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Apparatus for determining the output of a contract or agreement at any point in time as required, comprising means for creating a state machine representative of the contract or agreement, at least some of the clauses and/or conditions of the contract or agreement being represented as a respective state variable of the state machine, means for storing the state machine, means for receiving data repre sentative of one or more events relevant to the contract or agreement, determining Whether the event changes the state of the state machine and changing the state of the state machine if required. The apparatus of the present invention, can provide the core for licence repository and automated rights management services, making the task of rights deci sion-making easier and more ef? cient. Apreferred embodi ment involves providing an novel digital representation of the contract, the unique aspect of this model being …