Is Bittorrent Legal?

[Emanuel]

I don't understand much about bittorrent....is it sort of like Napster was? Do you have to download a client, and it finds other users with the file and downloads them? How legal is this?

[Ackerley]

To answer you first question, no Bittorrent(BT) is not like Napster. Napster was a P2P filesharing application(note that the one that exists today is just a music store). With P2P you download a file directly from another persons computer. This is extremely dangerous as you have no idea what you are actually downloading. P2P files are often viruses in disguise. It is also where the law likes to go to catch people illegally downloading software/music/movies. BT is also P2P, but instead of downloading it off one persons PC it grabs pieces from those who elect to "seed". In this way a "torrent" can be a much faster method of downloading if it is popular and a lot of poeple are "seeding". Torrents are also safer because you are relying on a network of people to provide the pieces, making it harder to attach viruses to it. To use Bittorrent you need a Bittorrent client. there are many to choose from, and they are all provided free of charge. I personally like BitComet or the "official" Client from bittorrent.com. As for the legality of it, the software itself is perfectly legal in fact World of Warcraft uses Bittorrent to download patches. Thats not to say, however that what your downloading is legal. Check you local laws for what is legal to download. If you intend to download illegal material, be sure you know how to cover your tracks.

[Achazia]

Bittorrent is not illegal. There are plenty of legitimate uses for it. For instance most of the Linux distros are distributed with Bittorrent. Patches for games like World of Warcraft use Bittorrent for distribution, etc. However, you can also use it to steal music/movies/books/applications illegally. Bittorrent is just a technology for distributing large piece of data by splitting them up and having each user share their pieces with everyone else. It's the stealing of material that people don't have the right to use that is illegal, not the Bittorrent technology itself. Napster itself was also not illegal, it's just that people used it to steal music they hadn't paid for.

[chatima]

Its not Bittorrent thats illeagal its what you download. To answer you first question, no Bittorrent(BT) is not like Napster. Napster was a P2P filesharing application(note that the one that exists today is just a music store). With P2P you download a file directly from another persons computer. This is extremely dangerous as you have no idea what you are actually downloading. P2P files are often viruses in disguise. It is also where the law likes to go to catch people illegally downloading software/music/movies. BT is also P2P, but instead of downloading it off one persons PC it grabs pieces from those who elect to "seed". In this way a "torrent" can be a much faster method of downloading if it is popular and a lot of poeple are "seeding". Torrents are also safer because you are relying on a network of people to provide the pieces, making it harder to attach viruses to it. To use Bittorrent you need a Bittorrent client. there are many to choose from, and they are all provided free of charge. I personally like BitComet or the "official" Client from bittorrent.com. As for the legality of it, the software itself is perfectly legal in fact World of Warcraft uses Bittorrent to download patches. Thats not to say, however that what your downloading is legal. Check you local laws for what is legal to download. If you intend to download illegal material, be sure you know how to cover your tracks. Sources: bittorrent.com, my own experience, tech buddies. John 69 months ago Please sign in to give a compliment. Please verify your account to give a compliment. Please sign in to send a message. Please verify your account to send a message.

[Thain]

No it is not illegal Bittorrent is not illegal. There are plenty of legitimate uses for it. For instance most of the Linux distros are distributed with Bittorrent. Patches for games like World of Warcraft use Bittorrent for distribution, etc. However, you can also use it to steal music/movies/books/applications illegally. Bittorrent is just a technology for distributing large piece of data by splitting them up and having each user share their pieces with everyone else. It's the stealing of material that people don't have the right to use that is illegal, not the Bittorrent technology itself. Napster itself was also not illegal, it's just that people used it to steal music they hadn't paid for. Derek(SA) 69 months ago Please sign in to give a compliment. Please verify your account to give a compliment. Please sign in to send a message. Please verify your account to send a message.

[Groffudd]

BitTorrent is perfectly legal.  It is simply a program that facilitates distribution of information with many perfectly valid uses. It is only illegal to make copyrighted works available over BitTorrent without the copyright owner's permission.  It is also illegal to download said copyrighted works. You do download a BitTorrent client program(there are many) and use that to download things(but, again, that has no impact on legality).

[Adofo]

it's not the program but what you do with it BitTorrent is perfectly legal.  It is simply a program that facilitates distribution of information with many perfectly valid uses. It is only illegal to make copyrighted works available over BitTorrent without the copyright owner's permission.  It is also illegal to download said copyrighted works. You do download a BitTorrent client program(there are many) and use that to download things(but, again, that has no impact on legality). Sources: Experience wilcoxon 69 months ago Please sign in to give a compliment. Please verify your account to give a compliment. Please sign in to send a message. Please verify your account to send a message.