File sharing timeline

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

1 1970s
2 1980s
3 1990s
4 2000s

[edit] 1970s

1972
- The first read-write floppy disk drive the Memorex 650 is born. Sharing or copying files was done by physically carrying a disk around, also known as Sneakernet. Sneaker refers to the shoes of the person carrying the media.
1978
- February, the first BBS (CBBS) is born.

[edit] 1980s

1980
- Usenet established. Usenet is a distributed internet discussion system that evolved from a general purpose UUCP network of the same name. It was conceived by Duke University graduate students Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis.
1985
- October, File Transfer Protocol (FTP) protocol specifications are published as an RFC. Using FTP, clients could send files to a central server, which could then be retrieved by other clients.
1988
- August, 'Internet Relay Chat (IRC) was created by Jarkko Oikarinen to replace a program called MUT (MultiUser talk).

[edit] 1990s

1990
- November, Tim Berners-Lee publishes a proposal for the World Wide Web and writes the first Web page.

1997
- Hotline wins the "Best of Show" award at the MacWorld Expo and becomes a file-sharing vehicle for Mac users.

1999
- June, Napster is released. (Birth of peer-to-peer file sharing systems). Users could make specific MP3 files available for others to download directly from their computer.
- December, lawsuits are filed against Napster by several major recording companies

[edit] 2000s

2000
- March, First Gnutella client is published. Gnutella-network, being the first decentralised file sharing system, is born. (Note that it is decentralized only after initialization.)
- September, PornDigger! beta 1.0 is published to registered beta testers, introducing use of thumbnails in p2p filesharing.
2001
- March, FastTrack protocol and Kazaa are introduced
- July, Napster shut down its entire network
- October, First public version of Mutella Gnutella client is published
- November, GNUnet is first publicly announced
2002
- February, BitTorrent debuts at CodeCon
- November, Gnutella2 protocol is announced
2003
- November, The source code of Winny is confiscated by the Kyoto Police in the late November or soon after
2004
- 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.
2005
- June, United States Supreme court judges Grokster developers being guilty of encouraging their users to copyright infringements
- September, WinMX network shuts down after a cease and desist letter from the RIAA
2006
- May, Razorback2, a Swiss server and one of the biggest indexing servers on the eDonkey network, is raided and taken down. Traffic moves to other servers to compensate.
- June, a Swedish police raid takes The Pirate Bay torrent search engine down; but it becomes operational again after 3 days with new servers in the Netherlands.