Timeline of file sharing

This article presents a timeline of events in the history of file sharing.

1970s

* 1972
** First removable media, the 8 inch floppy diskette is developed by IBM team led by David Noble. [http://www.computerhistory.org/timeline/?category=stor] Allows manual file transfer over a "sneakernet". Becomes target of anti-piracy campaigns as popularity grows. [http://www.archive.org/details/dontcopythatfloppy] Predecessor of CD-ROMs and flash media.

* 1978
** February, Ward Christensen's CBBS becomes the first Bulletin board system. BBS access is limited to phone lines until early 1990s.

1980s

* 1980
** Usenet developed at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University based on the work of Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis. As of 2008 alt.binaries.* newsgroups continue to serve files, though Usenet popularity has declined since the 1990s.

* 1985
** October, File Transfer Protocol specifications are standardized as an RFC. FTP allows files to be sent to and retrieved from a central server.

*1988
** August, Internet Relay Chat is created by Jarkko Oikarinen. Users of IRC chatrooms can exchange files via Direct Client-to-Client.

1990s

* 1990
** November, the World Wide Web is proposed by Tim Berners-Lee.

* 1994
** Introduction of XDCC protocol makes it possible to share files on IRC without interaction from the sharing party at the time of sharing.

* 1997
** Hotline becomes popular among Mac users after winning the "Best of Show" award at the MacWorld Expo. Fact|date=July 2008

* 1998
** MP3.com is founded by Michael Robertson and Greg Flores. Initially an FTP search engine, MP3.com becomes a hosting service for unsigned artists. Serves 4 million audio file downloads per day at its peak. The release of My.MP3.com would prompt litigation. In May 2000, UMG v. MP3.com, would be ruled in favor of the record labels. MP3.com would settle for $200 million, and discontinues the service. [http://www.law.uh.edu/faculty/cjoyce/copyright/release10/UGM.html]
** March, the first MP3 player is launched. [http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/11/the-first-mp3-player-celebrates-its-10th-birthday/ "the device was launched in March of 1998 at CeBIT"]
** September, Diamond Multimedia ships the popular Rio PMP300. In October 1998, the Recording Industry Association of America files a Temporary Restraining Order against Diamond Multimedia without success.
** October, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act is unanimously passed by the US Senate. The DMCA would be the basis for numerous legal actions against file sharing services.
** November, Audiogalaxy is created by Michael Merhej. Initially an FTP search engine, the Audiogalaxy Satellite P2P client would reach 1 million downloads in 2001. In May 2002, a suit by the RIAA forces Audiogalaxy to blocks sharing of illegal songs. In June 2002, Audiogalaxy would settle the suit for an undisclosed amount and make its services opt-in. In September 2002, Audiogalaxy would discontinue P2P services in favor of Rhapsody, a for-pay streaming service.

* 1999
** June, Napster is created by Shawn Fanning. Napster is the first peer-to-peer file sharing system, and allows users to make specific MP3 files available on their computers for others to download. Indexing and searching is performed on Napster servers. In December 1999 the first lawsuits are filed against Napster. [cite news | last=Menta | first=Richard | title= RIAA Sues Music Startup Napster for $20 Billion | date=December 9, 1999 | publisher=MP3 Newswire | url=http://www.mp3newswire.net/stories/napster.html] In February 2001, Napster use would peak with 26.4 million users. In July 2001, Napster would shut down its network to comply with an injunction.

2000s

2000

*March, first Gnutella network client is published by Justin Frankel and Tom Pepper of Nullsoft. [cite news | last=Kushner | first=David | title=The World's Most Dangerous Geek | date=January 13, 2004 | publisher=Rolling Stone | url=http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/5938320/the_worlds_most_dangerous_geek] Gnutella is the first decentralized file sharing network. As of 2007, Gnutella is the most-used network, with clients having a share of 40.5% on personal computers.http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080421-study-bittorren-sees-big-growth-limewire-still-1-p2p-app.html] LimeWire, the dominant client of the Gnutella network, would be released in 2001.
*March, Phex (formely FURI) Gnutella client releasedFact|date=July 2008 . [ [http://www.schnarff.com/gnutelladev/source/furi/furi/furi/changelog.txt Furi ChangeLog] ]
*May, UMG v. MP3.com, My.MP3.com is shut down.
*June, Slyck.com (originally Slyway.com) launches, with lead editor Thomas Mennecke. [Notability: traffic rank of: 38,263 http://www.alexa.com/data/details/main/slyck.com]
*July, Freenet is created by Ian Clarke. The paper would become was the most cited computer science paper of 2000. Freenet would be rewritten as a "darknet" in 2008.
*October, Napster is credited for driving Radiohead's Kid A album to the top of the Billboard charts. [cite news | last=Menta | first=Richard | title=Did Napster Take Radiohead's New Album to Number 1? | date=October 28, 2000 | publisher=MP3 Newswire | url=http://www.mp3newswire.net/stories/2000/radiohead.html]

2001

*February, A&M Records, Inc. v. Napster, Inc.
*February, Napster peaks at 26.4 million users.
*March, FastTrack proprietary protocol and Kazaa are released by Niklas Zennström, Janus Friis, and Priit Kasesalu. The Kazaa client would come bundled with malware. Legal action in the Netherlands would force an offshoring of the company, renamed Sharman Networks. In September 2003, the RIAA would file suit against private individuals allegedly sharing files via Kazaa. In September 2005, UMA v. Sharman would be ruled against Sharman by the Federal Court of Australia. Sharman's non-compliance would prompt censorship of the program in Australia. In June 2006, the MGM Studios, Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd. would cause Sharmin to settle for $100 million and convert Kazaa to a legal-only file sharing program. By then, most users would be using Gnutella and Bittorrent.
*April, Morpheus released by MusicCity (later StreamCast), after licensing the FastTrack protocol. [http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/8161_749991] [http://www.openp2p.com/pub/a/p2p/2001/07/02/morpheus.html] MusicCity previously operated OpenNap servers. Morpheus would be a popular FastTrack client, with 4.5 million users, until licensing disputes and a protocol switch in February 2002. In March 2003, the Morpheus client was re-released to operate on Gnutella, using Gnucleus servent as its core. In June 2005, a redesigned Morpheus client was released. In June 2006, MGM Studios, Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd. would be decided against StreamCast. In June 2008, the Morpheus client would no longer be available for download.
*April, gtk-gnutella client is released.Fact|date=July 2008 [ [https://gtk-gnutella.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/gtk-gnutella/trunk/gtk-gnutella/ChangeLog gtk-gnutella ChangeLog] ]
*July, Napster shuts down due to injunction.
*July, OpenNap servers spring up. Fact|date=July 2008
*July, Audiogalaxy Satellite client reaches 1 million downloads. Fact|date=July 2008
*July, BitTorrent released by Bram Cohen. Fact|date=July 2008
*August 5, ShareReactor eDonkey network index site founded. Taken down by police March 2004.
*September, the LimeWire Gnutella client is released under open source. [http://wiki.limewire.org/index.php?title=Changelog] As of 2007, LimeWire is the most used file sharing program with a 36.4% share, with uTorrent second at 11.3%.
*October, Mutella client is released. Defunct as of 2007. Fact|date=July 2008
*November, GNUnet is first publicly announced. Fact|date=July 2008

2002

*February, Kazaa protocol switch shuts out Morpheus.
*JASRAC sued File rouge(ファイルローグ) in Tokyo district court. File rouge closed down. [ [http://www.venus.dti.ne.jp/~inoue-m プログラム関連判決集] ] [ [http://www.netlaw.co.jp/hanrei/index.html Netlaw] ] [ [http://www31.ocn.ne.jp/~jucccopyright/ 日本ユニ著作権センター(JUCC)] ] [ [http://www.filerogue.net Confession of filerouge] ]
*May, Audiogalaxy takes major steps to block illegal files due to RIAA lawsuit.
*June, Audiogalaxy settles suit for undisclosed amount, filesharing becomes limited.
*June, Applejuice released. Similar to eDonkey.
*August, P2Pnet is founded by Jon Newton. The site would grow to become one of the most popular digital media sites and among the most controversial Fact|date=July 2008
*September, Audiogalaxy discontinues P2P services.
*November, Gnutella2 protocol is announced.
*Suprnova.org torrent index goes online.

2003

*November, The source code of Winny is confiscated by the Kyoto Police
*November 21, The Pirate Bay bittorrent tracker is founded by Gottfrid Svartholm, Fredrik Neij, and Peter Sunde. It in based in Sweden. As of 2008, TPB is 91st most popular site according to Alexa. It remains active despite numerous legal actions and a police raid in May 2006.
*September, RIAA suit filed against private individuals allegedly sharing files on Kazaa.
*September 24, TorrentSpy is registered. It would shut down in March 2008, and in May 2008 it would be ordered to pay the MPAA $110 million in damages.
*January, isoHunt torrent index founded by Gary Fung. As of 2008, it serves over 40 million unique searches per month.

2004

*March 10, ShareReactor shut down by Swiss Police.
*May, Winny developer Isamu Kaneko is arrested for suspected conspiracy to commit copyright violation
*October 28, the RIAA files an additional 750 lawsuits aimed at alleged copyright violations from file sharing.
*December 14, Suprnova.org torrent index and many others closed after cease and desist orders by MPAA.
*December 14, LokiTorrent refuses to comply with cease and desist orders, quickly gains 680,000 users and $40,000 in legal fund donations. Legitimacy would later be questioned. Taken over by MPAA in February 2005.

2005

*January, Mininova torrent index goes online as a successor to Suprnova. Has served 5 billion downloads as of May 2008. [http://blog.mininova.org/articles/2008/05/28/lawsuit-5-billion-downloads/]
*February, LokiTorrent indexing service shut down and taken over by MPAA.
*March, Avalanche BitTorrent alternative proposed, [http://research.microsoft.com/camsys/avalanche/] criticised by Bram Cohen [http://bramcohen.livejournal.com/20140.html] .
*June, United States Supreme court finds Grokster developers guilty of encouraging their users to infringe copyright. Fact|date=July 2008
*June 30, Ezpeer [ [http://web.ezpeer.com/ ezPeer+ 音樂下載、歌詞、MP3、音樂網] ] won the case vs IFPI Taiwan [ [http://www.ifpi.org.tw/activity/act_index.htm IFPI TAIWAN-財團法人國際唱片業交流基金會] ] in Shihlin district court. After that, The high court rejected the appeal but ezpeer settle with IPFI Taiwan. It is legal music download now in 2008.
*September, UMA v. Sharman
*September, Frontcode shuts down its WinMX servers after receiving a cease and desist letter from the RIAA. Developer groups set up new servers days later. Fact|date=July 2008
*September 9, Kuro(酷樂) lost the case vs IFPI Taiwan in Taipei local court. It lost the case vs Push Sound Music & Entertainment in the second intermediate people court of Beijing [ [http://rmfyb.chinacourt.org/public/detail.php?id=104587 最高人民法院人民法院报] ] in December 19, 2006. It shut down its P2P services in 2006. It is a legal music download [ [http://www.kuro.com.tw 創聯網:::Kuro:::行動娛樂] ] now in 2008. Kuro lost the appeal in the Taiwan high court July 16, 2008. Chairman Chen Shou-ten (陳壽騰), CEO James Chen(陳國華), president Chen Kuo-hsiung(陳國雄), one of Kuro's 500000 members Chen Chia-hui (陳佳惠), sentenced to fine and jail. [ [http://www.ncu.edu.tw/~mlwang/course/cyberlaw2005f/index.b5.html Cyberlaw / ITL, NCTU / Fall, 2004] ] [ [http://news.pchome.com.tw/society/cna/20080717/index-12162270022803418002.html 社會- Kuro違反著作權案二審被告均改判較輕刑度- PChome 新聞-] ]

2006

*February, Razorback2, a Swiss indexing server and one of the biggest on the eDonkey network, is raided and taken down. [cite news | last=Mennecke | first=Thomas | title=Razorback Servers Seized | date=February 21, 2006 | publisher=Slyck | url=http://www.slyck.com/news.php?story=1102]
*May 31, a Swedish police raid The Pirate Bay.
*June 27, MGM Studios, Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd. decided.

2007

*August, Suprnova.org relaunched by The Pirate Bay.
*October 23, OiNK's Pink Palace BitTorrent Tracker is raided and shut down by a joint effort between Dutch and British police. [cite news | last=Jones | first=Ben | title=Why Are The IFPI and BPI Allowed to Hijack OiNK? | date=October 24, 2007 | publisher=TorrentFreak | url=http://torrentfreak.com/why_are_the_ifpi_and_bpi_allowed_071024/]
*November, the Demonoid BitTorrent tracker shuts down until April 2008 citing legal threats by the CRIA.

2008

* March 24, TorrentSpy shuts down citing hostile legal climate.
* May 7, TorrentSpy orederd to pay $110 million in damages by US court.
* May 8, Freenet Darknet rewrite released.
* June, Morpheus client no longer available.
* August 8, Italy prevents their citizens from accessing The Pirate Bay and forwards their traffic to IFPI instead. [cite news | author=Ernesto | title=IFPI Hijacks Pirate Bay Traffic | date=August 15, 2008 | publisher=TorrentFreak | url=http://torrentfreak.com/ifpi-hijacks-pirate-bay-traffic-080815/]

References