Donkey2000

Internet Archive capture of the E-Donkey Forum on December 18, 2003.

eDonkey2000 (nicknamed "ed2k") was a peer-to-peer file-sharing application developed by American company MetaMachine (Jed McCaleb and Sam Yagan), which connected to the eDonkey and Overnet networks.

On September 28, 2005, eDonkey ceased operations following a cease and desist letter from the RIAA.

EDonkey Network

Users on the eDonkey network mostly share large files, tens or hundreds of megabytes in size, such as CD images, videos, games, and software programs. To make it easier to find files, some websites include ed2k links that contain the checksums of the files. Some of those websites also have lists of active servers that users can update.

MetaMachines also created another file-sharing network called Overnet, which interoperates with the eDonkey network, but without the use of servers. Most of eDonkey's clients now also use the Overnet network. In 2004, MetaMachines announced that it would halt Overnet development to focus on the eDonkey network (although the eDonkey2000 client also includes the Overnet protocol).

History and design

eDonkey2000 was created by Jed McCaleb, co-founder of the Stellar payment network, and was first released on September 6, 2000. On September 16, 2000, client and server versions were available for Microsoft Windows and Linux.

Compared to the previous P2P file-sharing program Napster, eDonkey2000 offered "swarming" downloads, meaning that clients could download different parts of the same file from different peers, efficiently using the bandwidth combined bandwidth of all pairs rather than being limited to the bandwidth of a single pair.

At first, the servers were isolated from each other, like Napster, but later versions of eDonkey2000's server software allowed the servers to form a search network. This allowed servers to forward search queries from their locally connected clients to other servers, allowing clients to find peers connected to any server in the server network, thus increasing the size of the download swarm. It also allowed clients to find and download files not available on clients connected to the same server.

A third improvement over Napster was the use of file hashes instead of simple file names in search results. User-initiated file searches were keyword-based and compared to the list of file names stored on the eDonkey2000 server, but the server returned a list of file names matched to the hashes of those files to the client. By selecting a file from the list presented to the user, the client actually initiated a download by the hash value. This meant that a file could have many different names in different pairs, but would be considered identical for download purposes if their hash was the same.

The two-tier (client and server) peer-to-peer network architecture offered a balance between centralized systems like Napster and decentralized ones like Gnutella. Where Napster ultimately proved vulnerable was in its centralized server pool, which was a stable target for legal action. Gnutella's original design, which called for the complete removal of the server network in favor of purely peer-to-peer searching, soon proved unfeasible due to the massive overload of peer-to-peer search traffic.

Subsequent second-tier P2P file-sharing systems use a design similar to eDonkey2000 (chunky hashed file downloads from multiple peers simultaneously), but innovate in server network design, as in the case from BitTorrent, which separates the function of searching for files ("torrent search") from the function of locating download peers ("torrent tracker").

EDonkey2000 Client

The latest version of the official eDonkey2000 client included a plugin that allowed you to download BitTorrent files. Once a torrent download starts, the eDonkey browser can find the same file on the eDonkey/Overnet network and synchronize its download. This allows a torrent to be used as another download source, greatly increasing speed and virtually eliminating counterfeiting issues. Torrents help prevent fake files and are also used as file size checkers, plus eDonkey2000's own user-based fake alert system has greatly improved the functionality of the network. By effectively combining the reach of the existing Overnet and eDonkey networks with the lightning-fast file distribution of the BitTorrent system, eDonkey2000 followed a growing trend among P2P programs to integrate downloads from multiple networks. This has the advantage of maximizing the number of files available while limiting vulnerability to problems on a single network.

EDonkey sued by RIAA

In September 2005, MetaMachine company officials received a cease and desist letter from the RIAA as a result of the June 2005 United States Supreme Court ruling MGM Studios v. Grokster, that manufacturers of software that facilitate copyright infringement are liable for copyright infringement. The company that owns the program, MetaMachine, reached a settlement in 2006 with the RIAA to avoid a lawsuit. for infringement of intellectual property rights. The company stopped distributing its software and agreed to pay compensation of $30 million.

On September 12, 2006 the eDonkey2000 program closed its doors. With prior planning, the eDonkey2000 software itself, when executed, informed users about "the end of the eDonkey2000 network", to immediately close itself, and immediately, without user intervention, start the self-uninstallation. However, it can be verified that for the moment the eDonkey network is still working using other clients.

The message that could be read on the page www.edonkey.com was, in its Spanish translation, the following:

"The eDonkey2000 network is no longer available. If you steal music or
movies, you're breaking the law.

Courts around the world -- including the Supreme Court
United States of America -- have regulated
that companies and people can be persecuted for
illegal discharges.

You are not anonymous when you download illegally material with
copyright.

Your IP address is x.x.x.x and has been registered.

Respect the music, perform legal downloads. "