Patent ID: 8862894

Claim:
A computerized method of sharing digital content items, the method comprising: automatically with a computer, (a) in response to receiving, from a requesting computer associated with a first user of a plurality of users, a request to borrow a digital content item not owned by the first user and containing content for which a copyright is not owned by the first user, accessing an index entry associated with the digital content item to determine the digital content item's borrowed status; and (b) accessing a list of users of the plurality who are authorized borrowers, and: (i) if both the borrowed status for the digital content item indicates the item is available for borrowing and a global unique identifier (GUID) associated with the first user is present in the list of authorized borrowers, (A) granting the requesting computer read-only access to the digital content item, (B) making available a copy of the digital content item that has been formatted so that only a computer associated with the GUID of the first user can render the digital content item, and (C) updating the index entry to change the borrowed status to denote the digital content item is borrowed; and (ii) otherwise denying the requesting computer access to the digital content item; (c) wherein the borrowed status for the digital content item comprises a limit calculated from data defining the number of copies of the digital content item that can be borrowed concurrently and the number of copies of the digital content that are borrowed by computers of users of the plurality other than the first user at the time of the request.