Fine. In broad terms, he leveraged the file sharing networks of the time. He put the name of our site on files that were shared very often and we had our college friends seed them on various services. It seemed crazy at first, but there is a big difference between no one seeing your name and thousands of people seeing your name. In retrospect, it was a brilliant move.
My point was that critical mass and viral growth are powerful concepts, and some times all it takes is one little push to get things moving.
This isn't unethical. This is a brilliant marketing tactic. (Putting the name in there, not the actual sharing, which I guess is unethical depending on what you're sharing.)
i would consider soliciting someone else go share files (probably illegally) with the explicit purpose of advertising your website to be marginal at best.
My point was that critical mass and viral growth are powerful concepts, and some times all it takes is one little push to get things moving.