A digital content management system includes a host machine and a delivery machine remote from the host machine. The host machine sends validation agent software to the delivery machine, which executes the validation agent. The validation agent performs one or more tests or observations to determine whether the delivery machine has been compromised, and communicates the results of the tests or observations to the host machine. If the host machine determines that the delivery machine has not been compromised, the host machine sends digital content to the delivery machine, and a player module at the delivery machine delivers the content to the user according to an appropriate set of access rights. After delivering the content, the delivery machine deletes the content to prevent unwanted access to the content. The content can contain signals indicative that the content is legitimate, such as watermarks or bad code segments or sectors.