Patent ID: 8571990

Claim:
A method of providing reputation services over a network, implemented in a computer system associated with a trusted entity, the method comprising: at the computer system associated with the trusted entity, receiving a request from a first party for a signed assertion concerning the reputation of a second party; retrieving reputation-forming information (RFI) associated with the second party, the RFI comprising information that permits the trusted entity to make the requested signed assertion concerning the reputation of the second party; creating, by the computer system, a reputation statement concerning the second party from the RFI; binding, by the computer system, a piece of content, wherein the binding comprises generating a hash of the content; generating, by the computer system, an assertion from the reputation statement, wherein the assertion includes the reputation statement, at least a portion of the RFI used to generate the reputation statement, said hash of the content, and an identity of the trusted entity; signing, by the computer system, at least a portion of the assertion to produce said signed assertion to identify the trusted entity as the source of the signed assertion; and transmitting, by the computer system, the signed assertion over the network to the first party.