A method is provided for referencing content by generating a bound uniform resource locator. Content is selected, a fragment identifier is calculated for the content, and the content is normalized. A content digest of the normalized content is calculated. A content binding document is assembled in which the content binding document comprises: an original URL to the content, the fragment identifier, the name of a method for normalizing the content, the name of a method for calculating the content digest, and the content digest. A content binding document digest is calculated. A bound universal resource locator is generated that contains the content binding document digest and the name of the method that was used to calculate the content binding document digest. The content binding document is stored using its digest as a file name or database key, and the content binding document can be retrieved using the bound universal resource locator.