Patent ID: 7779058

Claim:
An automated inventory management system for managing an inventory of digital multimedia files, the system comprising: a network with a plurality of digital storage units for storing digital multimedia files, including first and second digital storage units; a first plurality of digital multimedia files distributed among the plurality of digital storage units, including a first digital multimedia file stored in both first and second digital storage units; a first cache management index comprising i) a list of identifiers corresponding to a plurality of multimedia files stored within the first digital storage unit, ii) a plurality of status designators, each status designator designating a status of a corresponding digital multimedia file within the first digital storage unit, including a first and second unprotected status designator designating the status of corresponding first and second digital multimedia files, and a first time-sensitive protected status designator designating the status of a third digital multimedia file, iii) a first time stamp associated with the first time-sensitive protected status designator; and, a first cache management algorithm configured to a) update the status designator of the third digital multimedia file to an unprotected status designator when a clock time is greater than or equal to the first time stamp; and b) selectively purge unprotected digital multimedia files from the first digital storage unit.