A method for applying policy restrictions on a piece of data, wherein the policy restrictions are automatically applied to the piece of data, the method comprising: defining policy restrictions for a defined subset of potential users; by a rights management client application at a sender, sending a request for a publishing license for a piece of data to a rights management server, wherein the request includes a rights expression corresponding to the policy restrictions defined for the defined subset of potential users; by the rights management server, creating the publishing license for the piece of data; by the rights management client application at the sender, receiving the publishing license, attaching the publishing license to the piece of data, and sending the piece of data to a recipient, wherein the recipient is a user of the defined subset of potential users; by a rights management client application at the recipient, sending a request for a use license to the rights management server, wherein the request includes the publishing license and a user certificate of the recipient; by the rights management server, determining whether the piece of data is to be used by a user of the defined subset of potential users, wherein the determining comprises receiving the request for the use license and employing the publishing license and the user certificate to determine whether the recipient is an authorized user; by the rights management server, returning the use license; and by the rights management client application at the recipient, providing the piece of data along with the policy restrictions defined in the publishing license and/or use license to an application for placing the respective restrictions on the piece of data. defining policy restrictions for a defined subset of potential users; by a rights management client application at a sender, sending a request for a publishing license for a piece of data to a rights management server, wherein the request includes a rights expression corresponding to the policy restrictions defined for the defined subset of potential users; by the rights management server, creating the publishing license for the piece of data; by the rights management client application at the sender, receiving the publishing license, attaching the publishing license to the piece of data, and sending the piece of data to a recipient, wherein the recipient is a user of the defined subset of potential users; by a rights management client application at the recipient, sending a request for a use license to the rights management server, wherein the request includes the publishing license and a user certificate of the recipient; by the rights management server, determining whether the piece of data is to be used by a user of the defined subset of potential users, wherein the determining comprises receiving the request for the use license and employing the publishing license and the user certificate to determine whether the recipient is an authorized user; by the rights management server, returning the use license; and by the rights management client application at the recipient, providing the piece of data along with the policy restrictions defined in the publishing license and/or use license to an application for placing the respective restrictions on the piece of data.