Patent ID: 8752202

Claim:
A method for distributing media data, comprising steps of: removing portions of data from the media data; replacing the portions of data that are removed from the media data with dummy data to form a degraded version of the media data, where the dummy data is added to the media data at locations within the media data where the portions of data were removed from the media data; sending, by a sending data processing system, the degraded version of the media data to a recipient; and after sending the degraded version of the media data to the recipient and responsive to confirming an identity of the recipient, the sending data processing system sending a subsequent version of the media data to the recipient, wherein the subsequent version of the media data includes data portions from the media data that were removed from the media data in forming the degraded version of the media data, wherein the degraded version of the media data maintains an overall structure of the media file in a time domain; and wherein the recipient is enabled to merge the degraded version of the media data with the subsequent version of the media data to form a copy of the media data.