Patent ID: 8140439

Claim:
A method for transferring digital content from a first user to a second user, the method comprising: syncing a first device belonging to the first user and one or more additional devices belonging to the first user, to create a group of synced devices comprising the first device and the one or more additional devices; transferring a partial ownership of an instance of the digital content from the first device belonging to the first user to a second device belonging to the second user, the instance of the digital content residing on the first device belonging to the first user and having a first resolution, wherein the partial ownership comprises a right to render the content using a second resolution on the second device belonging to the second user; in response to a determination that one or more copies of the digital content reside on the one or more additional devices belonging to the first user, automatically deleting, upon transferring of the partial ownership, the one or more copies of the digital content at the one or more additional devices belonging to the first user and synced to the first device, the one or more additional devices including at least one offline device, wherein deleting a copy of the digital content at the at least one offline device comprises deleting the copy of the digital content when the at least one offline device becomes online; and based upon a confirmation that no copies of the digital content reside on the one or more additional devices belonging to the first user, conveying full ownership of the instance of the digital content from the first device belonging to the first user to the second device belonging to the second user, wherein the full ownership comprises a right to render the content using at least the first resolution on the second device belonging to the second user; wherein the partial ownership further comprises a limitation to disable the second user from copying or transferring the content to another user; and the full ownership comprises providing the second user a right to copy or transfer the content to another user.