METHOD AND PEER NETWORK FOR ASCERTAINING THE PEER NETWORK ORIGINATING STATION FOR A FILE

摘要

Files which are available for dissemination in a controlled peer-to-peer network are provided with a watermark comprising a large number of watermark elements. Upon download, the composition of the parts of the file which are obtained from a plurality of source stations provides a new watermark which can clearly be associated with the target station. By storing information about forwarded watermark elements of a network server, it is possible to reconstruct for each file the network station from which this file originates.