13w 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...