The present invention is directed to a time-based licensing scheme for software deployment. According to an aspect of the present invention, lime-based software can be disseminated through various channels, for example, a network, CD's, floppy disks, etc., but before the time-based software can be launched, a user needs to supply account information as well as an amount of time requested for using the time-based software. ;In another aspect, the time-based software communicates with an authentication server preferably over a network to ascertain if the user is authorized and if the amount of time requested is approved. If the user is approved, the time-based software will be activated for the amount of time requested. If there is no time credit left in the user account, the user will not be approved and a rejection message will be sent to the user. Advantageously, the present invention allows for no restriction on where, when, or how many copies of the time-based software are used, as long as the user maintains sufficient time credit in the authentication server.
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