A rights-managed document has protected content from an author thereof, whereby a recipient of the document can render the protected content with a corresponding license if the recipient satisfies terms set forth in the license. In the document, a storage portion has a message that the document is rights management protected, and a custom data portion has a section including the protected content. The recipient if enabled can render the protected content in the custom data portion and if not enabled can only review the storage portion having the message. An enabled recipient handles the received rights-managed document by recognizing that the document has the protected content in the custom data portion thereof, and discounting the storage portion of the document. Thus, the recipient examines the custom data portion of the document and proceeds based thereon to render the protected content in the custom data portion.