The software is tied to your account, necessitating login to verify your purchased software.

Account-based: An evolution of the abovementioned Activation system, especially on software-as-a-service platforms.

Privacy concerns aside, this method is gaining ground on every single piece of software in the market, from Operating Systems (infamously, Windows' activation) to productivity (much of Adobe's, AutoDesk's and Microsoft's wares use it) to even consumer games (the download version of all of PopCap Games' titles). On first install, information about your computer is sent back to the developers, and on subsequent installs the information is checked and you're blocked from proceeding if the information doesn't add up.

Activation: The software key is registered and paired with your computer's hardware somehow.

However, if the dongle fails or you ever lose it and the company has went out of business, you can kiss your software good-bye. Their greatest strength is being almost impossible to hack, since their construction is usually very much tamper-proof and hacking one would require extremely sophisticated equipment worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Dongles are currently usually stuck into an USB port, previously they were stuck into the serial or parallel port. copies of Nero Burning ROM Professional bundled with certain CD writers).

Another variant of this is that the software is tied down to a particular piece of hardware and will not run if the hardware is absent (e.g. Software that uses this method will only run if said dongle is present, and presents an error message followed by immediately quitting if the dongle is absent. Steel Beasts Pro PE and the DJMax Trilogy).

'The Dongle': A variant of the 'Key Disc' method mostly found on professional and enterprise level software, although it's starting to see use in consumer games as well (e.g.

'Key disc' method: The game prompts the user to insert their authentic installation or game disc, checking for some kind of identifying signature that they've carefully hidden in the disc format itself, in a way that would not (generally) be preserved when the player simply makes an electronic copy of the software code and files.This has been a concern for game makers even from the start, so throughout the years they've come up with a variety of ways to verify that whoever is playing their game has fronted the proper cash for that privilege. When a player purchases a video game, how does the developer prevent them from simply making an illicit copy of the software and giving it away to a friend? Unlike physical merchandise (such as books), video games exist as electronic data, which is quite easy to make perfect copies of.

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