Patent ID: 7236958

Claim:
A method for permitting the controlled installation of a software product, including an associated run-time file needed to execute the software product, onto a local machine, the method comprising: generating an installer identifier at the local machine based on the software product, in response to a request to install the software product on the local machine, wherein the generated installer identifier represents a characteristic of a software product medium on which the software product is stored; comparing the generated installer identifier to a stored installer identifier on the software product; storing a license file and a hardware identifier identifying the local machine on the local machine in response to a match between the generated installer identifier and the stored installer identifier; enabling a complete installation of the software product on the local machine, including installing at least one run-time file needed to execute the software product, in response to the match between the generated installer identifier and the stored installer identifier; whereby the stored license file is associated only with the software product installed on the local machine and the hardware identifier is associated only with the local machine, and the stored license file can be subsequently accessed to enable the execution of the completely installed software product including the installed at least one run-time file on the local machine but cannot be used with a separate software product or to execute the software product on a machine other than the local machine; receiving a software product key; and wherein installing on the local machine the at least one run-time file needed to execute the software product occurs in response to a determination that the received software product key is a correct software product key.