Will Richardson LIN 312—Language and the Internet Rajesh Bhatt
KaZaA: The History
Introduction: KaZaA can be viewed as a third generation peer-to-peer file-sharing service, or P2P service. Napster was the first generation of P2P applications, followed by Gnutella and WinMx, the second generation of P2P applications, then KaZaA and other Fasttrack applications such as Morpheus and Grokster. These networks allow users to search and download all types of media files, and not just music files, from other users on the server. This is significant because now users only have to download one server and they then have access to Audio, Video, Software, and Picture downloads from all over the world. My goal in this paper is to outline and detail the history of file-sharing that eventually led to the creation of KaZaA and other applications that are in use today.
Road Map: Since its introduction in the mid-1990’s, peer-to-peer file-sharing, or simply P2P, has matured into one of the most influential ideas in the history of the internet. The expansion and world-wide use of the internet has facilitated the growth of P2P to extraordinary levels. What started as anonymous FTP, meaning users login using anonymous names to receive or transfer files on the internet, has transformed throughout the past decade. The second stage of this transformation was file transfer protocol along with free Homepage usage,
meaning users are able to upload files on homepages in order to allow others to download them, essentially combining FTP with the World Wide Web.1 Around 1997, Hotline or ICQ (messenger), a communication device that allowed users to chat back and forth, as well as share files through the messenger was introduced.2 Finally in 1999, Napster was created, quickly becoming the new way to share music files quickly and easily with anyone in the world who has also downloaded the application. Due to this, 60 million users were soon using Napster.3 Because there were so many users, copyright violations became a huge problem causing Napster to eventually shut down after a series of lawsuits were filed. In 2001, WinMx was created. WinMx was another file-sharing application that allowed users to not just share music files, but other files such as pictures, movies and computer software as well. This in turn led to more copyright infringements and lawsuits, eventually shutting down WinMx. WinMx led to the creation of KaZaA and the numerous other file-sharing protocols that are still present today.
Internet and peer-to-peer
1987 1993 1998 1999 2000 2001
4
MP3 format developed. Mosaic Web browser launched, Internet takes off. Music, movies, etc STILL not available online TO BUY other than buying the physical product. Napster launched as a resource for finding music files online. Napster closed down following ruling in favor of US record industry. KaZaA launched for all files – not just music but videos, software, images
1 2
http://www.ksc.kwansei.ac.jp/researchfair02/03/website/history.htm Ibid 3 Ibid 4 http://www.kazaa.com/revolution/history.htm
Personal Relevance: The creation of peer-to-peer file-sharing has had a tremendous impact on modern society. Instead of having to go out to the music store and buying a CD for $15-$20, P2P made it possible to simply download the music file(s) you want directly to your computer. These files can be played straight from your computer or with the help of a CD creator agent or application; these files can be compiled and ―burned‖ onto a blank media CD. The cost to the consumer is simply the price of the blank CD, that is if there is no downloading fee, which hasn’t been used until recently with Apple’s iTunes and Napster 2. The same goes for other types of media files, such as video, software and pictures. The creation of peer-to-peer file-sharing is extraordinary because it allows relatively free access of files to anyone in the entire world who downloads and becomes a user of the P2P server. Through this type of file-sharing, if one user uploads his/her file(s) to the server, every single user is able to download those files. Unfortunately, what is good for the consumer is not always legal and is very harmful to the producers and artists. Due to the high volume of downloading copyright-protected files, producers and artists began taking legal action against the creators and even some of the users of the Napster system. All this was done to protect the Intellectual Property Rights of the artists. These parties decided to take actions against the creators and even some users of the file-sharing protocols. The producers and artists took it to court because their copyrights weren’t being respected. This eventually caused the downfall of Napster and left many users looking for alternative ways to continue downloading
free music and other media files. Sure enough other types of downloading agents were created and most of them have shared the same fate as Napster.
File Transfer Protocol: File transfer protocol, FTP, is the internet protocol that permits you to transfer files between your system and another system. You can use any of three approaches to transfer files:5
your browser's limited FTP capability programs like WS_FTP, CuteFTP, or Fetch FTP command language that can be run from a DOS prompt or from Start/Run in Windows or older shell accounts
However there are various restrictions to FTP. To transfer files using FTP, a protocol usually requires either a user id on both systems or a special configuration set up by the system administrator(s).6 In order to use FTP, certain software must be installed on your computer. Limited FTP capability is already built into most browsers and you can use an FTP URL to get files. Some browsers also include the ability to put files from your system to another system using drag and drop from directory software like Windows Explorer.7 But if you are going to put files elsewhere very regularly, you will need FTP software. The older shell accounts normally include built-in FTP software, usable with FTP commands.8 If you are using a dialup or networked
5 6
http://www.walthowe.com/navnet/history.html http://www.cs.indiana.edu/docproject/zen/zen-1.0_5.html 7 http://www.walthowe.com/navnet/history.html 8 Ibid
account, you will need your own software. Windows 95 and later comes with its own FTP software that can be run from MSDOS or in a dos window from the Run function.9 To use it, you need to know the basic FTP commands. Basic FTP Commands:10 ftp: Opens the ftp software. If you follow it with an ftp address, it completes the connection. open some.ftp.address : If the ftp software is already running (you will usually see an ftp> prompt), use the open command followed by an ftp address to connect to a site. cd directoryname : Changes to the named subdirectory. Successive subdirectories can be chained together in one command, separated by slashes. cd .. : Changes to the next higher directory. The double dots can also be chained with slashes to move more than one level. ls or ls -l or dir : Various forms of directory commands. Try them all and see their effects. mkdir : Make a new directory
9
10
Ibid Ibid
rmdir : Remove a directory rm or del : Various forms of the delete command. If one doesn't work, try the other. rename or mv : Various forms of the rename command. In unix, the syntax mv oldname newname effectively moves the old name to the new name. get filename : Get the named file from the remote system to your system. mget filelist : Multiple file get. You can use wildcards, such as *.gif or list each filename in turn. put : Put a file from your system to a remote system. mput : Multiple file put. ascii : Sets ascii (text) mode for subsequent transfers. Use with HTML files. bin : Sets binary mode. Must be used for all binary files.
help or ? or man ftp : Calls up more help.
There is a lot of friendlier software, like WS-FTP for Windows, which automates the FTP process for you so that you don't have to remember the command structure.11
(Anonymous) File Transfer Protocol: Anonymous File Transfer Protocol, or anonymous FTP, was the next advancement towards today’s KaZaA. The history of anonymous FTP dates back to the early days of the internet. An anonymous FTP server is one in which a user can login using an anonymous user name and sometimes a password as well. Once the user has this anonymous user name, he/she is able to send and/or receive files. Anonymous FTP is a good way around the restrictions of FTP because it essentially will let anyone in the world have access to a certain area of disk space in a non-threatening way.12 With this, people can make files publicly available with little difficulty.
The ARCHIE Server: The user can find the files which they want in anonymous FTP from a server called Archie. The first effort, other than library catalogs, to index the internet was created in 1989, as Peter Deutsch and his crew at McGill University
11 12
Ibid http://www.cs.indiana.edu/docproject/zen/zen-1.0_5.html
in Montreal, created an archiver for ftp sites, which they named Archie.13 This software would periodically reach out to all known openly available ftp sites, list their files and build a searchable index of the software. The commands to search Archie were UNIX commands, and it took some knowledge of UNIX to use it to its full capability. Basic UNIX Commands:14
ls ................. logout ............. mkdir .............. rmdir .............. files) rm ................. cd ................. man (command) ...... talk (user) ........ write (user) ....... end) show directory, in alphabetical order logs off system make a directory remove directory (rm -r to delete folders with remove files change current directory shows help on a specific command pages user for chat - (user) is a email address write a user on the local system (control-c to
pico (filename) .... easy to use text editor to edit files pine ............... easy to use mailer more (file) ........ views a file, pausing every screenful sz ................. send a file (to you) using zmodem rz ................. recieve a file (to the unix system) using zmodem telnet (host) ...... ftp (host) ......... archie (filename) .. site irc ................ lynx ............... gopher ............. tin, trn ........... connect to another Internet site connects to a FTP site search the Archie database for a file on a FTP connect to Internet Relay Chat a textual World Wide Web browser a Gopher database browser read Usenet newsgroups
passwd ............. change your password chfn ............... change your "Real Name" as seen on finger chsh ............... change the shell you log into grep ............... tail ............... who ................ w .................. finger (emailaddr).. df ................. search for a string in a file show the last few lines of a file shows who is logged into the local system shows who is logged on and what they're doing shows more information about a user shows disk space available on the system
13 14
http://www.walthowe.com/navnet/history.html http://www.bsd.org/unixcmds.html
du ................. shows how much disk space is being used up by folders chmod .............. changes permissions on a file bc ................. a simple calculator make ............... compiles source code gcc (file.c) ....... compiles C source into a file named 'a.out' gzip ............... zip ................ tar ................ lharc, lzh, lha .... best compression for UNIX files zip for IBM files combines multiple files into one or vice-versa un-arc'ers, may not be on your system
dos2unix (file) (new) - strips CR's out of dos text files unix2dos (file) (new) - adds CR's to unix text files
FTP and Free Homepage: After the use of FTP and anonymous FTP with the help of Archie for indexing purposes, the combination of FTP file sharing and free Homepage file sharing became the major way to share files. This transformation occurred from 1995 to 1997. By using free Homepage, you were able to upload files onto a webpage, in order to allow others to download them directly from the web. In other words, this step essentially combined FTP with the World Wide Web. This improvement was very innovative because now more than ever it became easier to transfer files from location to location all over the world. With hundreds of free Homepage providers on the internet today, access to a free Homepage has become more and more obtainable. All one has to do is find the right free homepage provider based on free space and file manager. Most free Homepage providers today require the user to put banners on their page. Here is a list of the top 30 free homepage providers according to ―www.freesitex.com‖, along with reliability, speed and their rating of the free homepage provider:15
15
http://www.freesitex.com/homepage.html
Name Hypermart Stormloader FreeHomepage
Free Space 10MB 10MB 5MB Unlimited
Ad Requirement Banner pop-up banner Banner Banner Banner pop-up banner pop-up banner Banner pop-up banner Top Toolbar Depends on your usage Banner pop-up banner Banner pop-up banner pop-up banner Banner Banner Bottom Banner bottom banner Banner None None None None None Banner Banner Top Frame pop-up banner None None None Banner Banner
File Manager FTP/Browser Brower FTP/Browser FTP FTP/Browser FTP/Browser Browser FTP/Browser Browser Browser FTP Browser FTP/Browser FTP/Browser FTP/Browser Browser FTP/Browser FTP E-Mail FTP Browser FTP FTP FTP FTP Browser FTP Browser FTP FTP
Reliability Speed Rating 10 10 9 8 10 10 10 10 10 10 8 N/A 10 N/A 9 N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A 10 N/A 9 N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A Fast Fast Fast Fast Fast Fast Fast Fast Fast Fast Medium N/A Fast N/A Fast N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A Fast N/A Fast N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A 10 9 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 9 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7
Virtual Avenue 20MB Tripod Geocities 11MB 11MB
Homepage.com 10MB Angelfire The Globe Spree Hosting 5MB 12MB Unlimited
Freeweb.digiweb 10MB Family Shoe Unlimited Box Starpath 20MB 321 Website Free Yellow Delphi FreeTown Cybercities Internettrash Upws MYSP Tilted Hosting WebJump Internet-Club FreeZone NeoTown Nettaxi Cynet City Codename 10MB 12MB 10MB 3MB 25MB 10MB 2MB 7MB 2MB 25MB 15MB 7MB 15MB 3MB 12MB 8MB
Better-Business 30MB
Hotline or ICQ (messenger): Around 1997, Hotline or ICQ (messenger), a communication device that allowed users to chat back and forth, as well as share files through the messenger was introduced.16 This took file-sharing to yet another level because through a simple messenger, a user could not only communicate, but transfer and receive files as well. ICQ Inc., the successor of Mirabilis Ltd. was created when America Online acquired all of Mirabilis' assets on June 1998.17 Mirabilis was founded in July 1996 when four young Israeli avid-computer users established a new Internet company. Yair Goldfinger (26, Chief Technology Officer), Arik Vardi (27, Chief Executive Officer), Sefi Vigiser (25, President), and Amnon Amir (24, currently studying) created the company in order to introduce a new way of communication over the internet.18 ICQ stands for ―I Seek You‖ and it was enthusiastically received and immediately embraced, first by a small number of users, but soon thereafter, by hundreds of thousands. This chain reaction created one of the largest download rates for a start-up company in the history of the internet.19
Napster: After the uproar created by ICQ and Hotline with their messengers, Napster was created in 1999 by an 18-year old named Shawn Fanning, who happened to be a college dropout. I guess some people don’t need a degree to
16 17
http://www.ksc.kwansei.ac.jp/researchfair02/03/website/history.htm http://company.icq.com/info/icqstory.html 18 Ibid 19 Ibid
change the world because that is exactly what this young man did. Fanning came up with the simple idea of creating a program that allowed computer users to share and swap files, specifically music, through a centralized file server.20 The 18 year old stayed awake for 60 straight hours writing the source code for a program that combined a music-search function with a file-sharing system and, to facilitate communication, instant messaging.21 Napster hosted a central server which indexed all the files that each Napster user had. When you wanted to find a particular file, you simply "searched Napster." The process of searching simply asked the central server: "does anyone have this file?"22 The central server would look at its list of known files and provide you with the internet location of the other users who had the file. The central server model made sense for many reasons -- it was an efficient way to handle searches, and allowed Napster to retain control over the network. However, what it also meant was that when the lawyers came down on Napster, all they had to do was turn off the central servers and that was the end of Napster.23 Napster is viewed as the 1st generation of peer-to peer networks before it was taken down by RIAA, the Recording Industry Association of America.
2nd Generation: Gnutella was the second major P2P network to emerge. After Napster's shut down, the creators of Gnutella wanted to create a ―de-centralized network‖--
20 21
http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/Spring01/Burkhalter/Napster%20history.html Ibid 22 http://www.mac-p2p.com/p2p-history/ 23 Ibid
one that could not be shut down by simply turning off a server.24 In the broadest sense, Gnutella worked by connecting users to other users directly bypassing any central server altogether. When users started the Gnutella client, they would connect to a certain number of other users, and those users were connected to other users, etc, all in one giant network. In order to search for a file, you asked everyone you were connected to "hey, do you have this file?" They in turn would see if they do, and also pass the message on to all the people they were connected to. Basically, it was one big game of "telephone".25 The main advantage was that it couldn't easily be shut down. The disadvantages were many--including slow searches and islands of sub-networks that weren't connected to each other. There were several clients under Gnutella that we considered 2nd generation P2P:26 poisoned (recommended) http://poisonedproject.com/poisoned.php Poisoned is a very popular client and supports Gnutella, FastTrack, and OpenFT networks. mlMac (recommended) http://www.abyssoft.com/software/mlmac/ mlMac is the graphical front end to mldonkey and provides support for Gnutella, FastTrack, eDonkey, and Overnet networks. iSwipe (DonationWare) http://www.hillmanminx.net/iswipe/
24 25
Ibid Ibid 26 Ibid
iSwipe is a multi-network client and the most recent version provides support for OpenNap, Gnutella, FastTrack, eDonkey and many others. Limewire http://www.limewire.com/english/content/home.shtml A popular Gnutella client for Mac OS X. People have variable luck with it (and the Gnutella network), but your experiences may vary. Shareware. Acquisition http://www.acquisitionx.com/ Another Mac OS X Gnutella Client. $15 Shareware mutella http://mutella.sourceforge.net/ command line Gnutella Client (available via Fink).
WinMx: During the days of Napster, WinMx was simply just a client under OpenNap; however it did have a large following of users. WinMx served as a nice alternative to the crowded and often slow Napster and with the following it had, could produce just as many mp3s as Napster did.27 After the bringing down of Napster by RIAA in the courts in 2000, the P2P network nearly collapsed entirely. As all the other downloading agents such as Scour Exchange fell, the OpenNap community crashed. With nothing to connect to but a few overcrowded foreign servers, WinMx evolved and created the WinMX Peer Networking
27
http://www.slyck.com/winmx.php?page=1
Protocol (WPNP).28 This allowed WinMx to become the newest, most widespread P2P network. A new version of WinMx quickly came out, allowing users access to not just audio, but video, software and pictures as well. However, the advancements created by WinMx quickly led to more copyright infringements and lawsuits. These lawsuits eventually closed down WinMx, as they had all their predecessors such as Napster, but not before paving the way for KaZaA.
KaZaA, 3rd Generation: KaZaA is a client of the Fasttrack Network, the most popular P2P network at this time. Following the example of all of the networks before it, Fasttrack offers an enormous variety of files for download. Fasttrack and its clients, mainly KaZaA, are used by millions worldwide. Other clients of this network which are also very well known and widely used include Grokster and Morpheus. KaZaA, Grokster and Morpheus are the names of the different clients that connect to the Fasttrack Network. What that means is that users of any of those clients have access to the exact same files. Others clients that are a part of the Fasttrack network, as well as 3rd generation P2Ps are:29 mlMac (recommended) http://www.abyssoft.com/software/mlmac/ mlMac is the graphical front end for mlDonkey -- which has FastTrack support built in.
28 29
Ibid Ibid
poisoned (recommended) http://poisonedproject.com/poisoned.php Poisoned is a graphical client for giFT. It also includes a plug-in to support the FastTrack network as well as Gnutella. iSwipe (DonationWare) http://www.hillmanminx.net/iswipe/ iSwipe is a multi-network client and the most recent version provides support for OpenNap, Gnutella, FastTrack, eDonkey and many others.
Fasttrack added a number of enhancements to the P2P networks, including super nodes, and spawning.30 These improvements both helped searches as well as download speeds. Despite legal battles, the Fasttrack network remains operational, and is the most popular P2P network.
Future of P2P File-Sharing: Who knows what’s in store for the future of peer-to-peer networking, but if the future goes anything like the last decade, you can bet that the networks and all of their clients will continue to advance and amaze. Despite the continued legal battle royales, I strongly believe that networks will continue to be created so that free downloads will remain available. I also believe that as time goes by, more and more users will simply pay for their downloads, but the masses of those who want free downloads will never completely disappear.
30
http://www.mac-p2p.com/p2p-history/
Will Richardson LIN 312—Language and the Internet Rajesh Bhatt
Bibliography
Diercouff, Stephen. ―A large list of UNIX commands, to get the novice started.‖ 1 Nov. 2002. FreeSiteX Inc. ―Free Homepage‖ 1998-2000. Howe, Walt. ―A Brief History of the Internet.‖ Last updated 21 April 2002. ICQ Inc. ―The ICQ Story‖ 1998-2004. Kawamoto, Yuta. ―History of P2P.‖ 2002. Kehoe, Brendan P. ―Zen and the Art of the Internet. A Beginner's Guide to the Internet, First Edition, January 1992.‖ Mac-P2P.com. ―Peer to Peer (P2P) Introduction and History‖ 26 Aug. 2003. ―Napster: Then and Now‖ Sharman Networks. ―A short history of Music, Movies, Videos and P2P‖ 20022003. Slyck News. ―WinMX‖ 2001-2004.