1. At a computer system, a method for providing access to protected content, the method comprising: an act of detecting that a user is attempting to access protected content through an application at the computer system, the protected content protected in accordance with a protection policy managed by a digital rights management system that includes a separate digital rights management server, the protection policy including an application set, the application set identifying a set of applications that are allowed to access the content; prior to allowing the application to access the protected content: an act of the computer system exchanging information with digital rights management server to obtain a user key corresponding to the user, the user key for accessing the protected content; and an act of the computer system determining that the application is in the application set; and an act of the computer system allowing the application to use the user key to access the protected content in response to the determination.