1. A system for enabling enforcement of written software licensing terms for a software product for use with a computer having a set of hardware components, the system comprising: a software product resident on the computer, the software product having an associated product ID and generating a hardware ID that identifies the set of hardware components, the software product sending the product ID and hardware ID to an activation authority remote from the computer, wherein the hardware ID is a 64-bit hardware ID that identifies a set of ten hardware components within the computer; an activation unit at the activation authority, the activation unit computing a license file from the product ID and hardware ID, the activation unit returning the license file to the software product; and the software product storing the license file locally on the computer.