Patent ID: 7200760

Claim:
A method of protecting a software program from piracy comprising the steps of: selecting at least one data element from said software program for encryption, said data element affecting operation of said software program and comprising usable data that supports any of usable, viewable and executable forms of content; encrypting said selected data element such that a user is required to obtain a valid license to decrypt said selected data element; distributing said selected data element and said software program to said user; decrypting said selected data element during runtime of said software program upon said user obtaining a valid license; and erasing the decrypted said selected data element after said software program executes correctly such that said selected data element is only available at runtime of said software program and in the presence of said valid license; wherein said data element is selected from the group consisting of program data required for at least one of initialization and control of execution of said software program, a proprietary algorithm, and at least one parameter.