METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR LOCALLY CACHING DIGITAL RIGHTS INFORMATION

Method and apparatus for locally caching rights management information for objects and operations in user sessions. A rights caching component may be implemented in network-based computer environments for which digital rights management (DRM) is applied to large collections of objects, such as Computer-Aided Design (CAD) environments. DRM information may be stored and managed by a rights management server. A rights caching component on a workstation may create and manage a local cache of a subset of the DRM information for objects that may be used in a session. Determining the appropriate rights for operations and objects during the session may be performed by accessing the local cache of DRM information. The local cache of DRM information may be encrypted or otherwise protected. The rights caching component may periodically or aperiodically synchronize the local cache of DRM information with the DRM information managed by the rights management server.