An apparatus and associated methods are disclosed for managing access to digital assets. In at least one embodiment, a digital asset is encrypted and received operably by a computer. An encrypted self-validating string is external to the digital asset and received operably by the computer, the encrypted self-validating string being comprised of encrypted control logic and one or more control parameters selected by a developer of the digital asset. A tool cooperates with the digital asset for selection by the developer of a component that comprises at least a portion of the digital asset, the tool encrypting the component by multi-pass compilation of the component with optimization and obfuscation by converting the component from an interpreted language into a compiled language.