Patent ID: 7992169

Claim:
A method of inhibiting piracy of information at a subscriber station, said method comprising the steps of: receiving at said subscriber station an information transmission from a remote station; detecting instruct-to-sample instructions including selected comparison information in the information transmission; processing, under control of said instruct-to-sample instructions, a datum at said subscriber station resulting in selection of a selected sample of preprogrammed operating information; comparing, under control of said instruct-to-sample instructions, said selected comparison information of said instruct-to-sample instructions to said selected sample of preprogrammed operating information at said subscriber station, whereby a successful match indicates that said subscriber station is properly programmed and a failed match suggests that said preprogrammed operating information at said subscriber station has been tampered with; and performing, under control of said instruct-to-sample instructions, at said subscriber station at least one of the steps of: (1) disabling functionality of some portion of said subscriber station (i) when said step of comparing results in a determination that said subscriber station has been tampered with or (ii) when an instruction is executed based on said step of comparing and said subscriber station fails to respond in a predetermined fashion or within a predetermined period of time; (2) communicating appearance-of-tampering information to said remote station when said step of comparing results in a determination that said subscriber station has been tampered with; and (3) enabling at least some of a programming presentation when said step of comparing results in a determination that said subscriber station is properly programmed.