A method for protecting content including providing a host, a player, a communications link between host and player for communicating content therebetween, a recordable medium adapted to be played by and recorded to by the player, and an encrypted item of content, and producing a secure content license corresponding to the content, the license including a key for accessing the content, a permission list for determining whether the host or the player is allowed to access the content under pre-defined circumstances, the circumstances including a type of use of the encrypted content, an identification of the recordable medium, the recordable medium identification generated in accordance with a predefined recordable medium identification generation algorithm, and describing at least one physical characteristic of the recordable medium, and an identification of the content, the item identification describing at least one data characteristic of the content.