Content distribution storage management

A method comprising:

• storing obligatorily-acquired digital content items under service control in one or more local storage machines of a computer based on service commands provided by a centralized management service;
• protecting the obligatorily-acquired digital content items from user-commanded deletion from the one or more local storage machines;
• deleting the obligatorily-acquired digital content items from the one or more local storage machines based on service commands provided by the centralized management service;
• downloading a digital content item from one or more peer computers of a peer-to-peer network;
• storing the digital content item under user control in the one or more local storage machines;
• and
• deleting the digital content item from the one or more local storage machines based on user commands.

A computer comprising:

• a logic machine;
• and
• one or more local storage machines including:
• a service-controlled portion, and
• a user-controlled portion,
• wherein the one or more local storage machines hold instructions executable by the logic machine to:
• store obligatorily-acquired digital content items in the service-controlled portion based on service commands provided via a centralized management service computer;
• store voluntarily-acquired digital content items in the user-controlled portion based on user commands provided via user input to the computer;
• protect the obligatorily-acquired digital content items from user-commanded deletion from the one or more local storage machines;
• delete the voluntarily-acquired digital content items from the user-controlled portion of the one or more local storage machines based on user commands.