Patent ID: 7966491

Claim:
A central server in a network of a hybrid peer to peer type, comprising: a memory and a processor; receiving means for receiving a request from a non-peer client for obtaining a digital document by that non-peer client, said request containing a reference of said digital document, wherein the non-peer client does not constitute a peer of the network; selecting means for selecting a peer system of the network likely to contain said digital document, by searching in a database of said central server for an active peer system containing said digital document; generating means for generating an access key for controlling access to the digital document by said non-peer client, said generating means generating said access key by an encrypting method using a private key of said central server to encrypt a character string containing a current time when said encrypting method is executed and an address of said non-peer client on the network; sending means for sending a message to the non-peer client, comprising the reference of the digital document, an address of the selected peer system on the network and the generated access key, wherein said message contains information allowing said non-peer client to connect to the selected peer system via an Internet web browser; and authenticating means for authenticating an identifier of a user of said non-peer client, wherein said character string further comprises said identifier of said user of the non-peer client, and wherein said access key is designed to enable validation by said selected peer system of the network of an access request to said digital document by the user of the non-peer client on said selected peer system.