1. A method for a licensor to issue a digital license to a customer for a corresponding piece of digital content, the customer having forwarded payment for the license to a retailer, the payment to be shared with the licensor in a pre-determined manner, the method comprising: receiving, by the licensor from the retailer, an actual license request as composed by the retailer, the actual license request including customer-based information obtained from the customer, and including retailer-based information identifying the retailer to the licensor and acknowledging to the licensor that the retailer owes a portion of the received payment to the licensor, wherein the customer-based information is obtained using a controller which is delivered to the customer by the retailer, the controller directing a digital rights management system (DRM) of the customer to send the customer-based information to the retailer; and noting, by the licensor, based on the retailer-based information, that the retailer identified thereby owes the licensor at least a portion of the forwarded payment.