Enhanced security preview of digital content

An apparatus comprising:

• a processor configured to:
• receive a request for a digital work and a criteria from a customer;
• create, in response to receiving the request and the criteria, a masked digital work by adding one or more masking effect layers to an original form of the digital work to add a masking effect to the original form of the digital work, the masking effect being dynamically generated by selecting the one or more masking effect layers to add to the original form of the digital work based at least in part on the criteria received from the customer, the masking effect being of a utility-reducing character and adapted to affect at least one aspect of the original form of the digital work selected from a group consisting of display, audio, playback quality, and resolution of the digital work;
• transmit, in response to the request, the masked digital work;
• receive, in response to transmitting the masked digital work, a further communication relating to the digital work;
• evaluate whether the further communication satisfies one of a plurality of predetermined criteria;
• and
• in response to the further communication satisfying a first predetermined criteria transmit the digital work in the original form,
• wherein the criteria from the customer includes a search term that is used to generate a selected relevant portion of the digital work, the masking effect being adapted to affect at least a portion of the digital work determined to be outside of the selected relevant portion.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon, the instructions upon executing causing a processor to perform step comprising:

• receiving a request for a digital work and a criteria from a customer;
• creating, in response to receiving the request and the criteria, a masked digital work by adding one or more masking effect layers to an original form of the digital work to add a masking effect to the original form of the digital work, the masking effect being dynamically generated by selecting the one or more masking effect layers to add to the original form of the digital work based at least in part on the criteria received from the customer, the masking effect being of a utility-reducing character and adapted to affect at least one aspect of the original form of the digital work selected from a group consisting of display, audio, playback quality, and resolution of the digital work;
• transmitting, in response to the request, the masked digital work;
• receiving, in response to transmitting the masked digital work;
• a further communication relating to the digital work;
• evaluating whether the further communication satisfies one of a plurality of predetermined criteria;
• and
• in response to the further communication satisfying a first predetermined criteria transmitting the digital work in the original form,
• wherein the criteria from the customer includes a search term that is used to generate a selected relevant portion of the digital work, the masking effect being adapted to affect at least a portion of the digital work determined to be outside of the selected relevant portion.

A method of distributing and transmitting a digital work, comprising:

• receiving a request for a digital work and a criteria from a customer;
• creating a masked digital work by adding one or more masking effect layers to an original form of the digital work to add a masking effect to the original form of the digital work, the masking effect being dynamically based at least in part on the criteria received from the customer, the masking effect being of a utility-reducing character and adapted to affect at least one aspect of the original form of the digital work selected from a group consisting of display, audio, playback quality, and resolution of the digital work;
• transmitting, in response to the request, the masked digital work;
• receiving, in response to transmitting the masked digital work, a further communication relating to the digital work;
• evaluating whether the further communication satisfies one of a plurality of predetermined criteria;
• and
• in response to the further communication satisfying a first predetermined criteria transmitting the digital work in the original form,
• wherein the criteria from the customer includes a search term, the masking effect being adapted to affect at least a portion of the digital work determined to not be relevant to the search term.