Method and system for digital rights management of documents

A method for receiving electronic documents over a communications network, wherein digital rights of access for each of said electronic documents are cryptographically managed and secured, comprising:

• electronically receiving via a cryptocontainer comprising a plurality of electronic documents by a recipient;
• installing a viewing tool from a public network server for accessing said plurality of electronic documents within said cryptocontainer;
• opening a secured connection with a key server and authenticating the identity of said recipient with a certificate issued by an authenticating server;
• comparing the identity of said recipient with each of a plurality of recipients listed in said cryptocontainer by said key server, and in case of a match,
• issuing a one-time license to decrypt a symmetric session key for said cryptocontainer to said recipient by said key server,
• and in case of no match,
• denying access to said recipient to said cryptocontainer.

A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer-usable medium having computer-readable code embodied therein, the computer-readable coded adapted to be executed to implement a method for transmitting electronic documents over a communications network, wherein digital rights of access for each of said electronic documents are cryptographically managed and secured, the method comprising:

• installing an authoring tool for generating and distributing cryptocontainers comprising said electronic documents, wherein said authoring tool includes a public key belonging to a key server and a public key belonging to said authoring tool;
• authenticating an author of a cryptocontainer with a certificate issued by an authenticating server, wherein an author license is created and stored with said authoring tool, and wherein said author license comprises an electronic address of said author and said public key belonging to said authoring tool, signed by a private key belonging to said key server;
• entering an electronic address for each of a plurality of recipients into a recipient list of said cryptocontainer in said authoring tool;
• generating a symmetric session key for said recipient list;
• encrypting said symmetric session key for said recipient list in said cryptocontainer together with said public key belonging to said key server;
• adding said electronic documents to said cryptocontainer, wherein for each recipient on said recipient list a usage rights timeline is generated for each of said electronic documents;
• encrypting said cryptocontainer comprising said symmetric session key for said recipient list, together with said electronic documents, and together with each of said usage rights timelines, wherein said cryptocontainer enables said symmetric session key for said recipient list to be individually decrypted from said cryptocontainer;
• and
• transmitting said cryptocontainer over a communications network to each of said plurality of recipients in said recipient list of said cryptocontainer.