What Will Happen If U Download Torrent Inthe Us
No. It’s quite legal to download torrent files.
Elevation Worship performing their single “Here As In Heaven” live. Subscribe to get the latest videos and songs: Find chord charts, l. Jan 14, 2016 - So while you might use the “.torrent” file to initiate a download, most people. It doesn't matter what technology you happen to use to do it: bitTorrent, FTP, web. And if you can answer this please email it to me at cobal@live.com. Will trickle down to us torrent downloader's and we'll have enough to put. Jul 10, 2016 - Even if you're downloading files and staying within the law, here's how you can tell if you're. BitTorrent downloading is great for users who need to download multiple files. What's the worst that could happen? About Us Blog FAQ Affiliate Program Dedicated Servers Legal Notice (DMCA).
BUT WAIT …
Before you run off and start downloading last week’s bootlegged theatrical movie release, you really need to understand why that particular download, and others like it, probably are illegal.
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Torrent files
(Caveat: I’m basing this on my knowledge of the current state of Copyright law. Please, realize I’m no lawyer, and this shouldn’t be taken as legal advice. This is mostly just common sense with the high level concepts we’re talking about.)
“Torrent” files are, specifically, a small file of information used by a file-sharing technology known as “bitTorrent”. To be super pedantic about it, because the “.torrent” file itself has only some administrative information in it, there’s nothing wrong with downloading it.
But that, of course, is not what you meant.
The word “torrent” is also frequently, though incorrectly, used to refer to the actual files being shared using bitTorrent. So while you might use the “.torrent” file to initiate a download, most people call the download itself a “torrent” as well. And that’s more than likely what you’re asking.
It’s just file-transfer technology
But here’s the catch: bitTorrent is nothing more than a technology used to copy files. It’s highly efficient technology, optimized for large files and decentralized storage of downloaded files, but ultimately, it’s nothing more than a way to copy a file to your machine.
In general, copying a file to your machine is certainly not illegal.
Similarly, the technology you might use to copy a file to your machine is not illegal.
In some ways, you could just as well ask “Is it legal to download files from the web?”, to which the answer is (obviously, I hope), of course it’s legal. We do it every time we view a web page.
What Will Happen If U Download Torrent In The Us 2017
The problem comes when we consider exactly what kinds of files are being downloaded.
Illegal file downloads
Downloading copyrighted files without permission is illegal.
It doesn’t matter what technology you happen to use to do it: bitTorrent, FTP [File Transfer Protocol]
While FTP has many advantages – ubiquity being one – it has one major disadvantage: FTP is not encrypted. This means that anyone watching the data stream can see the files being transferred, or, perhaps more disturbingly, the log in and password information for connecting to the remote site.
As a result, SFTP is often preferred for security reasons when available.
(Click on the term for full definition.)
In other words, downloading a copy of a file you don’t have the right to download is illegal, no matter how you do it.
Unfortunately, bitTorrent technology has become confused with illegal file sharing, simply because so much of that illegal activity uses that technology.
So let’s be clear:
- The technology is legal.
- BitTorrent is legal.
- Torrent files are legal.
- Using any technology to download copyrighted material that you don’t have the right to is illegal.
And yes, bitTorrent and bitTorrent-like technology can most definitely be used for totally legal activities. As just one example, many Linux
(Click on the term for full definition.)
Using the confusion for evil
Sadly, people who should know better either don’t, or are purposely using that confusion to further their own agenda.
We’ve heard of ISPs and other facilities blocking or throttling bitTorrent file transfers, or politicians suggesting they do so, “because it’s all illegal”. It’s not. Along with blocking the illegal file sharing that’s going on, doing so blocks the legal and appropriate use of the technology as well.
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When it comes to torrents, one of the most commonly asked questions is “Is downloading torrents legal or illegal?” Torrent clients, such as uTorrent Vuze and the official BitTorrent client, are used to download immense amounts of data on the Web, and there’s no question that much of it is illegal. Here we’ll talk about how torrent downloads work, when they’re illegal, and how to protect your privacy when you’re using them.
So What Is Legal and What Is Illegal?
The short answer: as long as the item is copyrighted and you don’t own it, then downloading it (for free) via torrent is illegal. Using a torrent client and downloading torrents in itself isn’t illegal, as you could be downloading things that aren’t protected by copyright.
The long answer: This varies from case to case. Most countries have basic common laws against intellectual property theft. If a piece of music is copyrighted and you don’t own it, you can’t download it legally. The same goes for a movie, a game, or anything else you may want (unless the copyright-holder decides to make it free either temporarily or permanently, as is often the case with video games). The line gets kind of fuzzy here, since people ask themselves many different questions about their own country’s laws.
In general, a copyright is registered to an individual or organization that creates something. This copyright has a time limit, usually equivalent to the lifetime of the creator and a set amount of additional years. Some copyrights are for life plus fifty years. Others are for life plus seventy years. Look up your country in the previous link if you’re unsure of your laws. Of course, your mileage may vary, as some things may not be protected by the law where you live, or copyright law may not be enforced at all.
So if you’re downloading a free Linux distribution through your torrent client, you don’t need to worry. But if you’re getting John Lennon’s “Imagine” from The Pirate Bay, you’re doing something that in all likelihood is breaking a law.
Related: How to Download Torrents onto Your iOS Device Without Jailbreaking
Torrent Privacy
Whatever it is you’re doing is not any of my business. But it is my business to make sure you know just how “anonymous” you are in the torrent network. The short answer is: you totally aren’t!
It’s handy to have a basic knowledge of how the torrent protocol works. Theoretically you should have some level of privacy since you’re not downloading any data from one particular server (in contrast to downloading something from a central server like you’d find on Microsoft’s website, where they’ll know exactly who it is that’s downloading their products).
But through the torrent system you download directions to a file. That means that the torrent file is actually just a list of trackers and some hash codes. It doesn’t really prove that you downloaded the torrent file. What you do inside your torrent client is more important, and that’s all managed by a decentralized list of servers. Once you start the download of the actual file you want to get to, you end up downloading little pieces of the file from a bunch of people.
Can You Get Caught?
Government agents and copyright trolls tend to snoop around the Torrent networks, and some of the more popular sites hosting Torrent files, downloading files and listing all the IP addresses they find under the Peers (downloaders) and Seeders (uploaders) lists. This will, of course, compromise your address eventually.
The actual number of people who get caught is miniscule, but if you want to secure yourself and don’t care much to contribute to the Torrent community, then you can disable seeding which stops your PC uploading files to the torrent network. Avid torrenters would call this selfish, and maybe they’re right, but you’re also covering yourself.
Another good option is to use a proxy or VPN, then set your torrent client to connect to peers through that. This essentially makes you anonymous by routing your connection through a different IP address.
Then there’s the onion routing network (Tor) that you can configure as a proxy for your torrent client. However, since the Snowden revelations it’s become known that even Tor has been targeted by the NSA and GCHQ for illegal activity. While the network is mostly secure, there have been incidents of these spy bodies attacking individual computers, so it’s not as anonymous as it once was.
Conclusion
Rest assured that torrenting does not equate to piracy. It does, however, provide a very convenient way to do it! The torrent protocol is just a clever transmission method for users to download files more easily. If you’re worried that you may be downloading something that’s against the laws in your country, ask below.
What Will Happen If U Download Torrent Inthe Us Open
This article was first published in Jun 2013 and was updated in Nov 2017.
What Will Happen If U Download Torrent In The Usa
Image credit: Pirate Bay main page