Abstract: A system for providing protection for identified digital assets, the system including: (1) a central control system (210); (2) a client terminal (220) able to communicate via a computer network (230) with the central control system (210); (3) client software (240) resident on each client terminal (220); (4) a master copy of a digital asset (250) stored on the central control system (210); (5) an encrypted copy of the digital asset (260) stored on the client terminal (220), with an encryption key for the encrypted copy of the digital asset stored on the central control system (210) and the client terminal (220); whereby, the client software (240) resident on the client terminal (220) controls access by a custodian (280) to the copy of the digital asset (260) stored on the client terminal (220), and the custodian's level of access to the copy of the digital asset (260) stored on the client terminal (220) can be altered from the central control system (210).