Patent ID: 8527753

Claim:
A method for determining a unique content instance identifier (CIID) of a content item, wherein said content item has been received by a receiving device and provided to a content management system and includes an original content identifier of an original identification scheme, the method comprising: defining, by circuitry, a data structure of said unique content item identifier (CIID) depending on said original identification scheme, said data structure comprising a first, a second, and a third part, wherein a size of at least one of said second and third parts depends on the original identification scheme; storing, to memory, a code in said first part, wherein said code uniquely identifies said original identification scheme; storing, to said memory, said original content identifier, a derivative thereof, and/or a device identifier, identifying said receiving device in said second part; and storing, to said memory, a freely allocatable value in said third part, such that no duplicate unique content instance identifiers (CIID) are generated by said device.