Patent ID: 7925615

Claim:
A method for reducing duplication of files in a network system, the method comprising: determining a digital signature for a received digital file; accessing stored digital signatures and counters associated with stored digital files accessible by the network system, the counters being based on the numbers of times the stored digital files have been previously received by the network system; comparing, using a processor, the determined digital signature for the received digital file against the stored digital signatures for the stored digital files accessible by the network system; based on the comparison, identifying a related digital signature included in the stored digital signatures that relates to the determined digital signature for the received digital file, wherein the received digital file is the same as a related digital file included in the stored digital files that is associated with the related digital signature; based on a counter associated with the related digital file, determining whether the received digital file has been previously received by the network system more than a threshold number of times; conditioned on determining that the received digital file has been previously received by the network system more than the threshold number of times, replacing the received digital file with a location identifier associated with the related digital file; and conditioned on determining that the received digital file has not been previously received by the network system more than the threshold number of times, storing the received digital file.