A digital rights management (DRM) system operates on a computing device when a user requests that a protected piece of digital content be rendered by the computer device in a particular manner. The DRM system has a license store, a license evaluator, and a state store. The license store stores digital licenses on the computing device. The license evaluator determines whether any licenses stored in the license store correspond to the requested digital content and whether any such corresponding licenses are valid, reviews license rules in each such valid license, and determining based on such reviewed license rules whether such license enables the requesting user to render the requested digital content in the manner sought. The state store maintains state information corresponding to each license in the license store, where the state information is created and updated by the license evaluator as necessary.