Chronicle of a Pirate on the net : Edonkey !

Warning : this article is not intended to encourage piracy of copyrighted works. It is a simple sharing of my knowledge in the field of education, because it is interesting to recall these outdated means and to understand how they work. You are the only one responsible for your actions on the net and many legal offers are now available to satisfy our thirst for culture. Not everything was so accessible during this period! Have a good reading !

At the end of 2000, the major groups in the cultural industry obtained the death of Napster, after having initiated a legal battle until then unheard of. Two years of proceedings were more than necessary to stop the distribution of the sharing software on the network. Despite this victory for the rights holders, the peer2p hydra had more and more new heads. This is how a whole new generation of applications emerged, with ever more advantages in terms of data sharing. While Direct Connect and Kazaa enjoyed a growing number of users among the general public, a challenger is changing the game by offering an innovative and efficient operating system. His name : Edonkey !

The genesis of one of the largest historical Peer2peer network !

Developed by MetaMachine Inc, the Edonkey network had as a principle to solve a problem related to the exponential growth of data transmitted on the net. Starting from a simple observation that existing infrastructures would clearly not meet the increasing demand, the idea of designing a decentralized network to generate this influx germinated in the minds of developers. It was with the very first version of Edonkey2000 that this solution materialized as a freeware client, entirely financed by advertising. Technically quite avant-garde in its transmission management, it introduces the principle of a unique fingerprint to a file that would then be uploaded by a user. Even if the name of a similar file made available on the network differs or has a different terminology, it is hashed, analyzed and named compliant as such.

This very elaborate operation also makes it possible to avoid duplicates and generate multiple sources, thus increasing the potential for downloading to a file. It is therefore possible to retrieve several parts of a packet from multiple connected clients. A system of queues as well as abundant requests between clients was then set up, suggesting what Bittorent would reproduce in its operation many years later ! In front of so many technological feats, but also in front of the possibilities in terms of efficiency and speed, the little pirates didn't hesitate to download and upload copyrighteous works ! The machine was then on its way, nothing seemed to stop Edonkey, who was gradually gaining in popularity !

One of Edonkey's main shortcomings is that it is not fully decentralized. Because to access the lists of publications as well as to synchronize to the network, it is inevitable that you must go through a server that will be in charge of bridging the gap between the different users. This inconvenience will be the main Achilles heel of the protocol, which will be attacked time and time again. We will see later, in this article, the consequences of such a functioning. Nevertheless, the MetaMachine Inc team was able to solve this problem with the creation of a new protocol to be grafted into the network : Overnet. Bringing more decentralisation, Overnet is in charge of exchanging with customers scattered on both sides, the identification and content of each of them. In case of servers disappearing, this one allows to create nodes over Edonkey in order to resume downloads independently of a predefined list. This idea will then be taken up again with its free counterpart : Kademlia.

We're loading the mule !

On May 13, 2002, Hendrik Breitkreuz, particularly unsatisfied with the original client, developed a completely free software in his corner that would remedy all Edonkey's malfunctions. Against all expectations, he will withdraw from the project, not without having published the source code on SoundForge.net, before leaving. From this sketch, the eMule project was born, with the involvement of six totally dedicated developers. These efforts paid off as on August 4, 2002, the very first version of this software, version 0.05a, will be released. In addition to perfectly reproducing Edonkey's operation, eMule innovates with the integration of a credit system that is much more respectful of the network and its users.

Credits are not global; they are exchanged between two specific clients. The credit system is used to reward users contributing to the network, i.e. uploading to other clients. The strict queue system in eMule is based on the waiting time a user has spent in the queue. The credit system provides a major modifier to this waiting time by taking the upload and download between the two clients into consideration. The more a user uploads to a client the faster he advances in this client's queue. The modifiers are calculated from the amount of transferred data between the two clients. The values used can be seen in the client's details dialog. To view this information, right-click on any user and choose View Details.

All Clients uploading to you are rewarded by the credit system. It does not matter if the client supports the credit system or not. Non-supporting clients will grant you no credits when you upload to them. Credits are stored in the clients.met file. The unique user hash is used to identify the client. Your own credits are saved by the client who owes you the credit. This prevents faking the credits. Your own credits cannot be displayed.

Source : Wikipédia

As the code was released under GPLv2 license, eMule will make a lot of emulators (Hahaha ! Ok, I'm out !) near the amateur dev scene. Thus, we will see in turn the arrival of mods, integrating systems of different functioning or having advanced stats. From the top, I could mention: MorphXT, Echanblard, LSD etc...

Sharing ideas and opinions!

In addition to opening the warez scene to a wider audience, Edonkey and eMule, through their fads, have created a kind of fascination that has brought together an incredible number of communities. All united under the banner of unlimited sharing, groups entirely dedicated to the platform have been created. Sites indexing links, teams of rippers, encoders and distributors were set up, but also fans of popular and general culture engaged in verbal games on dedicated forums. One of the major platforms was the famous French-speaking Peer2p forum, which brought together extraordinary members with very sharp knowledge. I have a very special thought for this forum of discussions which allowed me to make beautiful encounters as well as incredible discoveries on all full of authors. I am always in contact with some of the pillars of this meeting place, because beyond the excessive downloading it was the passion that brought us together !

A sudden and morbid end !

In 2006, a shock brought to the network by the RIAA and international authorities made all the world's leechers shudder with fear. Razorback, the largest server dedicated to the Edonkey network, disappeared from the airwaves following the intervention of the Belgian police. A hard blow that caused suspicion and mistrust among users of possible alternative servers that could well have been infiltrated by law enforcement. Not only did it cause terror and overload Edonkey's infrastructure for a while, it also caused a wave of panic that will shift most of the population to other alternatives. The party was over! Despite Kademlia's effectiveness in weaving her web outside the ancillary servers, the damage was done. The population fell drastically, the springs declined over time. A page had just been turned, nothing will be the same as before...