Patent ID: 7720825

Claim:
A method for managing a retention period for electronic content data, the method on a server comprising: receiving, at a records manager system on a first information processing system, a set of electronic content data from a content provider, wherein the content provider has assigned a first set of usage policies to the set of electronic content data; determining, by the records manager system, a second usage policy based on a retention period defined for the set of electronic content data by the records manager system; instructing, by the records manager system, a digital rights manager system on a second information processing system to protect each of the plurality of electronic content data in the set of electronic content data with the second set of usage policies by replacing the first set of usage policies with the second set of usage policies, wherein the second set of usage policies includes usage information and a retention period, which is governed by the records manager system; storing, by the records manager system, a copy of the set of electronic content data that is to be protected by the digital rights manager system in a content manager system according to the retention period defined for the set of electronic content data; determining, by the records manager system that the retention period defined for the set of electronic content data has expired; deleting, by the records manager system, the set of electronic content from the content manager system in response to the retention period defined for the set of electronic content data having expired; and instructing, by the records manager system, the digital rights manager system, to update the second set of usage policies in response to the set of electronic content being deleted from the content manager system so that access to the set of electronic content data is denied.