Torrent Questions...?

Question

I've got a couple of questions about torrents:
1. Are they legal? If not then will I get caught (lol)?
2. Are they hard to use?
3. What do I have to download to use them?
4. Are they safe? (like viruses and stuff)
5. Any other info is helpful!

Answer 1

1. No, but you won't get caught.

2. No very simple, just download a torrent program.

3. There are a lot of different programs. I use utorrent. (utorrent.com)

4. You can get viruses but usually your virus protection will catch it. I haven't gotten anything too bad. I normally get tracking cookies.

Answer 2

1. Some are some aren't. Rule of thumb, if it's for sale somewhere it's illegal to download.

2. Not really.

3. A torrent client like BitTorrent or µTorrent.

4. Not any safer then anything else. Most software torrents (games, programs, etc.) have viruses. Usually in the keygen or no-cd patch.

5. I would say if you can't do the time don't do the crime. Having said that, torrents are an awesome way to distribute legal content like Linux distros without incurring sky high server costs.



[edit] It's probably worth noting that if you use a router torrents can bring some to their knees (lose your internet connection) because of their swarming nature. For those that want to know, it overwhelms the NAT table. Once the table is full the router will reject any further connections causing it to hang.

Answer 3

1. Are they legal? If not then will I get caught (lol)?



Depends what you are downloading. If it is copyrighted material (like the latest movies that hasn't even have a DVD release date) then it would be illegal.



There are some contents however that you can download legally.







2. Are they hard to use?



Nope. You just need to use a Torrent Client like Azureus



3. What do I have to download to use them?



Torrent Client like Azureus



4. Are they safe? (like viruses and stuff)



Hard to say. But most are virus free specially files that are widely seeded.



5. Any other info is helpful!



Here's a list of torrent clients that you can use:



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BitTorrent_client#General



I highly recommend this torrent site:



http://www.mininova.org





Also, a final note, be careful with what you are downloading. specially those contents that you think are questionable.

Answer 4

1) Depends on the content you download

2) Depends on the software you use

3) google VUZE

4) Better then Limewire

5) That's it.