Patent ID: 7047406

Claim:
A method for electronically delivering files over a public network of computers comprising at least one server node and multiple client nodes, the method comprising: (a) enabling secure and reliable peer-to-peer file sharing between two client nodes by generating account information for a user, including a digital certificate, in response to a registration process, wherein the digital certificate includes a private key and a public key, (i) in response to a file being selected for publication on a first client node by the user, generating and associating a digital fingerprint with the file, generating a bitstream ID for the file and including the bitstream ID in the fingerprint, and using the user's private key to generate a digital signature from the file and including the digital signature in the fingerprint; (ii) adding an entry for the file to a searchable index of shared files on the server node and storing the fingerprint on the server; (iii) in response to a second client node selecting the file from the search list on the server node, automatically transferring the file from the first client node directly to the second client node; and (iv) authenticating the file by the second client node by generating a new bitstream ID, comparing the new bitstream ID to the bitstream ID in the fingerprint stored on the server, and using the user's public key to decrypt the digital signature to determine the authenticity of the file and publisher.