8-inch floppy disk drive compared in size to 3.5" floppy disk of 1984
1971 — The 8-inch floppy disk, the first removable magnetic medium and the first removable media, is developed by an IBM team led by David Noble.[2] It allows for manual file transfer. Removable media would become a target of media industry efforts against the sharing of intellectual property.[3] Predecessor of CD-ROMs and flash media.
1984 - Fidonet, an inter-BBS protocol that was widely available prior to IP based, is founded by Tom Jennings.
October1985 — File Transfer Protocol is standardized in RFC 959, authored by Postel and Reynolds.[7] FTP allows files to be efficiently uploaded and downloaded from a central server.
1992 — Software Publishers Association runs an anti-copyright infringement campaign Don't Copy That Floppy
1997 — Scour Inc. is founded by five UCLA Computer Science students. Early products provide file search and download using the SMB protocol, as well as a multimedia web search engine released in 1998. Scour attracted early attention and support from media industry insiders before declaring bankruptcy in October 2000.[12]
April1997 — Winamp audio player is released,[13] leading to increased use of mp3 files.
August1997 — Hotline is announced at MacWorld,[14] and allows chat, forums, and file transfers. It becomes popular among Mac users.
November1997 — MP3.com is founded by Michael Robertson and Greg Flores.[15] Initially an FTP search engine, MP3.com becomes a hosting service for unsigned artists. It serves 4 million audio file downloads per day at its peak and becomes the largest technology IPO in July 1999. The release of My.MP3.com in January 2000, which allowed users to stream their own files, 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 discontinue the service.[16]
October1998 — Digital Millennium Copyright Act is unanimously passed by the US Senate. The DMCA would become the basis for numerous legal actions against file sharing services.
November1998 — Audiogalaxy is created by Michael Merhej.[21] 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 would force Audiogalaxy to block 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.
June1999 — File:Napster corporate logo.svgNapster is created by Shawn Fanning. Napster used a centralized structure where indexing and searching is performed on Napster servers.[23] Individual files, however, remain on the hosts' computers and are transferred directly from peer to peer. In December 1999, the first lawsuits would be filed against Napster.[24] Usage would peak in February 2001, with 26.4 million users. In July 2001, Napster would shut down its network to comply with an injunction.
March — Scour Exchange is released as a P2P file exchange service to compete with Napster. In addition to audio files, it also supports sharing of other media as well as software.[26]
July — Freenet is created by Ian Clarke. Its goal is to provide freedom of speech through a peer-to-peer network which focuses on protecting anonymity. Files are distributed across the computers of Freenet's users. Ian Clarke's paper would become the most-cited computer science paper of 2000.[30] Freenet would become a darknet in 2008.
September — eDonkey2000 client and server software is released by Jed McCaleb, introducing hashing into decentralized file sharing.
October — Scour Exchange is shut down as Scour Inc. files for bankruptcy in the face of copyright infringement litigation.[31]
October — Napster is credited with driving Radiohead's Kid A album to the top of the Billboard charts.[32]
March — Kazaa and the FastTrack proprietary protocol are released by Niklas Zennström, Janus Friis, and Priit Kasesalu. The Kazaa Media Desktop client came 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 Sharman to settle for $100 million and convert Kazaa to a legal-only file sharing program.
April — Morpheus is released by MusicCity (later StreamCast), after licensing the FastTrack protocol.[33][34] MusicCity had previously operated OpenNap servers. Morpheus would become 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 servant as its core. In June 2005, a redesigned Morpheus client would be released. In June 2006, MGM Studios, Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd. would be decided against StreamCast. In June 2008, the Morpheus client would become no longer available for download.
January — JASRAC and RIAJ vs Yugen Kaisha Nippon MMO in Tokyo district court, causing File rogue(ファイルローグ) ordered to shut down on April 9.[38][39][40][41][42]
February — The Kazaa protocol switch shuts out Morpheus.
September — the RIAA begins filing lawsuits against individuals allegedly sharing files on Kazaa.
September — TorrentSpy is registered. It would be shut down in March 2008, and in May 2008 it would be ordered to pay the MPAA $110 million in damages.
March 10 — ShareReactor shut down by Swiss Police.
May 10 — Winny developer Isamu Kaneko is arrested for suspected conspiracy to commit copyright violation.[45]
June 1 — Shareaza becomes open source with the release of v2.0 of the software.[46] As of 2008, almost all of the major clients on this network are open source.
October 28 — The RIAA files an additional 750 lawsuits aimed at alleged copyright violations from file sharing.
December 14 — Suprnova and many other torrent indexes 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. Its legitimacy would later be questioned and it would be taken over by MPAA in February 2005.
2005
January — Mininova torrent index goes online as a successor to Suprnova. It has served 5 billion downloads as of May 2008.[47]
January — eXeem goes online and rumored/adversed as "the revenge of suprnova". The program failed to gain popularity and was eventually abandoned months later.
February – LokiTorrent indexing service shut down and is taken over by MPAA.
June 30 — EzPeer[56] wins its case vs IFPI Taiwan[57] in Shihlin district court. The high court would later reject an appeal, but ezPeer would settle with IPFI Taiwan. As of 2008, it is a legal music download service.
September 9 — Kuro(酷樂) loses its case vs IFPI Taiwan in Taipei local court. It would also lose its case vs Push Sound Music & Entertainment on December 19, 2006.[59] Kuro would lose its appeal in the Taiwan high court on July 16, 2008. Chairman Chen Shou-ten (陳壽騰), CEO James Chen(陳國華), president Chen Kuo-hsiung(陳國雄), and one of Kuro's 500,000 members Chen Chia-hui (陳佳惠), were sentenced to fine and jail.[60] It shut down its P2P services in 2006, and has become a legal music download service.[61]
October 24 — The civil-court jury trial for Capitol v. Thomas, the first lawsuit by major record labels against an alleged file sharer, concludes with a verdict for the plaintiffs and a statutory damage award of $9,250 for each of 24 songs, for a total of $222,000. This was vacated due to an error in jury instruction, and a new trial was held in 2009.
November 9 — The Demonoid BitTorrent tracker shuts down until April 2008 citing legal threats by the CRIA.
December 20 — Shareaza.com, the homepage of Shareaza, is taken over by Discordia Ltd., a company closely related to the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America). It now distributes software containing spyware and adware.[70]
December 19 — The RIAA claims to have ended its P2P litigation campaign against individuals in the U.S., which had been losing money,[77] in favor of a three strikes campaign.[78][79] However, some new lawsuits continued to be filed.[80]
April 17 — The Pirate Bay trial concludes with a guilty verdict; each defendant is sentenced to one year in jail and a total of 30 million SEK (3.6 million USD, 2.7 million EUR) in fines and damages. The people behind The Pirate Bay declare they will appeal the ruling.[82]
April 24 — Legal fees in record industry lawsuits cause SeeqPod to sell its technology; the site closes until it finds a buyer.[83]
June 15 — In the retrial of the 2007 Capitol v. Thomas case, a jury again finds in favor of the plaintiffs, and awards statutory damages of $80,000 per song, for a total of $1.92 million.
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (January 2011)
October 262010 — US federal court judge Kimba Wood issued an injunction forcing LimeWire to prevent "the searching, downloading, uploading, file trading and/or file distribution functionality, and/or all functionality" of its software (see Arista Records LLC v. Lime Group LLC).[91][92] As a result, LimeWire 5.5.11 and newer have been disabled using a backdoor installed by the company.
November2010 — First release of a modified version of LimeWire Pro with all undesirable components removed (such as ad- and spyware, as well as dependencies to LimeWire LLC servers) under the name of "LimeWire Pirate Edition", enabling access to all advanced features of the professional version for free.
November 262010 — The verdict in The Pirate Bay trial was announced. The appeal court shortened sentences of three of the defendants who appeared in court that day. Neij's sentence was reduced to 10 months, Sunde's to eight, and Lundström's to four. However, the fine was increased from 32 to 46 million kronor. [93]
^Wozniak, S. G. (2006), iWoz: From Computer Geek to Cult Icon: How I Invented the Personal Computer, Co-Founded Apple, and Had Fun Doing It. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-06143-4.
^From Usenet to CoWebs: interacting with social information spaces, Christopher Lueg, Danyel Fisher, Springer (2003), ISBN 1852335327, ISBN 9781852335328
^464U.S.417 (Full text of the decision courtesy of Findlaw.com)
^RFC 959 – File Transfer Protocol (FTP). J. Postel, J. Reynolds. Oct-1985. This obsoleted the preceding RFC 765 and earlier FTP RFCs back to the original RFC 114.
^Performance of a Software MPEG Video Decoder Article's reference 3 is: 'ISO/IEC JTC/SC29, "Coded Representation of Picture, Audio and Multimedia/Hypermedia Information", Committe Draft of Standard ISO/IEC 11172, December 6, 1991'
^http://www.japaninc.com/mmw06 (english) "is currently being sued by JASRAC and a group of 19 record companies. On January 29, the group filed a provisional injunction with the Tokyo District Court"
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