torrents

[jhp]

What is Torrents?

I have seen it in several places when I have been searching for ebooks but have no clue what it is or how to open or what to do with it!

[desertgrandma]

Originally Posted by jhp

What is Torrents?

I have seen it in several places when I have been searching for ebooks but have no clue what it is or how to open or what to do with it!

Well, here is wiki article...perhaps someone could 'translate'..........

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BitTorrent_(protocol)

[dreams]

I've always kind of wondered also, but didn't have the courage to ask for clarification. Here is what I found...

Torrent, a file used by peer-to-peer file sharing programs that use the BitTorrent protocol.

So the only thing I came up with is that it is not always legal downloads? Is this right?

[wallcraft]

The wiki link is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BitTorrent_(protocol). It is a peer-to-peer protocol where all clients both download torrents and make then available to others (upload). This makes it very efficient in total network bandwidth, but many ISPs don't like it because of its uploading.

Torrents are not necessarily violating copyrights, but many do. However, there are also many legitimate uses of torrents. To download a torrent, all you need is a BitTorrent client.

[tompe]

A torrent file is just like an address file that make it possible to download the file it points out. It is used both for legal downloads and for more problematic downloads.

[dreams]

Originally Posted by wallcraft

The wiki link is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BitTorrent_(protocol). It is a peer-to-peer protocol where all clients both download torrents and make then available to others (upload). This makes it very efficient in total network bandwidth, but many ISPs don't like it because of its uploading.

Torrents are not necessarily violating copyrights, but many do. However, there are also many legitimate uses of torrents. To download a torrent, all you need is a BitTorrent client.

Originally Posted by tompe

A torrent file is just like an address file that make it possible to download the file it points out. It is used both for legal downloads and for more problematic downloads.

So, how do I know if what I am doing is legal or not?

[tompe]

Originally Posted by dreams

So, how do I know if what I am doing is legal or not?

It is hard to know. But book collections you find using google are probably problematic in the way that it depends on which country you live in if it is legal to just download it. Some of the collections I have seen contains both books that are still under copyright and books that are public domain.

[dreams]

Originally Posted by tompe

It is hard to know. But book collections you find using google are probably problematic in the way that it depends on which country you live in if it is legal to just download it. Some of the collections I have seen contains both books that are still under copyright and books that are public domain.

Thank you. I usually check copyright, but it was such a pain. Now, I just check places that sell them or the author websites.

[kacir]

Originally Posted by dreams

So, how do I know if what I am doing is legal or not?

Well, If you find a torrent with books by Shakespeare and Dickens, that is most probably legal. If you find torrent with books from Stephen King, or Harry Potter books , or Twilight or whatever, those are most probably not legal.

Even if downloading is legal in your country, you have to consider that a torrent protocol works like that:
- .torrent file is just directions where to find server used to find other people that are downloading (Leeching) or providing complete file[s] for download (Seeding)
- The file you are downloading is divided to large number of small packages that are downloaded concurrently from many different sources (seeders and ALSO leechers) The downloaded file is assembled as the parts come in.
- when you start to download (leech), your client starts also providing the already downloaded parts for others downloaders so you do not overburden the computer that started to provide the file (the first seeder).

SO AS YOU ARE DOWNLOADING, YOU ARE ALSO DISTRIBUTING.

So if you want to stay strictly "legal" stay away from torrents with content you do not want to be caught DISTRIBUTING. This is how RIAA finds filesharers. They search for an mp3 by Metallica, start downloading ald log all the IP addresses where parts come from.
In some p2p clients you can throttle, or even completely disable outgoing traffic, but very often that also means that you won't be able to download anything, because when other clients "find out" they refuse to provide files for you.

On the other hand, if you want to download a Linux distribution and you do not want to bring down the ftp server (together with hundred thousand other users that need to install that new Ubuntu RIGHT NOW!) *do* use torrent. The more users download, the more resources to download from.
Even some providers of legal media content are experimenting with this technology.

[dreams]

Geesh... Way too complicated for a non-techie...

Although, I do understand just a bit better now. Thank you.

[Elfwreck]

Torrents are a way to share files between computers without uploading them to the web first. They're also a way to download files from multiple locations instead of just one (although they have to start at just one location); this cuts down on the bandwidth used by any one computer. Because they work in pieces, the downloading/uploading can be spread out over time, so very big files can be downloaded some today, some tomorrow (which is much less common than it used to be).

Legit use of torrents:
An independent band releases a new album in mp3 format, and a video of their recent concert, and wants it distributed as widely as possible to promote attendance at their concerts. They release it to various torrent search sites, host it on a few computers (their own), and people download it & start torrenting. New people interested in the band can search for them, and download the entire high-quality album from a couple-dozen computers at once, instead of the band itself having to host a server that will endure dozens of high-speed downloads of 500mb of files. Fans in rural areas with dialup, or in countries where high-speed connections are less available, can download it over time, rather than locking their computer for several hours on a single download that might crash, losing them all of the data.

Michael Moore released his most recent movie as a free torrent, in a couple of different formats.

Not legit use of torrents:
Buying the Twilight ebooks, and creating a torrent for them, so that fans can download the books without paying for them, and they're not located at any one website that can be easily identified and tracked. (They reside on individual users' computers, and are only "findable" when those computers are online and the torrent protocol is active.)

How you tell if a torrent is legit:
The same way you can tell if someone selling items at a yard sale is selling stolen goods--you have to know something about the goods in question. Unlike a yard sale, you can't see who's on the other end, so you can't judge their honesty or intentions.

There's an additional layer of fuzziness, in that (noncommercial) copyright infringement (in the US) is only enforced by rights-owner preference, unlike crimes that the state can enforce. That means, even if it's an unauthorized copy, the rights owner, not someone else, has to complain about it. And there are both bands and authors who don't actively disapprove of unauthorized copying, figuring that it doesn't cost them much and gains them some publicity, and that if they are cool about it, they'll have more fans. (There are plenty more who actively disapprove and want it stopped.)

[dreams]

Thank you, Elfwreck

It is way more involved than I originally thought. Just like following discussions on this forum, I've found that it takes time to learn about anything new. It is very helpful when others are willing to add their knowledge.

[Krystian Galaj]

If you want to be sure that what you're downloading is legal, without much checking, this is one of the sites you can use to get your torrents: http://www.legaltorrents.com/
The FAQ on the site may help you with some questions as well.

[dreams]

Originally Posted by Krystian Galaj

If you want to be sure that what you're downloading is legal, without much checking, this is one of the sites you can use to get your torrents: http://www.legaltorrents.com/
The FAQ on the site may help you with some questions as well.

Wow, thank you. I was able to have a lot of my questions answered by exploring their site. I like that it wasn't a blind download. You could see past download history and were able to go to a listed author's site if you wanted.

[spaze]

Originally Posted by dreams

Geesh... Way too complicated for a non-techie...

Although, I do understand just a bit better now. Thank you.

Explained in a non-techie language:

Your get an A4 paper from a "peer-to-peer" system. Now your friends wants a copy of this A4 paper so he gets one also, but now from you and the source YOU got it from. When a third person wants a copy of this A4 paper, he/she can get it from three sources: you, your friend and the source YOU got it from. because the third person now uses three sources to obtain it from, it is much faster than what it took you to get it from just one place.

In addition to this, your friend and the third person doesn't get it in one piece from one source. instead, he gets it piece by piece from all three sources and then the software "glues" the pieces to form one document that you can use.

This is really nice as torrents are much faster than direct HTTP downloads. For example, you can download a Linux distro into your computer much faster than by doing direct HTTP download.

the bad side is, that with torrents or better with peer-to-peer, its a whole lot easier to distribute illegal material such as pirated movies and MP3s.

peer-to-peer is much like a virus. Once someone creates the initial link to a file, it can be very hard to get rid of it because the bits and pieces of that file are now spread all around the universe.