Computer enabled methods to inhibit file and volume name copying and to circumvent same
View Patent ↗Provided here is a copy protection method and apparatus to confuse currently available personal computer software (and other content) copying packages by use of unexpected (“illegal”) special characters in the volume (or directory) name for the software or other content or data subject to being copied. This method can be used alone or with a broad range of other known copy protection technologies such as RipGuard (available from Macrovision Corp.). Also provided here is a method and apparatus to defeat the confusion method, thereby allowing copying of such copy protected software.
1. A method processed by a computer processor of copy protecting stored content or data in a computer system environment having an operating system, comprising the acts of:
providing a volume or directory designating a storage area in a computer storage medium, the volume or directory having a name, the name conforming to requirements of the operating system;
altering the volume name or the directory name to include at least one character which is the ellipsis symbol “...” and is placed at the end of the volume name or directory name and which is accepted by a file naming convention of the operating system as appropriate respectively for a volume name or directory name, and which prevents copying of content of the volume or directory by one or more copying programs.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the operating system is a Windows-type operating system.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the altered volume name or directory name is user defined.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the altered volume name or directory name is generic.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the ellipsis symbol “...” is provided by keying on a numeric key pad ALT+0133.
6. A computer readable medium storing computer code for carrying out the method of claim 1 .
7. A method processed by a computer processor of circumventing copy protection of a copy protected volume or directory to allow copying of associated files from the copy protected volume or directory, wherein the copy protected volume or directory has at least one copy protected file, the method comprising the acts of:
creating a new volume or directory,
assigning a name to the new volume or directory that conforms to name requirements of an associated computer operating system and allows copying thereof, and
copying the associated files and the at least one copy protected file from the copy protected volume or directory to the new volume or directory; wherein the copy-protected volume or directory has a copy-protected name that includes the ellipsis symbol “...” and which is placed at the end of the volume or directory name and which is accepted by a file naming convention of the operating system as appropriate respectively for a volume name or directory name, and wherein the copy-protected name prevents copying by one or more copying programs.