Tracking digital assets on a distributed network

1. A method for tracking digital assets stored on digital asset storage media comprising:

detecting availability of a reference asset storage medium at a first time;

determining a reference medium identifier that uniquely identifies the reference asset storage medium;

storing an association between the reference medium identifier and the reference asset storage medium in a database in a persistent storage area accessible from a plurality of network nodes on a distributed network;

enumerating digital assets stored on the reference asset storage medium;

storing renditions of the enumerated digital assets in a cached storage area accessible from the plurality of network nodes to preserve access to the enumerated digital assets even when the reference asset storage medium is not connected to the distributed network;

determining digital asset identifiers that uniquely identify each of the enumerated digital assets;

storing an association between the digital asset identifiers, the reference medium identifier and the renditions of the digital assets in the database on the persistent storage area;

at a second later time, detecting the availability of a candidate asset storage medium;

determining a candidate medium identifier that uniquely identifies the candidate asset storage medium; and

comparing the candidate medium identifier to the reference medium identifier stored in the database in the persistent storage area to determine whether the candidate asset storage medium is the same as the reference asset storage medium.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the reference asset storage medium is a read-only storage medium.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the read-only storage medium is an optical disk.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the reference asset storage medium is a read-write storage medium.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the read-write storage medium is a hard drive, a floppy disk, a solid state storage device or a read-write optical disk.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the reference asset storage medium is a removable storage device.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the removable storage device is a removable hard drive, a solid state storage device or a removable optical disk.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the reference asset storage medium is a digital camera, a video camera, an electronic picture frame, a mobile phone or a digital audio storage device.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the reference asset storage medium is a remotely accessible storage medium.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the remotely accessible storage medium is a network connected server, a network accessible storage device or an interact location with a remotely accessible calling interface.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the persistent storage area is on a network server.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the reference asset storage medium is accessed on a first network node on the distributed network, and the candidate asset storage medium is accessed on a second network node on the distributed network.

13. The method of claim 1 further including storing an association between the candidate medium identifier and the candidate asset storage medium in the database on the persistent storage area when the candidate asset storage medium is determined to be different from any previously detected reference asset storage medium.

14. The method of claim 1 further including storing information about an access method for the reference asset storage medium in the database on the persistent storage area.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the information about the access method includes information about a network location for the reference asset storage medium, information about communications protocols or information about calling interfaces required to communicate with the reference asset storage medium.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein the digital assets include digital image files, digital video files or digital audio files.

17. The method of claim 1 further including determining a candidate digital asset identifier for a candidate digital asset on the candidate asset storage medium at the second time and comparing the candidate digital asset identifier to the digital asset identifiers associated with the reference asset storage medium to determine whether the candidate digital asset is the same as a digital asset on the reference asset storage medium.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein information about a storage location for the digital asset on the reference asset storage medium is stored in the database on the persistent storage area and further including the step of updating the information about the storage location when it is determined that the candidate digital asset on the candidate asset storage medium is the same as the digital asset on the reference asset storage medium.

19. The method of claim 17 further including:

storing a rendition of the candidate digital asset in a cached storage area accessible from the plurality of network nodes to preserve access to the candidate digital asset even when the candidate asset storage medium is not connected to the distributed network; and storing an association between the candidate digital asset identifier, the candidate medium identifier and the rendition of the candidate digital asset in the database on the persistent storage area when it is determined that the candidate digital asset on the candidate asset storage medium is different than any known digital assets identified in the database.

20. The method of claim 1 wherein the medium identifiers are comprised of two parts, the first part being related to the type of the digital asset storage media and the second part uniquely associated with the particular digital asset storage media.

21. The method of claim 20 wherein the second part of the medium identifiers include a checksum value, a hash value, a device serial number, a user E-mail address, a user identifier or a Globally Unique Identifier value.

22. The method of claim 1 wherein the renditions of the enumerated digital assets are copies of the enumerated digital assets or are low-resolution renditions of the enumerated digital assets.

23. The method of claim 1 wherein the cached storage area is the reference asset storage area, the persistent storage area, a storage area on a network server, a storage area on an internet website, or a storage area on an edge node of the distributed network.