Patent ID: 7530115

Claim:
A method of managing a computer system comprising a plurality of nodes connected via at least one communication medium, the computer system storing a plurality of digital assets, wherein at least one of the plurality of digital assets comprises content and is identified in the computer system via an identifier that is based, at least in part, on at least some of the content of the at least one of the plurality of digital assets, the plurality of nodes comprising at least a first node and a second node, wherein the identifier is the only identifier that can be used to identify the at least one of the plurality of digital assets in any communication between the first node and the second node, the method comprising acts of: (A) storing each of the plurality of digital assets via at least one of the plurality of nodes according to a distribution scheme that provides distributed storage of the plurality of digital assets among the plurality of nodes; and (B) in response to a request to access at least one of the plurality of digital assets; (B1) performing a determination via the first node to determine whether the first node stores the at least one of the plurality of digital assets; and (B2) performing a determination via the second node to determine whether the second node stores the at least one of the plurality of digital assets.