Systems and methods for managing digital assets in a distributed computing environment are described. Meta-data for the digital assets is stored separately from the digital assets. Meta-data for some of the digital assets is copied and stored at a central location. Meta-data for the digital assets is generated by clients of the system. A method for determining a set of policy attributes to be applied to a digital assets includes: receiving, at a client, a first asset identification tag corresponding to a digital asset and comprising one or more policies associated with the digital asset; associating a second asset identification tag with the digital asset; identifying, by the client a predetermined flag in the first asset identification tag; and deactivating, by the client responsive to the identified tag and the association of the second asset identification tag, the one or more policies associated with the first asset identification tag.