The evolution of file swapping
Four generations of file swapping have laid the groundwork for the Supreme Court decision.
Key names
IRC, FTP, Usenet, Blex's Page of Good MP3s
Key dates
June 1997--RIAA filed lawsuits against three MP3 download site operators.
October 1998--RIAA sued Diamond Multimedia over release of MP3 player.
February 1999--Lycos released Web music search tool; RIAA threatened lawsuit.
Pre-Napster | Napster Era | Kazaa Era | Today
Fanning's software and its immediate followers were based on a centralized technology,
Most of these companies went offline or changed their business model after being sued by the RIAA.
Key names
Napster, Scour Exchange, Audio Galaxy, iMesh (original), Aimster
Key dates
Spring 1999--Napster beta program released.
December 1999--RIAA sued Napster.
July 2000--RIAA sued Scour.
July 2000--San Francisco federal court ordered Napster to stop music-swapping.
February 2001--An appeals court upheld Napster order; company started blocking swaps soon afterward.
Pre-Napster | Napster Era | Kazaa Era | Today
The last computer in line would then connect directly to the first for a download. More sophisticated versions later streamlined this process, by allowing some computers to store information about nearby machines.
These decentralized models made the networks stronger, because--in theory--they could survive the failure of their parent company. They also provided some legal shield, because companies could argue that they had no direct control over or knowledge of illegal activity on the networks.
Key names
Gnutella (including LimeWire, Bearshare, and later Morpheus), Kazaa, Grokster
Key dates
March 2000--AOL subsidiary Nullsoft released Gnutella code online without corporate approval.
October 2001--RIAA sued Kazaa, Grokster and MusicCity (now StreamCast Networks).
February 2002--Millions of Morpheus users locked out of Kazaa's network overnight.
April 2003--Los Angeles court ruled Grokster wasn't liable for users' copyright infringement.
September 2003--RIAA filed first lawsuits against individual file-swappers.
August 2004--Appeals court upheld Los Angeles Grokster ruling.
June 2005--Supreme Court ruled on Grokster's legality.
Pre-Napster | Napster Era | Kazaa Era | Today
Key names
BitTorrent, eDonkey/eMule, Exeem
Key dates
February 2002--Bram Cohen
July 2004--BitTorrent swaps accounted for 53 percent of all Internet traffic, company said.
October 2004--eDonkey passed Kazaa as top file-swapping network.
December 2004--MPAA began legal attack on BitTorrent hubs.
Pre-Napster | Napster Era | Kazaa Era | Today