Patent ID: 8413231

Claim:
A method, comprising: binding, by a policy server, a policy to a document, wherein the policy comprises one or more document control rules that assign one or more access rights associated with the document and describe one or more limitations on individual access by authenticated clients to the document, and the document control rules are stored in a private portion of the policy; recording, by the policy server, one or more document management rules in the policy, wherein the one or more document management rules describe one or more document management functions configured to be applied to the document by a different server, and the one or more document management rules are stored in a public portion of the policy; providing access, by the policy server, to the document control rules in the private portion of the policy, wherein said providing access to the document control rules comprises determining that a client requesting access to the document control rules is authenticated and has permission to access the private portion; and providing access, by the policy server, to the document management rules in the public portion of the policy, wherein access to the public portion does not require authentication or permission as is required for access to the private portion; and storing, by the policy server, data describing one or more applications of the one or more document management rules by the different server in association with the document.