The world’s oldest active torrent turns 20
In a few days, the oldest still active torrent will turn 20. The fan-made low-budget film The Fanimatrix appeared on the Internet on September 27, 2003 and is still available for download.
The 16-minute film, which had a budget of only 800 New Zealand dollars (approximately $500), takes place shortly before the events of the original The Matrix and tells the story of the rebels Dante and Medusa from the ship Descartes, and their fateful mission in the virtual world of The Matrix.
In 2003, there were few networks for sharing large files (as many as 135 MB!), and YouTube didn’t even exist yet, so the filmmakers decided to use the newly created peer-to-peer protocol BitTorrent to distribute the film, which was first released on July 2, 2001.