Patent ID: 7216156

Claim:
A method to incentivize sharing of a software product residing on a removable disc storage medium, comprising: reading a storage medium identifier from the removable disc storage medium at a user console, the storage medium identifier being uniquely assigned to the removable disc storage medium and associated with an owner of the removable disc storage medium; transmitting the uniquely assigned storage medium identifier from the user console to a server; transmitting a uniquely assigned user console identifier associated with the user console to the server, wherein the user console identifier may be further associated with a user of the console; determining whether the console is authorized to access the software product on the removable disc storage medium as identified by owner consent data, wherein the owner consent data may further identify authorization to transfer ownership in the removable disc storage medium to another user; granting the user console access to the software product on the removable disc storage medium if the owner consent data authorizes access; and assigning incentive points to an account of the owner of the removable disc storage medium, wherein the incentive points are a reward for sharing the software product with other users.