To talk about the history of the bit torrent protocol and P2P file sharing, you cannot just simply start off with the P2P protocol, but rather like many stories, you have to start at the beginning.
1972 marked the birth of the file sharing revolution. This first form of peer file sharing was aptly known as Sneakerner due to the lack of interne access at the time. Sneakernet was exactly as it sounds, one would place a file on a floppy and deliver it in person or via mail.
It would be 6 years latter at the birth of the internet era that the first BBS would become available in 1978. Although back then the sharing of actual files was harder than it is today, the concept was there. It would not be until 2 years later that the BBS would evolve into the Usenet thanks to the development by Jim Ellis and Tom Truscott at Duke University.
1985 however, marked an important year to the file sharing idea. It was this same year that the File Transfer Protocol or FTP would be developed allowing people to share files via a centralized server.
Three years later the Internet Relay Chat was developed and replaced the MultiUser Talk protocol allowing for faster communications with others, starting the need for faster communications, this eventually led to the development of what is known as the World Wide Web today as it was developed by Tim Berners-Lee in 1990.
The next big thing in the file sharing arena was not PC, but it was Mac. Hotline was the file sharing network as it was introduced at the MacWorld Expo in 1997 and became the number one file sharing vehicle for the various Mac users around the world.
1998 marked the birth of MP3.COM as well as the release of the world’s first MP3 player which led MP3 Newswire to become the first digital media sharing website. It was with the birth of the MP3 and the need to convert music tracks to MP3 that would lead to the birth of the digital copyright infringement.
A year latter, Napster was to take the central stage as a completely illegal website that allowed someone to make a MP3 file of their favorite song and share it with others, this led to not just lawsuits, but several teenagers now have criminal records due to their downloading habits.
It was not until 2000 when the first decentralized file sharing network was developed. This decentralized network was the Gnutella-network and led to the birth of a new idealism in file sharing around the world.
Two years later, the bit torrent protocol would be debut to the world, and eventually take a choke-hold on the file sharing technology around the world.
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Eugene
