How Protected Content Is Used

Applications obtain use licenses from Windows Rights Management Services (RMS) servers to access protected content. Shown here is a scenario in which a user edits a protected document with Word 2003. The scenario proceeds as follows:

(1)The user opens the protected document in Word.

(2) Word requests a use license for the document from the RMS client. The RMS client verifies the identity of Word using a digital signature, to ensure that it will enforce the rights specified by the content owner, and that it’s not (for example) a cracker tool.

(3) The RMS client requests a use license from the RMS server. (The “server” might actually be a farm; RMS enables organizations to set up farms of servers that all share common certificates.) The request includes the user’s Rights Management Account Certificate, a digital certificate previously issued to the user by RMS that enables the user to access protected content on the specific computer. The request also includes the publishing license associated with the document. The publishing license includes the content key for the document encrypted with the RMS server’s public key, and it is digitally signed by the content author.