SoulSeek (original) (raw)
SoulSeek is a file-sharing application used mainly to exchange MP3 music files. It was created by Nir Arbel, a former Napster programmer. Like Napster did, it relies on a central server, which makes it vulnerable to being shut down by legal action. As of December 2003, however, it was still functioning.
The Soulseek userbase has grown rapidly, and there are some 70,000 users on at any given time. This rapid growth has resulted in heavy load on its server, which causes quite a lot of downtime.