Patent ID: 7647277

Claim:
A method of regulating access to a content selection, the method comprising: receiving a request to access a content selection; configuring a media player to access a medium associated with the content selection; accessing the medium associated with the content selection; configuring the media player to access a medium rule base stored with the medium, a media player rule base stored on the media player, and a host rule base stored on the host, wherein the medium rule base includes a set of access rules related to content permissions associated with the medium, the media player rule base includes a set of access rules related to content permissions associated with the media player, and the host rule base includes a set of access rules related to content permissions associated with the host; identifying priorities for rule bases at the media player, wherein priorities determine the order in which rule bases are accessed; accessing rule bases to analyze the content request in the order of the identified priorities; and enabling access to the content selection in accordance with one or more results of the analysis.