from
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008)
BitTorrent
seed
torrent
<networking> A popular, distributed form of {peer-to-peer}
{file sharing} that enables a {client} program to fetch
different parts of a file (a "torrent") from different sources
in parallel. The system is designed to encourage users to
make downloaded data available for others to upload. This is
aided by a scheme for exchanging unique identifiers, commonly
stored in ".torrent" files. A downloader who does not serve
data to others is called a "leech". A "seed" is a computer
that has a complete copy of a file, possibly the original.
The bittorrent.com site claims there are over 100 million
users as of 2007-03-24.
Most of the data is copyright material like films or
commercial software.
(http://www.bittorrent.com/what-is-bittorrent).
(2007-03-27)