a system and method for securing intellectual property rights in distributed intellectual property . rights are granted and policed in electronically distributed intellectual property . use limitations are established by agreement by the content provider and the client . the use limitations are reflected in time - based , usage - based and player based component codes that are used to determine if the client is entitled to use the intellectual property . intellectual property is protected from unauthorized use by encrypting the intellectual property with a key created from some or all of the component codes . as the component codes are known to both the client and the content provider , no key exchange is required .