Patent ID: 8850040

Claim:
An article comprising: a non-transitory storage medium having a plurality of machine readable instructions, wherein when the instructions are executed by a processor, the instructions provide for controlling access to a file by: selecting, by a first network node in a peer to peer file sharing system, a first file to make available for sharing with a second network node in the peer to peer file sharing system, the first file being stored on the first network node, wherein the peer to peer file sharing system comprises the first network node, the second network node, and a third network node; selecting, by the first network node, a second file to make available for sharing with the third network node, the second file being stored on the first network node; providing index information for the first file to the second network node only, without broadcasting the index information for the first file to any other network node in the peer to peer file sharing system; providing index information for the second file to the third network node only, without broadcasting the index information for the second file to any other network node in the peer to peer file sharing system; requesting, by the second network node, a copy of the first file from the first network node using the index information for the first file; and requesting, by the third network node, a copy of the second file from the first network node using the index information for the second file.