Patent ID: 7472280

Claim:
A digital rights management system, comprising: a physical electronic key arranged to wirelessly transmit a first activation code, the first activation code being provided by, fixedly stored on and unique to the physical electronic key; a web site receiving a request for digital content and the first activation code from a user's computer; a content provider receiving the request for digital content and the first activation code from the website, generating a second activation code based on the first activation code, encoding the requested digital content with the second activation code, and outputting the digital content encoded with the second activation code; and a playing device including a transceiver for wirelessly receiving the first activation code from the physical electronic key, and for receiving the digital content encoded with the second activation code, wherein the playing device verifies that the second activation code was generated based on the first activation code from the physical electronic key, and plays the digital content responsive to verifying an association between the first activation code and the second activation code.