Supplementary trust model for software licensing/commercial digital distribution policy

A license, stored on a computer-readable medium, corresponding to an application, the application comprising a licensable product, the license comprising:

• an application product policy definition license comprising a plurality of product policy policies, each product policy corresponding to a usage right for the application;
• a licensable unit product policy definition license comprising a plurality of product policies, each product policy corresponding to a usage right for the licensable product;
• and
• a product key certificate.

A method for externally validating a use license corresponding to a software product, comprising:

• receiving a request to use a software product;
• retrieving a use license associated with the software product, wherein the use license contains external validation data;
• validating the use license according to the external validation data;
• and
• permitting usage of the software product according to the use license if the use license is successfully validated.