Abstract: A method for identifying the approximate semantic content of digital objects is disclosed. Pursuant to the creation of a digital object, an approximation algorithm is used to compute the approximated semantic content of that object. This approximated content is then put into a normalized form. A hash function is used to compute a unique fingerprint for the resulting normalized, approximated object. This fingerprint is stored along with the object. The same approximation, normalization, and fingerprinting processes are used to generate a fingerprint for the digital object alleged to be semantically identical to the previous object. A match indicates that the alleged object and the previous object are approximately semantically identical. This verification method can be used to validate that a digital object has not been semantically altered, despite restructuring or reformatting of the object.