A patent filed for in 2011 by Sony Computer Entertainment America (and unearthed last week by web site Dark Zero) uses load times to determine if software being loaded into a system is legitimate or pirated.
The patent, "BENCHMARK MEASUREMENT FOR LEGITIMATE DUPLICATION VALIDATION," is described as follows in the patent application:
"A system and method for detecting piracy of a software product that is distributed on a particular media type is described. Embodiments of the invention track a title load time of a software product that is distributed on a particular media type, and compare it against a benchmark load time for that media type. This comparison is used to detect if the title may have been illegally transferred or pirated to another, unauthorized media type."
The patent basically uses a benchmark of "run times for legitimate software" and matches that against a piece of software being loaded onto a system. If the software in question fails that first test, it will go through a secondary validation process. If it fails that too, the process calls for the software in question to be blocked.
Because SCEA is named as the filer of this particular application, we assume the method will be used for one of its video game platforms such as the PS4 or the PS Vita.
You can check out the patent here.