A digital rights management (DRM) method for protecting digital documents, implemented in a DRM system. When an operator (document publisher) scans a document on a scanner to generates a digital document and specifies a list of users who will be granted access rights to the document, the DRM system applies digital rights protection to the document according to the specified access rights, and distributes the document to the specified users; the system also sends a confirmation notification such as an email to the document publisher, which contains a list of the receiving users, a copy of the protected digital document, and a link to a web-based tool that will allow the publisher to modify the access rights granted to the users. In addition, when applying digital rights protection, the DRM system specifies the publisher as a user who will have access rights to the document.