A method of storing and tracking digitally-encoded material includes
associating a unique identifier with the digitally-encoded material,
associating one or more built-in functions with the digitally-encoded
material so that the unique identifier and the built-in functions are
coupled to the digitally-encoded material. The built-in functions can
govern transforms and rendering of the digitally-encoded material. The
tracking is performed by associating a history of the digitally-encoded
material with the digitally-encoded material. The history can be
associated with the digitally-encoded material or kept in a database that
communicates with the digitally-encoded material via the identifier. The
built-in functions enable the digitally-encoded material to be stored in
RAM in an encrypted form. A method for tracking can include encrypting a
combination including the digitally-encoded material and the unique
identifier and appending built-in function source code and the encrypted
combination to form an executable entity executable independent of any
particular operating system.
