The invention discloses the provide method of a copyright description, which includes the steps of: producing a copyright expression controlling to use the digit content, using the parametric constant to describe the permission and the restraint of the copyright in the copyright expression, and using the parametric variation to describe the consumption status information of the copyright; providing the copyright expression to a terminal device. The invention also discloses the application method of the copyright description, which includes: gaining a copyright expression controlling to use the digit content; transmitting the value of the copyright consumption status information to the corresponding parametric variation in the copyright expression and to carry out the copyright expression,obtaining the surplus consumption status information of the copyright, and using the digit content according to the surplus consumption status information. At the same time the invention discloses a server, a terminal device and a digital copyright management system. The invention may also expand the copyright description language when the terminal device does not update, and nimbly sets logical relations between different copyrights.