An apparatus and method for controlling a rights object in Digital Rights Management in a portable terminal are provided. In the method, a first time zone information of network is detected when the rights object for content is provided. A second time zone information of network is detected when the content is used. An absolute time difference between the time zone informations is computed when the first time zone information is not equal to the second time zone information. As such, use authority for the content is managed by controlling the rights object according to the absolute time difference.