Data repository and method for promoting network storage of data

Abstract

A method by which more than one client program connected to a network stores the same data item at the same location or locations in a data repository connected to the network, the method comprising having a first client program deposit a first data item in a data repository, the depositing including determining a digital fingerprint from the data item using a reproducible pseudorandom process that produces digital fingerprints having a pseudorandom distribution, storing the data item in the data repository at a location or locations associated with the digital fingerprint, and associating a deletion permission token with the data item, and storing this association in the data repository, having a second client program initiate a process for depositing a second data item in the data repository, wherein the second data item is identical to the data item stored by the first client program, the process including determining a digital fingerprint from the second data item using the reproducible pseudorandom process, determining from the digital fingerprint that a data item identical to the second data item is already stored in the data repository, relying on the data item already stored in the data repository for storage of the second data item rather than storing a separate copy of the second data item, and associating a second deletion permission token with the data item already stored, and storing this association in the data repository, having a client program initiate a process for deleting the data item already stored in the repository, wherein a deletion permission token associated with the data item is deleted from the repository, but the data item itself is not deleted.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application is a continuation application of and claims priority to U.S. application Ser. No. 09 / 785,535, filed on Feb. 16, 2001, which also claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60 / 183,466, filed Feb. 18, 2000 (incorporated by reference herein).BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] For almost as long as there have been computer networks, there have been schemes which allow computers to access each other's file systems over the network in much the same manner as they access their own local file system. The first widely used remote file access protocol was Sun Microsystems' network file system (NFS), which became very popular with the rise of Unix in the mid 1980's (see B. Nowicki, “NFS: Network File System Protocol Specification,” Network Working Group RFC1094, March 1989). At about the same time, the SMB network file sharing protocol was developed by IBM for use with their PC's. Subsequent versions of SMB have beco...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0010] In general, the invention features a method by which more than one client program connected to a network stores the same data item at the same location or locations in a data repository connected to the network, the method comprising having a first client program deposit a first data item in a data repository, the depositing including determining a digital fingerprint from the data item using a reproducible pseudorandom process that produces digital fingerprints having a pseudorandom distribution, storing the data item in the data repository at a location or locations associated with the digital fingerprint, and associating a deletion permission token with the data item, and storing this association in the data repository, having a second client program initiate a process for depositing a second data item in the data repository, wherein the second da...

Problems solved by technology

The greatest obstacle to the acceptance of these new network-based services has been slow network connections.

This makes it relatively inconvenient to use remote network-based storage for most of the applications that these users now run on their local file system.

Thus far, these companies have not achieved an appreciable penetration into the PC user market.

Slow network connections, the cost and effort involved in obtaining and using such services, and a low perceived benefit attached to maintaining backups of file data, have been major obstacles.

Such a control mechanism doesn't scale well when applied to intellectual property protection in general.

Constructing an explicit legal-access list for each data-item is in general cumbersome, difficult and intrusive.

If users independently encrypt their data for privacy, they can't take advantage of each others data to save on transmission or on storage.

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