A method, apparatus, article of manufacture, and a memory structure for managing media content having group watermarking data is disclosed. The method comprises transmitting a request to receive the media content from a content playback device, receiving a response to the transmitted request, fetching, by the content playback device according to the response, the requested media content and a watermark schema, the watermark schema fetched from cloud-based storage, identifying, by the content playback device, the group watermarking data in the media content according to the fetched watermarking schema, determining, by the content playback device if the media content is authorized for provision according to the group watermarking data and the fetched watermarking schema, and providing the media content for playback according to the determined authorization.