Patent ID: 8191091

Claim:
A method of inhibiting piracy of information or enabling a presentation of programming at a subscriber station, said method comprising the steps of: receiving an information transmission from a first remote station; detecting instruct-to-sample instructions in the information transmission; processing, under control of said instruct-to-sample instructions, a datum at said subscriber station; comparing, under control of said instruct-to-sample instructions, selected comparison information of said instruct-to-sample instructions to a selected sample of preprogrammed operating information at said subscriber station, said selected comparison information and said selected sample of preprogrammed operating information being selected based on said step of processing, 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 the 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 a second 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.