Patent ID: 8402557

Claim:
A method of governing use of a piece of electronic content, the method comprising: receiving an encrypted piece of electronic content; receiving a first electronic object, the first electronic object being associated with the piece of electronic content, the first electronic object comprising one or more permissions specifying one or more permitted and/or prohibited usages of the piece of electronic content; receiving a second electronic object, the second electronic object specifying one or more conditions associated with use of a group of electronic content, the one or more conditions comprising a monetary cost associated with use of at least one piece of content within the content group, the group including, at least in part, the piece of electronic content; using tamper-resistant hardware and/or software to securely decrypt and make at least one use of the piece of electronic content in accordance with the first electronic object and the second electronic object, the hardware and/or software being resistant to tampering by a user thereof; and employing a usage pattern evaluation process for detecting security breaches, wherein a security breach is detected when there is a difference between a first amount and a second amount, the first amount being determined using at least one of the one or more conditions associated with the second electronic object, and the second amount being derived from billing records of a user of the piece of electronic content.