Ethics and Facts Behind Torrents

[Guest]

Hello everyone,

I'm wondering if anyone is familiar with either a book or website that has credible information regarding torrents. Before anyone flames me, let me explain that I'm not asking for how-to's, suggested sites, etc., nor am I promoting the use of torrents or software piracy. I simply would like a reputable source of information to read about and gain a thorough understanding of the topic. Torrents are obviously illegal as well as shunned in most communities, but I don't believe that completely ignoring the topic and having zero understanding of it is the correct approach. I got in a debate with a friend recently and honestly I don't have much knowledge of the topic to back up my arguments against it, which is what sparked my interest for researching the topic. Unfortunately, my searches are coming up with torrent sites and forums, which are far from credible sources. Thanks in advance guys!

 

[ssddx]

actually... torrent sites and torrenting arent illegal. they are a legitimate way to easily spread free non-commercial content.

the illegal part is when people share hacked/cracked versions of paid software, share copies of music and generally anything else relating to piracy.

torrenting gets a bad rap sheet because people abuse it and only time you hear about it is for such abuse. it started off as a way to share files. its also shunned on the forum because 99.99% of users commenting or asking about it arent doing so for the legal sharing part and we dong want any parts of that on the forum.

i cant give you any specific resources since i dont know any but i think its a good idea that you're going to try to read up on the truth.

 

[USAFRet]

The torrent technology is fine.
The content you get via a torrent is a whole other question.

For example - many Linux distros can be downloaded via a torrent. Legal and authorized.

Movies or other software? Does the uploader have the rights to distribute that? Generally, no.
Does the torrent downloader have the rights to use that application without the proper license? Probably not (depending on specific country laws)

 

[schau314]

I would also like to become more informed by this. Someone the way people treat bitcoin as legal seems controversial when it is linked to bank transactions, but I don;t know enough to make a good decision. It would be nice to be informed more, especially legality wise .

 

[Meseguer]

Torrents aren't wrong, a lot of files are listed under Creative Commons, or if you want some pirated things, well, if you live in the us, canada, uk and some parts of the EU, you can but you can get in some real trouble

 

[ssddx]

correct... torrenting is not wrong.

however piracy (stealing) is.