Implementations disclose an access control mechanism for peer-to-peer sharing technology. A method includes receiving, by a processing device of a first user device, an encrypted media item and a wrapped encryption key from a second user device via a peer-to-peer connection; transmitting, by the first user device, the wrapped encryption key and a request to a media server to determine whether the first user device is authorized to play the encrypted media item; receiving, from the media server, a response indicating the first user device is authorized to play the encrypted media item, the response comprising an encryption key derived from the wrapped encryption key; and decrypting the encrypted media item using the encryption key to play the media item.