Embodiments of the present invention provide a method, an apparatus and a system for managing document rights. In the method, the apparatus and the system for managing document rights which are provided in the embodiments of the present invention, a server receives a rights request from a client, where the rights request is used for obtaining rights information of a document; determines, according to the rights request, whether the first rights information of the document is saved; when the first rights information is not saved, sends, to the client, the second rights information corresponding to the document confidentiality level, so that the client decrypts the document according to the second rights information; and when the first rights information is saved, sends the first rights information to the client so that the client decrypts the document according to the saved first rights information.