Patent ID: 7509492

Claim:
A computer implemented method comprising: receiving a first resource identification of a first resource to be published, and first peer system identifications of a first plurality of peer systems within a peer-to-peer network to be granted access to said first resource after its publication; generating a first resource key for use to encrypt the first resource; obtaining a plurality of first encryption public keys of said first peer systems to be granted access to said first resource after its publication; such that an encryption public key is obtained from each of the first peer systems within the peer-to-peer network; generating a first resource key file for said first resource by: determining omitted peer systems within the peer-to-peer network by determining the first peer systems within the peer-to-peer network to be granted access to said resource after publication for which an entry within the resource file key has not been generated; and generating an entry for each of the omitted peer systems within the peer-to-peer network by individually including within the resource key file an entry associated with each of the omitted peer systems within the peer-to-peer network using a retrieved first encryption public key associated with each of the omitted peer systems; and publishing the first resource encrypted with said first resource key, along with said first resource key file, for selective access by said first plurality of peer systems such that a resource key file that includes a plurality of resource keys that are each individually associated with a peer system within a peer-to-peer network is published.