Because torrenting takes up a lot of bandwidth, and that bandwidth costs ISPs money. On top of that, an ISP could be receiving kickbacks from content owners and their associates. However, if you insist on torrenting, take the time to protect your online privacy and keep copyright trolls at bay. The best way to torrent safely is by using a VPN. A VPN accomplishes two things: first, it re-routes all your internet traffic through a server in a location of your choosing, which changes your real IP address to one used by hundreds or thousands of other people assuming your VPN uses shared IP addresses, which most do.

This adds a significant layer of anonymity and makes it much more difficult for anyone to track you. Second, a VPN encrypts all your torrent traffic before it leaves your computer. That means your ISP cannot monitor your internet activity, nor can anyone else. Not all VPNs tolerate torrenting. You can check out our list of the best VPNs for torrenting here , which are services with fast download speeds and a focus on online privacy, security and anonymity like NordVPN , Surfshark , and ExpressVPN among others.

We recommend a VPN over Tor for a couple reasons. First, Tor is slow, and usually best for simple browsing and other low-bandwidth activity. Another popular app among torrenters is Peerblock. Peerblock is a desktop firewall with a regularly updated blacklist of IP addresses.

These IP addresses belong to entities that try to track your activity online, especially on peer-to-peer networks. Unfortunately, the blacklist is only updated once upon installation. After that, users must pay to keep them updated. Instead of torrenting, another alternative is Usenet. Usenet downloads are much, much faster; often as fast as your ISP can handle.

Usenet is more private as well. Some even throw in VPNs for good measure. Torrents, on the other hand, require that you share at least some identifying information to connect to the tracker and peers. Usenet providers make files available for a certain number of days. How many depends on the provider, but the standard is 1, days after the original posting. Until that time is up, users have full access to that file. Torrents only stay up as long as people seed the file.

Trackers can be private or public, and the former usually requires an invitation from an existing member. Anyone can just go to their respective websites and search without logging in or requiring any sort of authentication. Likewise, anyone can upload files for others to download. These uploads are not moderated, so users must judge whether a download is safe and accurate based on comments and the reputation of the uploader.

Private trackers are more exclusive both in terms of who can upload and who can download within a group. They vary wildly in terms of content and quality, but many members of private trackers attest that they have higher quality files, faster downloads, longer retention, and an overall more consistent and safe experience.

The law views private trackers the same as public trackers. Internet piracy is piracy whether you do it in public or within a private group. Many people have moved away from downloading entire files through BitTorrent and opt instead to stream video content either on their web browsers or through customized programs like Kodi. However, this depends largely on your country. In India, a court ruled that it is absolutely not illegal.

Those who upload the videos without compensating or asking permission from the copyright holder do so illegally. But streaming transmits a video directly from a website to your device, with no third parties involved. The website could be logging IP addresses or other information about its users, which it could then hand over to law enforcement or a copyright troll.

Your ISP could monitor your activity and see that you are watching pirated content. These are risks that can be mitigated by connecting to a reputable VPN. When it comes to security, streaming video carries just as many risks as torrenting. Websites that stream pirated content tend to be chock full of intrusive ads, malware, and phishing threats. Kodi users are subject to man-in-the-middle MITM attacks and other threats from the add-ons they download. As a rule of thumb, avoid downloading movies that were released on DVD and Blu-Ray in the past 60 days, especially big-hit blockbusters.

Copyright holders will put most of their anti-piracy resources into going after torrenters of new releases to minimize the financial damage.

The same goes for TV series, shows and video games. Users of Popcorn Time, the free movie-streaming app, should tread just as carefully as torrenters.

All the risks associated with Popcorn Time apply in equal measure to torrenting. Choose your torrents wisely. The most popular torrents on ThePirateBay and KickassTorrents are probably the ones being most closely monitored by copyright trolls. I still love to download linux ISO's etc with Bittorrent as it seems much faster especially when servers are slow or overburdened.

Also I used to be a die-hard uTorrent fan but have since switched to the lightweight open source qBittorrent www. Posted by: BaliRob 04 Mar Well done Bob - this is the first time I have read a fully informative article on the BitTorrent issue in one place. Your information has inspired great comments and confessions ha ha ha.

As for me, I have neither the need or use for such downloads and trying to do this in Indonesia would be a joke. Loved the analogy using the 'knife' by the way. Posted by: Henk Smulders 04 Mar Reason so many people download illigal stuf is because of the high price you need to pay for it.

If good working software was sold for just a few bucks then everybody would buy the programs to be able to work trouble free with them, And, the company who made the program would probably will make more profit too. Just think on it, If just million people would buy Windows-8 for only 25 dollar howmuch money would be made. Or a good PC protection program for 5 dollar each, I guess almost everybody would start paying for it.

If you like quality movies for home use then you need to wait untill they coming out on DVD or better disks. Explain me why a movie that is already 3 or more months old does cost on DVD so much more than when it was brandnew in the cinema? Making stuff afordable for everybody results in way less illigal downloads, and that means a way higer sales rate for the makers, and as result, they get most likely way, way more income of there products.

Posted by: Sheri 04 Mar I completely agree with everything that has been said about torrent sites in the article and the comments: most of the downloading is done by the millions of people worldwide, who want to get the latest movies and albums for free - ILLEGALLY! They think that by sitting at home downloading these movies and albums, no-one is going to know that they are in fact stealing them!

However, I think that illegal downloading would be greatly reduced if they just brought the prices right down for DVD movies and music CD's. Although, there are probably millions of people who download illegal copies and make further copies to sell at a tidy profit, which in my opinion is a much more serious crime. What I don't understand is why Governments can't just close all the torrent sites down? Because one would think that would be a whole lot easier than leaving ISP's to sanction individual users and companies filing law suits against illegal downloaders?

Posted by: Old Man 04 Mar Sheri said: What I don't understand is why Governments can't just close all the torrent sites down? There are just too many legitimate uses. It would be like banning cars so they wouldn't be used as getaway vehicles. The "cure" would be worse than the "disease. One thing she said, though, has been well documented in various studies - lower the price to increase sales and make pirating less attractive. As for those who think it's OK to download old movies and music, remember the Copyright has been upped to 75 years.

So, unless what you are downloading was produced prior to , it's illegal. Even though the publishers may no longer care, it's still pirating. Posted by: Ajak 10 Mar Comments of a political nature are discouraged. Please limit your remarks to paragraphs. If you want to see your comment posted, pay attention to these items.

All comments are reviewed, and may be edited or removed at the discretion of the moderator. If you want to ask a question click here. Need tech support? Category: File-Sharing. What is Bittorrent? Downloading BitTorrent Software Based on your operating system and computer horsepower, many BitTorrent clients are available for download. How Does BitTorrent Work?

Is Bittorrent Safe and Legal? BitTorrent Search Engines To find the files they want to download, users turn to Bittorrent search engines. Your comment or question about Bittorrent is welcome, post below Ask Your Computer or Internet Question.

Skydrive, Google Drive, or Dropbox? Free Online Storage With Box. What is Scribd? Is it possible to just download torrent files for yourself and not get caught and arrested for copyright infringement or theft? Can a copyright owner create a version of his material with trojan horse or other malware to trick pirates?

I just recieved a cease and desist regarding a piece of Adobe photoshop that I downloaded from a torrent site. The file I downloaded was a trial, and it was infected, so I got rid of it immediately. I actually complied before I was even warned.

How can me the user, prove that I did not use it, and them the copyright holder prove that I used the software, or rather did not. I did activate the trial that I recieved, but it had an infected executable anyways.

I was initally downloading the same software from the adobe website on a trial basis, but it was terribly slow, and I have downloaded trials from torrent sites before and this has never happened up until now.

The only other thing i have downloaded was a adobe trial which was really big and boring…So yea that really my question. I downloaded a game from what I thought was a real company but come to find out I had paid a person that had no connection to the game at all and then they threatened to charge me for copy right infringement so be careful. Hi Thank you so much. I got the full benefit from this. My question is: I have read in some sites that the torrent is legal.

I do need to download so many things I can not pay for. Why do not they do it? Well quiet frankly I didnt know bit torrents where illegal i have downloaded a couple of older games that i didnt even know they had for pc but with all this warnings coming in the mail to people iam honestly getting kind of scared besides i have no money to pay a big fine for something so simple.

I think that the law system in the USA is quiet messed up and upside down in some aspects but what can 1 voice change? Like one of the previous reader posted on top what will a leak of couple of thousand dollars , dollars do to their billion dollar industry comon people thats like a penny from a dollar.

I can be accused of falling into the instant gratification instant gratification gave me. In other words, if you want it buy it. Unfortunately, downloading or uploading any piece of software, game, or music without the necessary copyright agreement is a violation of the copyright.

Being in the web development industry I can see both sides of the arguement, as companies are losing money from their product not being paid for. On the flip side, many recording artists, or companies are just lining their pockets with the extra revenue. What are the minimum and maximum sentences? Are the chances of being caught and the consequences associated with them even influencing the way people torrent?

Is our legal system incompetent to the rapidly growing technology? Now the people getting caught, are they getting punished for sharing files or just downloading the Torrent? What is the difference between sharing online, and handing the physical DVD or game to a friend to try or view???

How many of us have shared our movies with friends and families or a CD??? Which then brings up a question about the movies and games that are rented from a video store. The video store is not giving royalties to the production corporations……Hmmmmm— How does that work??? All of this sounds like nonsense to me. It is crazy especially when dealing with the internet. The only reason why people are using the internet and the advance technology is because they have the ability to copy a file or movie that may have purchased and would love to protect their investment by making a copy.

This stops then from buying another music cd, movie, or another copy of application in the future which may be hard to find or the price has gone up. Once that happen, you will wonder what happen to the internet and the technology. I say get rid of the internet if it involves downloading a file, sales, or just viewing a movie.

In a case where I legally purchased an album digitally, would it be legal to redownload that album, considering you already bought it elsewhere? One would think, but this is one reason why people hate DRM so much. Unless you have a way to download the original from iTunes again, it is apparently still illegal to redownload the album from elsewhere.

Stupid, IMO, but apparently the way it is. As always remember:. Because i know downloading movies is but im not sure about Series…. Then if I share it with a friend by sending it over the internet does that make it illegal? HI I am now even more confused. Please clarify.. If I use different torrent website to download movies and music not sure about copyright status , is it illegal? Can I get in trouble?? Ok, I understand exactly what you are saying and am grateful for the insight.

Thank you. Since I already purchased a VHS copy of these movies is it still illegal to download a copy from a torrent sharing site? IS it illigal to download pictures that are not copyrighted and post them on a website that you are building? Would if you download a picture that was not copyrighted but you get a letter from a lawyer stated it was. Maybe someone before you downloaded a copyrighted picture and you just copied it from him. How would you know that it was copyrighted?

Let me see if I have this right!! If I download torrent and start download music or movies; it coming from a share file so it would not be illegal to do that. But if I use it to download music or movies that are copyright from the computer than it illegal.

So, let me get this right. So, you can use BitTorrent to re-download the track, right? So let me say this. Say I download a movie from a website as a torrent. Is it ok? Still in torrent format. What are the chances of getting caught if you downloaded movies, say from a popular torrent site. Thanks for the article. I absolutely LOVE it! Also, there is currently a worldwide convention going on with all kinds of governments and law enforcement agencies to attempt to come up with enforcement and penalties having to do with copyrighted material on the Internet.

It is still in the discussion phase and like anything of that magnitude, it changes day by day. Some of it is mind blowing on the penalty side of things with some very draconian punishments. The negotiations are still considered secret but new reports are regularly leaked. They are down-loadable in PDF format. The last one I got was from July 10, The agreement covers everything from fake Gucci bags to pirated software.

Read it and be afraid! There are groups trying to fight it or at least bring an element of sanity to it. Please find and join one. Is it legal to provide search for torrent files. Is this true? Thanks for another great article Leo. These developers claim no right to restrict distribution otherwise, so as long as you follow those guidelines, you are free to do as you will with said goods.

Once it is publicly declared in the GPL, I believe, they legally forfeit any right to restrict distribution beyond those general terms. Does this mean that it is illegal to accept a book from someone because the book is copyrighted and I did not pay for it? Sadly, my DVR restricts this. Of course the ISPs will. But it is not just shows locked up by subscription services that are pirated.

Downloaders can still be sued by copyright holders and ordered to pay potentially thousands of dollars to rights holders. The relevant legislation is the Australian Copyright Act. Passed in and written in an era when the internet was little more than a crazy dream, it was crafted to outlaw the smuggling of pirated physical goods. This means the legislation targets only the traders and traffickers of pirated content, and requires 'commercial scale' to become a criminal offence.

He told Fairfax Media that if sued, downloaders might have to pay tens of thousands in damages. On top of legal fees, anyone sued by content owners would need to pay compensatory damages for what they have watched but also punitive damages, which are uncapped.

The only remedy available under current legislation is for content producers and owners to pursue individuals in civil courts. Even in the United States where content owners have considerably more legal redress, this still isn't common.

Mr Guy attributes this to the difficulty inherent in such cases. Rolling up to court with a big list of IP addresses can result, and has resulted, in accidental suing of dead people, technology-illiterate grandmothers and university laser printers.

The first Australian case of this kind was launched by the creators of the movie Dallas Buyers Club in October The production companies involved applied to the Federal Court of Australia to ask local internet service providers such as Telstra, Optus and iiNet to reveal the identities of downloaders.