Patent ID: 7594082

Claim:
A method of managing content, comprising: receiving an indication that two or more retention policies apply to an item of content; and automatically generating, using a processor for the item of content, a merged retention policy that is based at least in part on the respective requirements of the two or more retention policies by resolving a conflict, if any, at least in part by comparing the respective retention periods prescribed by the two or more retention policies to determine a longest one of the respective retention periods and adopting the longest one of the respective retention periods as a retention period for the merged retention policy based at least in part on the determination that it is the longest one; wherein resolving the conflict, if any, further comprises in part adopting as a storage location for the merged retention policy a nearest one of the storage locations associated with the two or more retention policies in the case a storage location is associated with a retention policy, wherein a nearer storage location is a more readily accessible storage location.