Patent ID: 8626838

Claim:
A system for managing the transfer of digital assets over a network, comprising: one or more computing devices; and at least one memory operatively coupled to at least one of the one or more computing devices and having code stored therein that, when executed by at least one of the one or more computing devices, cause at least one of the one or more computing devices to: receive from a user an acceptance of terms of use of digital assets; before a transfer of a digital asset from a first computing device to a second computing device, generate a second instance of the digital asset corresponding to a first instance of the digital asset, the first instance of the digital asset including digital content and a first unique identifier associated with the first instance of the digital asset, the second instance of the digital asset including digital content and at least one other portion that does not include the digital content; embed, in the at least one other portion of the second instance of the digital asset, a second unique identifier that is different from the first unique identifier, wherein other instances of the digital asset have unique identifiers embedded therein and the unique identifiers are used to track instances of the digital asset; participate in transfer of the second instance of the digital asset from the first computing device to the second computing device; and credit a rights holder account and debit an account of the user related to the transfer of the second instance of the digital media asset to the user, wherein the second instance of the digital asset has no copy protection and can be transferred from the second computing device to a third computing device without requiring authorization from an authorizing computing device, and wherein the authorizing computing device is not the second computing device and is not the first computing device.