Patent ID: 7320140

Claim:
A method for defining rights applicable to a digital object, the method comprising: receiving a set of initial rights for the digital object and a set of modifying rights for the digital object, at least one of the set of initial rights and the set of modifying rights specifying one or more conditions on rights in the respective set of rights; defining a new set of rights for the digital object based on the set of initial rights and the set of modifying rights, the new set of rights specifying one or more new conditions on rights in the new set of rights, the new conditions being defined based on one or more of the conditions in the set of initial rights and/or the set of modifying rights; selecting one or more ancestor rights for the digital object in a hierarchy of rights defined by the new set of rights, the one or more ancestor rights being above a child right and a parent right in the hierarchy, the hierarchy specifying one or more of the new conditions on one or more of the ancestor rights and the child right; and for each of the one or more ancestor rights, recursively modifying one or more conditions defined on the child right based on one or more conditions on the ancestor rights.