Document distribution management method and apparatus using a standard rendering engine and a method and apparatus for controlling a standard rendering engine

A method for distributing and enforcing use of digital documents having one or more usage rights associated therewith, said method comprising the steps of:

• storing at least one document on a server in computer readable form;
• accessing the server with a client having a standard application program including a rendering engine capable of rendering unencrypted documents;
• receiving by a rights management module included in said server a request for at least one of the documents from the client;
• delivering by said rights management module the at least one of the documents and a set of rights associated with and for enforcing use of the at least one of the documents to the client;
• downloading a connection module and a user interface module to said client;
• receiving the list of rights associated with the at least one of the documents with said connection module included in said client and attached to but separate from the rendering engine and that verifies the integrity of the client by confirming a user interface module is attached to said rendering engine and verifies the integrity of the rendering engine;
• controlling access by the client to the at least one of the documents for enforcing use of the at least one document in accordance with the set of rights associated with the at least one of the documents through said user interface module included in said client and attached to but separate from the rendering engine.

In a computer architecture including a server having documents stored thereon, a start page for accessing the documents, and a client running an application program having a rendering engine, a method of distributing and enforcing use of documents comprising the steps of:

• installing a rights management module on the server;
• downloading a connection module and a user interface module to said client;
• attaching said user interface module and said connection module to the rendering engines,
• wherein said user interface module and said connection module are separate from said rendering engine;
• creating a secure start page on the server;
• placing the documents in directory;
• programming the rights management module to include a pointer to the directory;
• encrypting an address to the directory;
• modifying the secure interface display to reference the user interface module and the start page;
• verifying the integrity of the client with the connection module by confirming the user interface module is attached to the rendering engine;
• verifying the integrity of the rendering engine with the connection module;
• unencrypting the address to the directory with the connection module to permit access to the start page and the documents on the server;
• and
• enforcing use of the documents with the user interface module in accordance with a set of rights associated with the documents.