scheme of the present invention never requires that the content represented by the file 105 be licensed to any intermediate holder that is neither the retailer server nor the authentication server need have any control over or custody of the content which passes solely between the publisher server 100 and the user pc 110 in a presently preferred embodiment the file 105 is maintained in encrypted form although such encryption may not be required for all files 105 nevertheless for those files that are encrypted the publisher or other copyright holder can be assured that unauthorized copies will not exist in some embodiments it may also be desirable to configure the reader 115 to decrypt only a page of text currently being displayed so that the remaining text is maintained in fully encrypted form even within the reader 115 referring next to fig2 a and 2b the events associated with a single transaction may be appreciated in greater detail referring first to fig2 a and beginning at step 200 the user connects to a retail web site such as amazon com which allows the user to peruse the variety of books available for purchase the user then selects one or more titles at step 202 and at step 204 sends a.