Abstract: A method for sharing content between clients at a common trust level in a trust hierarchy associated with a network implementing policy-based management includes receiving integrity information from a first client at a first trust level in the trust hierarchy at a second client at the first trust level, requesting permission to receive electronic content from the first client, receiving a determination regarding the requested permission, and communicating the determination to the first client. The first client obtained content from a policy enforcement point in the network. The request for permission is made to the policy enforcement point and the request includes the integrity information. The determination is received from the policy enforcement point and is based in part on the integrity information about the first client. The second client communicates to the first client the determination of whether the second client receives the content from the first client.