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.