A method, system, and computer program product for exercising rights based on determining trust in an issuance of a rights expression, including issuing rights expressions by a chain of servers, forming a chain of rights expressions issued from server to server and finally from the last server to a client, such that each of the rights expressions except the last includes a specification of rights for the next server to issue the rights in the next rights expression; determining whether or not each of the servers has a right to issue the respective rights expression; exercising by the client the rights expressed in the last rights expression as being trusted, if it is determined that each of the servers had a right to issue the respective rights expression; and not exercising by the client the rights expressed in the last rights expression as not being trusted, if it is determined that at least one of the servers did not have the right to issue the respective rights expression.