What Is a Torrent Leecher?
A leecher is someone who downloads files under the BitTorrent protocol but does not upload any. The BitTorrent protocol is a file-sharing system that is free to use. File sharing is not illegal as long as the owner of the copyright of the file does not object to it being copied by others.
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BitTorrent
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A leecher copies files from others through a BitTorrent client. Anyone who has a client installed on his computer is able to contact others with a similar client and copy files. Users do not have to subscribe to a file server. The contact between uploaders and downloaded is mediated by a tracker. The uploaders notify the tracker for a particular file of their location. Downloaders contact the tracker to find the locations of copies of the file. The downloader then contacts the uploader directly.
Method
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The computer user does not get involved in connecting to the other users of the system. That work is performed automatically by the torrent client. The client gets the information about a file and its location from a torrent file. Users trace torrent files through listing directories.
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Terminology
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A file available for copying in the BitTorrent system is called a "torrent." An uploader is called a "seeder"; he seeds the torrent, or basically offers the file for upload himself -- the seed -- so that others can benefit from his seed file being included in the torrent. The BitTorrent system divides large files into blocks. Once a downloader has downloaded even one block he becomes a source for others to copy that block even though he hasn't finished downloading the entire file. Such a person -- that is, someone who is simultaneously downloading and uploading parts of the same file -- is called a "peer." After a file has completely downloaded it automatically switches to being a seed while it remains listed in the client. If the user deletes the torrent from the client (while keeping the downloaded file) he is termed a "leech" or a "leecher" because he did not allow others to use his seed like he used someone else's seed to download the file he just downloaded.
Fair Play
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There is nothing to stop anyone being a leech. There is no ban placed on those who only copy from others without contributing files to others. However, the more seeds that are available for a file, the easier it is to download, and so BitTorrent etiquette expects that each downloader will do others the favor they were themselves accorded and increase the availability of the torrent. The torrent client show the ratio of upload to download by that user for each file registered in the client. If that number is less than one, the user has taken more than he has given. If the ratio is higher than one, the user has done a service to his fellow users.
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References
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