Patent ID: 8086691

Claim:
A method of sharing digital data in a peer-to-peer network comprising peer stations which are both client and server stations, said method comprising the following steps: creating a collection of data for digital data items to be shared, each digital data item having a partial version and a complete version, wherein the partial version of a respective digital data item is present on at least one peer station which is a server station of the peer-to-peer network and is firstly transmitted to stations for which said digital data items are intended; associating a data identifier with each digital data item and allocating to each data identifier an availability label indicating whether the complete version of the digital data item is present in addition to the partial version on at least one peer station which is a server station of the peer-to-peer network; notifying the existence of said collection to at least one destination peer station by a first notification; and on reception of availability information indicating that the complete versions of the digital data items of the collection are present on at least one peer station which is a server station of the peer-to-peer network: updating said collection by updating said availability label associated with each digital data item present on at least one peer station which is a server station of the peer-to-peer network; and notifying the updating of said collection by a second notification to said at least one destination peer station, wherein the partial version of the digital data item has a resolution lower than that of an original.