Incredible new Microsoft patent application 20020091644

An anti-piracy software licensing system associates a license file with a
particular software product, so that the license file cannot be used with a
separate product. The license is associated with one and only one product by
associating an Installer Identifier (IID) with the license file. At
installation, a set-up or installation program can be executed to install the
software product. The set-up program will generate an IID based on a
characteristic of the media and will check the generated IID against the IID
stored in a license file on the same media. A match will verify that the
license file on the media (i.e., the media license file) was not tampered
with prior to installation and that the license file was intended to be used
with the software product on the media. However, if there is not a match,
then the installation will be terminated. At run-time the locally stored
license file will be checked. If the license file is present, execution of
the software product will be enabled. If the license is absent, execution of
the software product will be disabled.


===> now, where is the "novelty"?