These programs, like LimeWire and BearShare (both work with the far-flung Gnutella file-sharing network), do not use a central server. Napster was not the only file-sharing program out there, and several others popped up to take its place. It was the use of this central server that ultimately made Napster legally vulnerable, and it was shut down in 2002 after litigation by the recording industry. The prime stock in trade quickly became music, which with the advent of the MP3 format had become easier to compress into small digital files and exchange.Īlthough the files were kept on the computers of Napster's users, the system used a central index server to match up search requests and file locations.

Because all of this trading is done directly between individuals, it is commonly referred to as peer-to-peer, or P2P, networking.įile sharing became a frequent activity and hot topic in 1999 with the arrival of Napster, a piece of software written by Shawn Fanning, then a computer science student.

In exchange, you make a folder of your own files to be shared with other users. When you find it, you can get a copy of the file. KAZAA, Morpheus, LimeWire, BearShare, Grokster - they may sound like heroes of a comic book superhero team, but they are all Internet file-sharing programs that provide membership in an online co-op of millions of digital traders.Ī file-sharing system basically works like this: you download and install a file-sharing program like KaZaA, which allows you to search the Internet for specific material that somebody else's computer may have.

File sharing programs like limewire