Patent ID: 7367061

Claim:
A method for storing and securely transmitting digital media data in a networked system, comprising: determining an amount of memory for storing the digital media data; at a content selection computer querying first and second network computers to determine an amount of available memory in first and second memory storage devices associated with the first and second network computers; the content selection computer sending the amount of available memory in the first and second memory storage devices to a data distribution computer; at the data distribution computer querying third and fourth network computers to determine an amount of available memory in third and fourth memory storage devices associated with the third and fourth network computers; receiving the digital media data from a content service provider computer and partitioning the digital media data into a plurality of digital media data sets; encrypting the plurality of digital media data sets into a plurality of encrypted digital media data sets using at least one encryption key value; storing the plurality of encrypted digital media data sets in at least two of the first, second, third and fourth memory storage devices; retrieving the plurality of encrypted digital media data sets and transmitting the plurality of encrypted digital media data sets to a decryption device; and, decrypting the plurality of encrypted digital media data sets in the decryption device using at least one encryption key value to obtain the digital media data.