COPYCENSE

"Slyck.com has been tracking the population of the largest P2P networks since we opened in 2000. We gather the statistics from the network clients, and verify them through a third party.

"In March of 2005, Slyck compiled our collected data. Starting with January of 2003, the respective statistics for eDonkey2000, Direct Connect, FastTrack, Gnutella and Overnet were averaged per month. Unfortunately there is no accurate way to gauge BitTorrent’s population (other than bandwidth consumption), therefore it is excluded. We then released our ‘Stats Expanded’ section, which graphically depicted the growth or decline of these five networks."

Thomas Mennecke. Interest in File-Sharing at All Time High. Slyck. April 27, 2005.