Patent ID: 7725401

Claim:
A method for creating a digital work, said digital work having content which is a renderable portion of the digital work and usage rights specifying a manner of use for the content, said digital work being adapted to be used within a system of repositories for enforcing usage rights so that the content can be used only in accordance with the manner of use specified by the usage rights, the method comprising: generating, by a programmed computing device, a computer readable label representing the content of a digital work before the content is prepared in digital form; generating, by a programmed computing device, usage rights specifying a manner of use of the content that is enforceable by a repository before the content is prepared in digital form; creating at least one instance of a protected electronic association between the label and the usage rights before the content is prepared in digital form; preparing, by a programmed computing device, the content in a cryptographically protected digital form; and creating an association between the digital work and the label to thereby create a digital work which is adapted to be used only in accordance with the manner of use specified by the usage rights associated with the label.