Patent ID: 8738725

Claim:
A machine-implemented method of managing data among a plurality of machines, comprising: receiving, by circuitry, a first request from a first machine to join a community internet drive managed at least partially by a remote machine; in response to receiving the first request, transmitting, by the circuitry, data initiating the configuration of the first machine to be part of the community internet drive; receiving, by the circuitry, a second request from a second machine to join the community internet drive managed at least partially by the remote machine; in response to receiving the second request, transmitting, by the circuitry, data initiating the configuration of the second machine to be part of the community internet drive; receiving, by the circuitry, a third request from a third machine to join the community internet drive managed at least partially by the remote machine; in response to receiving the third request, transmitting, by the circuitry, data initiating the configuration of the third machine to be part of the community internet drive; receiving, by the circuitry, an indication of first data associated with a first user to be stored in the community internet drive; causing, by the circuitry, at least a first portion of the first data to be stored on the second machine; causing, by the circuitry, at least a second portion of the first data to be stored on the third machine; determining, by the circuitry, a fourth machine has accessed and downloaded a first copy of the first data; subsequent to determining that the fourth machine has accessed and downloaded the first copy of the first data, generating, by the circuitry, progenitor data indicating that the first copy of the first data is substantively identical to the first data associated with the first user; receiving, by the circuitry, a request from a fifth machine to access the first copy of the first data; and in response to receiving the request from the fifth machine to access the first copy of the first data: identifying, by the circuitry, the first data associated with the first user based on the progenitor data; determining, by the circuitry, whether the first user has authorized the fifth machine to access the first data; and in response to determining that the first user has authorized the fifth machine to access the first data, enabling, by the circuitry, the fifth machine to access the first data.