Though the Internet may seem like a relatively new concept, the idea of a computer network that would allow communication between a wide scope of users from various computers was formulated in 1962 in a series of memos by J.C.R. Licklider discussing ‘Intergalactic Computer Network’. These ideas contained almost everything that the Internet is today.

Early P2P networking

In the late 1960’s, the peer-to-peer networking system was developed. The ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network) was created by the United States Department of Defense during the Cold War and was the world’s first operational packet switching network- now the basis for data communication. The original ARPANET connected UCLA, Stanford Research Institute, UC Santa Barbra and the University of Utah as equal computing peers source.

Bulletin Board Systems (BBS) and Usenet

In 1979, Usenet was developed by two graduate students from Duke University and one from the University of North Carolina, which allowed you to exchange information in the UNIX community. UNIX was the first widely-used operating system that could switch from and outlive its original hardware.

Similar to Bulletin Board Systems, which could perform functions such as downloading or uploading software and data, reading news and exchanging messages with other users, students from both universities were able to exchange messages, post news, and read public messages with Usenet. The articles users would post were then organized into topical categories called newsgroups. Newsgroups were added to the main topic hierarchy. If a newsgroup vote passed, a new group message would be sent and propagated through the Usenet network.

Usenet grew from those original two sites to hundred of thousands of sites, while still retaining the P2P model of networking. Usenet was essentially the precursor to various web forums used today- a hybrid between email and web forums, minus the advanced security features of a hosted exchange server.

The 90’s: When http and ftp Reigned

P2P networks developed throughout the 90’s but were mostly used for in-house purposes. When the Internet became really popular in the mid 90’s, most developers and web architects were creating systems that did involve P2P exchange. The Internet made its way into the mainstream and primarily became a way for people to exchange email, access web pages, and buy stuff.

Between 1995-1997, FTP (file transfer protocol) file sharing and free homepage file sharing became the major way to share files. The most popular file sharing was the (anonymous) file transfer protocol. An anonymous FTP server allows a user to login using an anonymous name to send or receive a file over the Internet.

HTTP was also widely used, beginning as a simple protocol used to request pages from a server. The browser would connect to the server and send a command like:

GET/ welcome.html

The server would then respond with the contents of the requested file.

In 1997, ICQ messenger became the new major way to share files and enabled you to send instant messages. It was developed by an Israeli company called Mirabilis and was the first of its kind as at that point, no software existed to enable an immediate connection between users, and most people were accessing the Internet through a non-UNIX operating system.

Napster 1999

The P2P system began to gain popularity again when Northeastern University student Shawn Fanning developed Napster, along with two friends he had met online, Jordan Ritter and Sean Parker. Its technology allowed people to copy and distribute mp3 files amongst each other which ended up paving the way for decentralized peer-to-peer file distribution programs. 60 million people worldwide were using this application, which generated an immense selection of music to download.

But with Napster’s popularity also came a unanimous anger by recording artists and studios who felt that this so-called music sharing application was violating copyright laws. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) sued Napster in December of 1999, and in April of 2000 Metallica filed a lawsuit as well. After long legal battles Napster stopped operation in July 2001.

Kazaa, Morpheus, Gnutella, Audiogalaxy, Limewire…

Even though Napster disappeared it opened the door to new file-swapping programs such as Kazaa, Gnutella, Audiogalaxy and these continue to be used to share music files. These programs operate without any involvement from central computers so even if these companies were sued the file-swapping networks would still exist.

Bram Cohen’s BitTorrent

American computer programmer Bram Cohen designed BitTorrent to be able to download files from many different sources, in order to speed up download time especially for users with faster download than upload speeds. BitTorrent became very popular for its ability to share large music and movie files online at fast speeds- the more popular the file the faster the download.

uTorrent, azure (and other torrent software)

uTorrent is a freeware closed source BitTorrent client by BitTorrent Inc and is the second most popular P2P application.

Top Torrent Sites In Recent History

Suprnova

Torrentspy

Demonoid

Oink

Isohunt

The Pirate Bay

MiniNova

Torrentz

Torrentreactor

At the moment, torrent downloads account for a majority of all peer-to-peer exchanges over the internet. Its prevailing use has lead to many innovations and avenues for smaller and larger companies alike to share and distribute digital content in all forms.

While the original intent behind torrents was noble, most torrents available online are of copyrighted materal. It goes without saying that downloading copyrighted materials on the internet is inherantly risky as most countries currently have laws protecting artists.