Patent ID: 8079091

Claim:
A method of performing compliance processing, comprising: receiving an indication that compliance processing is to be performed with respect to content that is subject to an access restriction that would prevent the compliance processing from being performed if the content were not able to be accessed without the access restriction; and using a processor to process the content to ensure the content can be accessed without the access restriction to perform the compliance processing, wherein using the processor to ensure the content can be accessed without the access restriction still allows the access restriction to restrict the end-user recipient from accessing the content if the access restriction restricts the end-user recipient, wherein ensuring the content can be accessed without the access restriction to perform the compliance processing includes performing an at least partly automated negotiation between a first entity associated with the access restriction and a second entity associated with the compliance processing to obtain from the first entity access to the content by the second entity to enable the second entity to perform the compliance processing, and wherein the compliance processing could not be performed by the second entity without the access obtained through negotiation with the first entity.