The Dawn of Peer To Peer File Sharing
The early 1980s was the period when modeming was becoming very active throughout the world. Hundreds of Apple II-based BBSs popped up, most of them used only as message boards. With the aid of free Apple II hacking software like Dalton's Disk Disintegrator (DDD), computer users were able to take an un-protected floppy disk, compress it into multiple files, then transmit those files to another user. This was actually one of several origins of what is known today as peer-to-peer file transfers.
While other Apple II-based telecomm programs, such as DiskFur and CatFur, allowed for complete disk and file transfers, there was a need for a portal concept - one that is hosted using a BBS as its entry point. This way, a community of software enthusiasts and software pirates could collaborate as well as exchange software.
AE Pro was at the time the only telecomm program that was accessible, via an undocumented hack, from virtually any other BBS software, such as GBBS, Networks II, among other programs. This allowed for sysops to control access to the AE lines via user accounts. With many of the users phreaking their way into AE lines, these portals allowed for international pirating communities to develop.
AE knock-offs were also developed, including PAE (Pseudo Ascii Express--"Written by a Pirate for Pirates") and PAE ProDOS, both written as free add-ons to GBBS. Unlike AE, the source code was freely available for these add-ons.
Read more about this topic: ASCII Express
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