Instance specific digital watermarks

1. A system for dynamically applying digital watermarks to content comprising:

means for sending a request for use of content by a user device;

means for forwarding the requested content to a security module of the user device;

means for dynamically determining a digital watermark based at least on instance information about a rendering engine coupled to the security module of the user device;

means for rendering the requested content to a display window using the rendering engine coupled to the security module of the user device; and

means for applying said dynamically determined digital watermark to said display window.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the dynamic digital watermark supplements an existing digital watermark that is also rendered by said rendering engine.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the digital watermark is visible.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the digital watermark is not visible.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the digital watermark comprises at least one of origin information, copyright information and owner information.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein said means for dynamically determining comprise at least one of installed software and hardware on the user device.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the instance information about a rendering engine of the user device comprises information about the method of rendering.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the digital watermark is unique to the instance information.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the digital watermark comprises information about at least one of the rendering engine device and the user device.

10. The system of claim 1 , wherein said means for dynamically determining is further based on information about at least one distributor of the content.

11. A method of dynamically applying digital watermarks to content, said method comprising:

sending a request for use of content by a user device;

forwarding the requested content to a security module of the user device;

dynamically determining a digital watermark based at least on instance information about a rendering engine coupled to the security module of the user device;

rendering the requested content to a display window using the rendering engine coupled to the security module of the user device; and

applying said dynamically determined digital watermark to said display window.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the dynamic digital watermark supplements an existing digital watermark that is also rendered during said rendering step.

13. The method of claim 11 , wherein the digital watermark is visible.

14. The method of claim 11 , wherein the digital watermark is not visible.

15. The method of claim 11 , wherein the digital watermark comprises at least one of origin information, copyright information and owner information.

16. The method of claim 11 , wherein said step of dynamically determining is further based on at least one of installed software and hardware on the user device.

17. The method of claim 11 , wherein the instance information comprises information about the method of rendering.

18. The method of claim 11 , wherein the digital watermark is unique to the instance information.

19. The method of claim 11 , wherein the digital watermark comprises information about at least one of the rendering engine device and the user device.

20. The method of claim 11 , wherein said determining step is further based on information about at least one distributor of content.

21. The system of claim 1 , wherein said rendering engine is a web browser.

22. The system of claim 1 , wherein said content is HTML content.

23. The system of claim 1 , wherein said means for applying said dynamically determined watermark is performed using a translucent window displayed over said display window.

24. The system of claim 1 , wherein identical copies of said content are distributed to multiple user devices.

25. The method of claim 11 , wherein said rendering engine is a web browser.

26. The method of claim 11 , wherein said content is HTML content.

27. The method of claim 11 , wherein said step of applying said dynamically determined watermark is performed using a translucent window displayed over said display window.

28. The method of claim 11 , wherein identical copies of said content are distributed to multiple user devices.