Wow! I can't believe I inspired so much impassioned arguments and discussion!
I only wanted some nice torrents of e-books!
Thanks to the person who suggested baen torrents - I downloaded a CD and will examine the contents
From what I can tell both baen and gutenberg torrents do not have epub files (yet). Thanks to the person who suggested the Gutenberg LRF torrent - I hope if and when PRS-500 users get a epub upgrade they can still be viewed
It should be pointed out that a person who downloads a torrent isn't under any obligation to download every file in a torrent. Most decently written bittorrent clients let you pick and choose.
Torrents aren't set in stone either: updates to a torrent can and are made available.
And it might be useful to those who expect to be away from the Internet for a long period of time (travelling, isolated, etc.) to have a library of ebooks readily available for examination. It wouldn't stop someone from later on discussing it (re: MobileRead).
I know the media and some companies has demonised torrents but I didn't think it they had done such a good job as to make people hostile to torrents this vehemently! It's only a way to share files, you know - HTTP and FTP are other better known ways to share files and they don't get 1/10 the flak that torrents apparently get despite being arguably much more accessible to pirates..