Content protection

A method to protect digital content, the method comprising:

• installing a content player on a content user device;
• providing a unique identifier for the content player installed on the content user device to a central content storage entity;
• purchasing from a storefront on the central content storage entity a license to play proprietary digital content stored on the central content storage, wherein the proprietary digital content includes an original work of authorship protectable by copyright;
• downloading content-player-specific digital content from the central content storage to the content user device, the content-player-specific digital content including encoded content of the proprietary digital content embedded with the unique identifier;
• and,
• confirming, by the content player, that the unique identifier embedded with the encoded content matches the unique identifier provided for the content player before allowing play of the proprietary digital content on the content player.

A method to protect digital content, the method comprising:

• receiving, by a central content storage entity, a unique identifier for a content player installed on a content user device;
• receiving, by the central content storage entity, proprietary digital content, the proprietary digital content including an original work of authorship protectable by copyright;
• encoding, by the central content storage entity, the proprietary digital content to produce encoded content;
• providing a storefront, by the central storage entity, that allows purchase of a license to play the proprietary digital content on the content player, including the following when the license to play the proprietary content on the content player:
• embedding the unique identifier with the encoded content to produce content-player-specific digital content, and
• forwarding the content-player-specific digital content from the central content storage entity to the content player installed on the content user device.