Bit Torrent

**Potato Salad** · November 5th, 2005, 04:57 PM

Was wondering what people think about Bit Torrent. For those who dont know Bit Torrent is a downloader for "Torrents" that people make. Such as somebody puts a whole CD in a Torrent and posts it on the web and anyone can download it. This can be done with movies,games,music,etc. I myself have not tryed it but ive heard alot about it around school. So do you guys think this is illegal like when kazza was doing free downloads or do you think that it is perfectly legal that a person makes a torrent from a CD they bought and posts it on the web for others to download?

**jaeger** · November 5th, 2005, 05:02 PM

Bittorrent is 100% legal.

**Potato Salad** · November 5th, 2005, 05:03 PM

Im totally with you but many people i talk to think im going to get "pinched" by the man for downloading MP3's

**rgharper** · November 5th, 2005, 06:00 PM

Originally Posted by Potato Salad

So do you guys think this is illegal like when kazza was doing free downloads or do you think that it is perfectly legal that a person makes a torrent from a CD they bought and posts it on the web for others to download?

It isn't the software that's illegal, it's how you use it. Either downloading copyrighted materials or making copyrighted materials available for others to download without the permission of the copyright owner is illegal. Period.

**Potato Salad** · November 5th, 2005, 06:06 PM

Well what about Lime Wire? the goverment has busted that up yet and i havent heard anything on the news about people getting busted. It goes along the same premisice as Bit Torrent. Anyways the people are buying the software themselves and thus doing what people have been doing for a while now. Sharing files.

**TechZ** · November 6th, 2005, 04:28 AM

BitTorrent is different than what P2P applications have been.

www.3dgamers.com ; www.autopatcher.com and a host of other sites offer 100% Legal content for people who use BT. Its 1 reason that they use it, bandwidth savings, tremendous bandwidth savings I should say.

**NooNoo** · November 6th, 2005, 08:16 AM

If someone comes into your house - is it illegal? No, unless they didn't have permission... in which case it is. It is, as RGHarper pointed out, entirely down to the circumstances. If people illegally put copyright material on the net, does that make you (the downloader) have to download it? No... you choose whether or not to steal whether it be an apple from a display outside a shop or a copyright file on the internet.

**Larommi** · November 6th, 2005, 09:28 AM

Oops I meant to hit the first choice not the illegal one.

Like was already pointed out. Its legal, how you use it can be illegal.

**NooNoo** · November 6th, 2005, 09:43 AM

manually adjusted just for you lar...

**Larommi** · November 6th, 2005, 02:44 PM

Originally Posted by NooNoo

manually adjusted just for you lar...

Thank you

**Matridom** · November 6th, 2005, 06:55 PM

Like most people have stated here, it comes down to usage. Pretty much anything *Can* be used illegaly. Here in canada, they took a different stand then what the USA has taken.

The judge who precided the case used a simple analogy: A photocopier in a libary can be used for legal and illegal purposes, most of the material in the building is copyrighted. Does that mean we should ban all photocopiers in all libraries cause they can be used for illegal reasons?

The end result, it's legal to download material here in canada, even copyrighted material. It's illegal to host or provide this material to others. (the legalities may have changed since i last checked in on it)

Now, personaly, i use bit torrent rarely, but i do use it, mainly with downloads of linux ISO's for mucking with.

**Atodini** · November 7th, 2005, 01:00 AM

Originally Posted by Potato Salad

Well what about Lime Wire? the goverment has busted that up yet and i havent heard anything on the news about people getting busted.

You haven't?

Every week the papers report stories about people getting heavily fined for file swapping! There was an amnesty but that seems to have gone by the board recently.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/12...iaa_sues_more/

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/05...eize_dorm_pcs/

Even over here in Europe people are being prosecuted now..

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertain...ic/3722428.stm

If you hunt around there are hundreds of cases reported against individuals, as well as the very highly publicised ones against Kazaa, WinMx, Limwewire et al....

John

**3fingersalute** · November 7th, 2005, 08:44 AM

Gotta agree with the masses. It's like a gun. Having and using it is not illegal, but I can also use it illegally.

**El_Squid** · November 7th, 2005, 11:43 AM

I have perfectly legal steak knives and baseball bats, but if I use them to kill my noisey neighbors, then they become murder weapons. The attempts to regulate and criminalize specific software reminds me of the attempts to criminalize specific firearms, etc. It can't be done. The responsibility lies with the use of the item, as has been so correctly identified here.