A copyright protection method for digital media is disclosed. The present invention is designed to solve the problems of the existing media protection systems and to satisfy all of media owners, distributors, and consumers. The copyright protection method according to the present invention can be applied to any type of digital media and makes no assumptions on any particular media properties. The method employs symmetric and asymmetric cryptographic protection techniques as well as a digital watermarking method. Cryptography is used to provide the security of the copyright information access for media managers. Digital watermarking is used to modify the played or recorded media signals to keep track a list of involved playing devices in order to detect any illegal copy maker and to identify any legal copy from illegal copies.