Sony Patent Uncovered to Detect Pirated Software Tracking Load Times

12w ago - Recently a Sony patent was uncovered which may be used to detect pirated software though tracking video game load times.

Below are the details, to quote: "Sony has filed a new patent which may be useful in combating piracy.

The patent was filed by them way back in August 2011, and according to it, if the load times are not within the range they have set, the software could be flagged.

For the tech to be effective, a standard average load time has to be set–specific or range–and if any software that exceeds the time set, it will be easy to block it. This way of blocking games is a little impractical because sometimes drives may not function as expected due to wear and tear.

You can check out the description of the patent below.

For example, if an authentic game title is distributed exclusively on BDs having a total benchmark load time of 45 seconds on a game console BD drive, the acceptable range of load times could be from 40 to 50 seconds. Thus, a total measured title load time of 4 seconds would be outside of the acceptable range of total load times for a legitimate media type.

Seek time: In another example, if an authentic game title is distributed exclusively on flash drives having a total benchmark load time of 5 seconds, the acceptable range of load times could be from 4 to 6 seconds. However, an illegitimate game product embodied on a hard disk may also have a total measured title load time of 5 seconds, which would be within the acceptable range of total load times for a legitimate media type.

In this instance, each segment of the benchmark load time can be compared to the corresponding segment of the title load time to differentiate between the media types, again using threshold ranges. For example, a benchmark seek time associated with the flash drive could be 150 milliseconds, with an acceptable seek time range of 130 milliseconds to 170 milliseconds.

Thus, a measured title seek time of 10 ms associated with the hard disk drive would be outside of the acceptable range of seek times for a legitimate media type.

Here’s a second example: In another example, a benchmark throughput associated with loading the media product from a flash drive could be 30 megabytes per second, with an acceptable throughput range of 20 megabytes per second to 40 megabytes per second.

Thus, a measured title throughput of 100 megabytes per second associated with loading the media on a hard disk drive would be outside of the acceptable range of throughput for a legitimate media type."

From the BENCHMARK MEASUREMENT FOR LEGITIMATE DUPLICATION VALIDATION PDF:

FIELD

The present disclosure relates generally to piracy detection, and more particularly, to systems and methods for measuring and employing benchmarks for legitimate duplication validation.

BACKGROUND

In recent years, computing devices have developed universal appeal as a primary source of information, entertainment and communication. End-user products integrating these devices, such as televisions, DVD players, game consoles, computers and the like, are created, changed and refined to facilitate consumer access to digital content of all sizes and types.

Thus, consumers are often able to acquire large amounts of digital content, such as games, television shows, movies, applications, etc., with a single click of a button. Such digital content is often made available for a premium by device manufacturers and third party developers, who depend on consumer licenses of their content to recoup their research and development costs. These licenses allow the consumer to use and enjoy the content without infringing on the intellectual property rights of the manufacturers or developers.

Unfortunately, as technology rapidly progresses and content becomes more widely available and accessible, consumers have turned to piracy to illegally acquire certain digital content, and in some cases, entire libraries of content. Digital rights management (DRM) software and tamper-resistant hardware are employed by manufacturers to discourage illegal acquisitions. However, pirates are often able to reverse engineer such attempts and circumvent the protection entirely.

SUMMARY

Thus, there is a continuous and ongoing need for novel and improved digital rights management schemes that provide additional layers of protection against piracy. Embodiments of the invention meet this need and others by providing a system and method for measuring and employing benchmarks for legitimate duplication validation.

According to an embodiment of the invention, a method for validating legitimate media products associated with a legitimate media type is described. The method comprises loading a first media product having a first media type on a computing device, measuring a first load time for the first media product on the computing device, establishing a threshold range of acceptable first load times using a second load time for the legitimate media type associated with the legitimate media products, and determining whether the first load time is within the threshold range.

A system for effecting this method is also described herein according to an embodiment of the invention. For example, a system for validating legitimate media products associated with a legitimate media type is described. The system comprises a computing device that loads a first media product having a first media type and that measures a first load time for the first media product, a processor that calculates a second load time for the legitimate media type, establishes a threshold range of acceptable first load times using the second load time, and determines whether the first load time is within the threshold range, and a memory coupled to the processor.