Digital Creative Works such as copyrighted electronic media are packaged
in a secure electronic format, or CONTAINER, and registered on associated registration
server, which serves to provide on-line licensing and copyright management for
that Work. Users are connected to the registration server through a computer network
or the Internet to enable data transfers and to transact licenses to utilize the
media. Packaged electronic media are typically created by an author or derivative
user of the work. Once the packaged media is registered on the server, the media
is made available for limited use and possible license through an authorization
server. This limited use is specified within the minimum permissions data set assigned
to each packaged media. Without a license, users are typically permitted to view
the packaged media—through a system which unpackages the media—but
cannot save, print or otherwise transfer the media without obtaining auxiliary
permissions to do so from the authorization server. The electronic media is authenticated
through digital signatures and optional encryption.