10.

15. The system of claim 13 , wherein the LIS comprises digits expressed in base 5.

16. The system of claim 13 , wherein the corresponding character attributes comprise character color.

17. The system of claim 13 , wherein the corresponding character attributes comprise a presence or absence of an italic format of a character.

18. The system of claim 13 , wherein the corresponding character attributes comprise a combination of character color and a presence or absence of an italic format of a character.