APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING ACCESS RIGHTS INFORMATION IN A PORTION OF A FILE

An apparatus and method for providing access rights information on computer accessible content are provided. The apparatus and method provide a mechanism through which access rights information is provided in association with information and content such that use of the information and content is controlled based on the access rights information. The apparatus and method include access rights information tags being associated with information and content. A web browser is provided with code, either in the web browser, or as a plugin application or browser extension, to process the access rights information and thereby control the usage of the associated information and content. In addition to being implemented as tags, the access rights information may be inserted into a file such as in the file header. In such an embodiment, the file header includes a pointer to the file data and thus, the inclusion of the access rights information into the file header does not disrupt the processing of the file. Moreover, with this embodiment, since the access rights information is part of the file itself, it becomes more difficult for would-be hackers to remove the access rights information.