Patent ID: 8775562

Claim:
A method in a peer-to-peer file sharing client data processing system for background file sharing in a peer-to-peer file sharing network, the method comprising: allocating background resources in the peer-to-peer file sharing client data processing system for background file sharing comprising a specified amount of bandwidth and a specified amount of storage space to be used for background file sharing; growing a background swarm by requesting, by the peer-to-peer file sharing client data processing system, at least one file fragment for a file from the background swarm for background file sharing such that the at least one file fragment becomes available to be distributed from the peer-to-peer file sharing client data processing system to peer data processing systems in the background swarm; receiving, by the peer-to-peer file sharing client data processing system, the at least one file fragment from the background swarm for background file sharing of a file using at least a portion of the specified amount of bandwidth; temporarily storing, by the peer-to-peer file sharing client data processing system, the at least one file fragment in at least a portion of the specified amount of storage space; for a given file fragment within the at least one file fragment, identifying a key value; looking up file information for the given file fragment using the key value, wherein the file information includes tags assigned to the file; and presenting the file information to a user, wherein the at least one file fragment is part of a file that is not being downloaded in the foreground.