User:Eticaplayer/History of P2P applications (1)

The history of P2P applications is the description of the creation and development of P2P software and networks; in addition to the associated concepts.

The beginning
The first P2P application (Peer-to-peer, or peer-to-peer) was Hotline Connect, developed in 1996 for the Mac OS operating system by the young Australian programmer Adam Hinkley. Hotline Connect, distributed by Hotline Communications, intended to be a platform for distributing files for companies and universities, but it did not take long to serve as an exchange of files of almost every type, including illegal or pornographic content. However, files of free distribution content could also be shared. The Hotline Connect system was decentralized, since it did not use central servers, but completely autonomous: the files were stored in the computers of the users who wanted to function as servers, and allowed, restricted or conditioned the entry to the rest of users, the clients. In case a server was closed, there was no other place to continue downloading that same file, and there was no choice but to cancel the download and start from scratch on another server.

This system, well established in which each user depended on a single server, was soon obsolete. On the other hand, being an application developed primarily for a minority platform such as Mac OS, it did not attract the attention of the general press. This changed with the birth of Napster in 1999, to which the invention of P2P is often mistakenly attributed. Although file transfers took place directly between two computers, Napster used central servers to store the list of computers and the files provided by each, which was not a perfectly P2P application. Although there were already applications that allowed the exchange of files between users, such as IRC and Usenet, Napster was presented as the first PC application specialized in mp3 music files.

The result was a system that presented a large selection of music to download for free. The fact that Napster was a centralized service proved his downfall. In December of 1999, several American record companies sued to Napster, and also recognized musicians like Lars Ulrich, battery of the Metallica group, demanded its closing. The demand, far from frightening users, publicized the service, so that in February 2001 Napster had reached its peak with 13.6 million users worldwide.

Many argued that the closure of Napster would only lead to the emergence of other similar file-sharing applications [citation needed]. The judge ordered the closure of Napster in July 2001. After that date, Napster was transformed into a payment service, a coast of serology forgotten by the Internet community.

For a while, the file exchange was adrift. There were already enough alternatives. At the beginning, Napster was still used by unofficial servers (using OpenNap, for example) that could be accessed thanks to a program called Napigator. Programs such as Winmx (closed in 2005 due to threats from the RIAA), and iMesh also emerged.

Then he established himself as the P2P Audiogalaxy leader, another centralized music exchange application, which was also terminated by court order. On the other hand, the RIAA (the American label association) took these judgments as important victories aimed at ending the so-called "piracy".

The way to the present
Ending centralized networks was relatively easy, as it was enough to close the server that stores user lists and shared files. But after the closure of each server other more modern applications arose, and particularly as a great achievement was the creation of decentralized networks, which do not depend on a central server, and therefore have no record of the files exchanged.

New customers and the appearance of the Gnutella network, were replacing Napster and Audiogalaxy, among others. Then, in 2002, there was a massive exodus of users towards decentralized networks, such as Kazaa, Grokster, Piolet and Morpheus. There are also Ares and Ares Lite, free of spyware and using the Ares Galaxy network.

The RIAA tried, also by judicial means, to finish with the new decentralized services, and that allowed to share several types of files (not only mp3), but Grokster and Morpheus won their judgments in April 2003.

Then appeared eDonkey 2000 (already existed in 2001 but was not popular), this application that was kept together with Kazaa as leader of the P2P movement. Later, the appearance of other clients based on the eDonkey 2000 protocol, such as Lphant, Shareaza, eMule and its Mods, and others less known as aMule and MLDonkey for Linux, caused the progressive decline of the original eDonkey 2000 program. stopped using because it was replaced by eMule and its Mods.

Another important step was the BitTorrent protocol, which despite having many similarities with eDonkey 2000 provides, according to the developers, a higher download speed, but at the expense of a less variety and longevity of files in the network.

Other important milestones have been the use of Kademlia and the Webcache.

Reality, legality and service of P2P Networks
Contrary to what is often said about these networks, they are an appropriate tool to distribute or share unpublished material to whoever you want: if I make a photograph and I liked how it was left, I have the freedom to share it with anyone who wants to download it, it is a way of exchanging files similar to the exchange in the messengers, only that it is given to any person. It does not necessarily have to be a work created by a label as one wants to think. On the other hand, not all content is copyrighted or copyrighted.

There are the contents (text, audio, video, software, image, etc.) with free license that can be downloaded, distributed, shared, modified, these are those that use some of the following licenses (legally established): Which allow (and even more encourage) the free distribution of content of a work of their own. The works created by artists or users under these licenses are made to be shared by anyone, the more the better, and P2P networks are one of the best tools for this.
 * GNU License
 * Creative Commons License
 * Copyleft License,

Any attempt to legally block P2P networks is a clear violation of the right and freedoms that citizens have to be able to do what they want with a work created by them, which does not have to have a license to be shared.

Laws, convictions and actions against illegal downloads via P2P
The RIAA, SGAE, MPA and others have not only opted to sue the creators of the file exchange programs, but have also taken some actions against their users. In September 2003, the RIAA sued 261 Internet users for copying music illegally. It was particularly controversial that, among those 261 Internet users, there was a 12-year-old girl, who ended up condemned to pay 2000 dollars for sharing about a thousand songs. There have also been legal actions against websites that store and allow search for elinks, Torrents, NZB files (for newsgroups) and other P2P links.

The use of fake servers has also been implemented. A fake server is characterized because it is not really really dedicated to act as server of the eDonkey 2000 network, but it tries to obtain information from the clients that connect to it (for possible future lawsuits) or to contaminate the network with false, corrupt elinks, or just full of garbage. As an example it is worth mentioning the Razorback 2.2, 2.3, ..., 2.6 servers, which appeared "a good day" in the heat of the Razorback 2.0 and 2.1 success.

In 2006, the real servers Razorback 2.0 and 2.1 were closed by legal actions of the Motion Picture Association (MPA). Razorback 2 was the most important server in the P2P network of eDonkey 2000, housed 3 million daily users, and handled more than 1.3 million connections simultaneously, indexing more than 170 million files; currently Razorback 2 managers are preparing to reopen the server. However, despite the closure of these servers, it was only possible for users to switch to other servers in the eDonkey 2000 network, and for the Kademlia network to be made public.

On September 12, 2006, MetaMachine, the company that owns eDonkey, committed to the RIAA to pay a $ 30 million fine in an out-of-court settlement, to avoid potential lawsuits from the record industry; Due to this, the eDonkey website placed a notice that informs about the illegality of sharing music and videos that are copyrighted. Also, the client program, eDonkey 2000 stopped working, displaying this same message and initiating its uninstallation automatically. However, the eDonkey 2000 network could not be closed, and it continues to function until today due to other programs such as eMule, MLDonkey, etc.

Regarding the BitTorrent protocol, there have also been some actions against this protocol. In 2006, at the end of March, TorrentPluribrain, a Torrents browser for the desktop created by Fernando Saiz, had to cease the activity of its servers due to a complaint lodged in the name of the Société Civile des Producteurs Phonographiques in Paris and Since your developer is Spanish, the servers were located in France.

So throughout history, the demands have only led to regular users to switch to P2P programs with more difficult technologies to stop, and the number of users has not decreased.