Patent ID: 8365303

Claim:
A method of authorizing use of a computer program with an authorization system, said method comprising: recording an identifier of a computer program to be authorized for use on the authorization system; registering a user with the authorization system including sending a user identification to the user from the authorization system, wherein the user is a person seeking use of a computer program; recording an agreement that relates to the manner of authorized use of the computer program by the user on the authorization system; receiving at the authorization system a request from the user to use the computer program; receiving at the authorization system a computer program identifier and a user identification in a login request message; verifying at the authorization system the identity of the user from the user identification and checking the agreement to determine whether the user identified by the received user identification is authorized to use the computer program identified by the computer program identifier; recording on the authorization system the information sent with the request message; indicating to the computer program whether the user is authorized to use the computer program, where if the user is verified and authorized to use the computer program, then an authorization message is sent from the authorization system to the computer program thereby allowing use of the computer program by the user, otherwise an authorization denied message is sent from the authorization system to the computer program thereby disallowing use of the computer program.