Torrenting - Should You Do It?

Much like pier-to-pier networks, like the networks associated with the once-great program called Limewire, or the predecessor, Napster, there are many other programs that work in a slightly different way, these are called torrents. Torrents are like pier-to-pier networks in that you are downloading from an unknown source, and that many different people share and get files from others on a given network. With torrenting, you may connect to multiple people at a time, and download entire files, or portions of files, from multiple sources. There is no one torrenting network, and that is where the problems (and benefits) lie.

For one, torrenting is a bandwith hog. There are not many more effective ways to use more of your Internet connection than to torrent. In fact, depending on your Internet Service Provider (ISP) you may be monitored while on P2P or torrent networks, and this may drastically slow down your connection, as well as potentially bring upon legal action.

The biggest and most foreseen problem with torrents is the distribution of copyrighted content. While music has been distributed illegally for years, now there are much bigger problems. Upon the theatrical version of movie releases, people are recording movies with cameras and other equipment, and then distributing the files on the Internet through torrenting, before the film is even purchasable to the public. Of course, this is dramatically effecting the film industry. However, I have noticed a pretty steady rise in the price of a dvd/blu-ray from that of a new movie. People are probably more likely to see movies in the theaters now than they were before, likely leveling out the difference made from the seldom torrenter.

As far as benefits go - Torrenting is great because you can send and receive very large files at a much faster rate than on a P2P network due to the fact that you can connect to multiple seeds (or Piers) that are sharing different parts of the file. There is also a very wide content selection available to torrenters. One can use websites like PirateBay, Btjunkie, and many others to run torrent file searches for downloads. You will need a torrent client in order to download these files.

So should you do it? Firstly, this article isn't going to change your mind if your conscience has not already. If you are someone who wants to get great content legally, definitely. if you are someone who wants to massively obtain copyrighted content for free, you will likely get caught in the long run. I recommend purchasing or finding a different way to come about the media you're interested in.