Timeline of File Sharing - 1980s

1980s

Most file sharing in this era was done by modem over landline telephone, at speeds from 300 to 9600 bits per second. Many file systems in use only supported short filenames. Computer memory and speed was very limited, with 50 MHz CPUs only being accessible to consumers at the end of the decade.

• 1981 – Kermit (protocol) – a binary protocol that can be used with telnet or other BBS systems to transfer binary data.
• January 1984 – In Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc., the Supreme Court of the United States finds that making individual copies of complete television shows for purposes of time-shifting is fair use. This case would create some interpretative challenges to courts in applying the case to more recent file sharing technologies available for use on home computers and over the Internet.
• 1984 – Fidonet, an inter-BBS protocol that was widely available prior to IP based, is founded by Tom Jennings.
• October 1985 – File Transfer Protocol is standardized in RFC 959, authored by Postel and Reynolds. FTP allows files to be efficiently uploaded and downloaded from a central server.
• 1985 – Ymodem – a minor improvement to Xmodem.
• 1986 – Zmodem – another point-to-point binary transfer protocol, which had superior long-distance (high latency) transmission.
• August 1988 – Internet Relay Chat is created by Jarkko Oikarinen. IRC users can exchange files via Direct Client-to-Client.