Digital rights management in a distributed network

Apparatus operative in a distributed network in which content providers offload given content for delivery from servers managed by a content delivery network service provider, wherein authorization to access the given content is obtained through business logic and the given content is secured by a rights management (DRM) scheme, comprising:

• a set of processors located across the distributed network;
• and
• computer memory associated with each processor and holding computer program instructions that when executed by the processor comprise a license server processor that is operative to receive and verify a token generated according to a secret shared only by a given content provider and the content delivers network service provider to thereby generate a DRM license by which an end user client obtains rights for given content of the given content provider;
• wherein the license server processors executed on the set of processors located across the distributed network comprise a distributed set of license sever processors that operate autonomously from one another to enable DRM licenses to be generated and managed from individual license server processors in a de-centralized manner and without access to the business logic or any authentication information associated with end users requesting the given content.