what are leechers in torrenting

Leechers are users in a peer-to-peer (P2P) network who download a file but disconnect from the torrent as soon as they have the full copy of the desired file. Leechers minimize their upload rate to conserve bandwidth. They never have a complete copy of the content, but they are always in the process of downloading it. Once a leecher completes the download and starts sharing (uploading the content), they become a seeder. Leechers are important because when downloading a torrent, users are also simultaneously sharing (uploading) the part of the content they have already successfully downloaded. The term "leech" has a negative connotation because some leechers intentionally avoid uploading by using modified clients or severely limiting their uploading speed.