Method and system for licensing digital works

A method for distributing digital licenses for a digital product comprising the steps of:

• a) receiving a request, via a computer network, for product registration from a vendor, said request including a product name and a vendor identifier;
• b) assigning a product identifier and an encryption key to said product and forwarding registration to vendor, said registration including a product identifier, said key and said vendor identifier;
• c) receiving a request, via a computer network, from a user for a user license, said request including a user name and payment information;
• d) assigning a user identifier to said user and forwarding a user license, via a computer network, to said user, said license including said user identifier;
• e) receiving a request, via a computer network, for a product license from said user to use said product, said request including said user identifier and said product identifier;
• f) issuing a product license to said user, via a computer network, said product license including a user identifier, the product identifier and a decryption key that mates with said encryption key.

A system for distributing licenses for a product, comprising:

• a) a product registration process for assigning to a product a unique product identifier and an encryption key;
• b) a user registration process for assigning to a user a unique user identifier;
• and
• c) a license distribution process coupled to the user registration process and to the product registration process for providing to the user a product license containing the user identifier and a decryption key that mates with said encryption key.

A system for managing rights in digital material comprising:

• a) means for downloading a digital media product containing a product identifier;
• b) means for storing downloaded digital material;
• c) registry in device for playing the material, the registry containing a system identifier;
• d) user license stored in the registry of the media player device, said user license containing a user identifier;
• e) product license stored in memory that is operationally accessible to software running on the player, said product license containing the product identifier and the user identifier of the person authorized to play the material;
• f) software for comparing the user identifier in the product license to the user identifier on the user license each time the software receives a request to play the product.

A method for managing licenses for digital data comprising:

• a) assigning a vendor ID to owners of rights in digital data;
• b) registering a collection of digital data as a product with a product database, and assigning a product ID and an encryption key to the product;
• c) storing the product ID and the encryption key with the vendor ID in the product database;
• d) encrypting at least a portion of the collection of digital data with the encryption key, and
• e) storing the encrypted digital data and product ID in a product file.