First, is the actual process of torrenting safe for your computer in terms of malware? To begin with, the process of torrenting is pretty safe. Before downloading a torrent, I recommend reading the comments and reviews from the community. Still, you should always be cautious when it comes to downloading torrents. The act of torrenting itself is not illegal. However, downloading and sharing unsanctioned copyrighted material is very much illegal , and there is always a chance of getting caught by the authorities.
Torrenting non-copyrighted material is perfectly fine and is allowed, as there are no restrictions that apply to that. In many countries, such as the U. The authorities and ISPs can easily catch people who distribute copyrighted material without any privacy precautions.
Torrenting client software stores all IP addresses of seeders and leechers as well. By simply monitoring a torrent file, the ISP has access to all IP addresses downloading a specific torrent. As a result, the authorities could come knocking on your door. Copyright trolls are individuals or companies that are in the business of going after torrent pirates.
These businesses locate torrenters who illegally distribute copyrighted material based on their IP addresses. When they successfully locate a torrent pirate, they sign a deal of approval with the copyright holders to take legal actions on their behalf against the pirate. In some cases, Hollywood production companies hire these businesses to specifically snoop on pirates distributing their content illegally.
Typically, copyright trolls have a legal strategy in place that summons the ISP to send you an threatening email.
So, when you get caught for torrenting unsanctioned copyrighted material, you could receive a settlement offer from your ISP. In most cases, I would ignore the first settlement letter. In most countries, such as the U. For instance, your ISP could reduce your internet speed as a punishment or even threaten to hand over your personal information to the authorities or copyright trolls.
Obviously, if you want to avoid ramifications, it would be best not to torrent at all. Note: choose a quality VPN for high-end protection. The Tor browser prevents anyone from tracking your internet connection. Tor encrypts the data multiple times via Tor relays. Is torrenting safe? What are the consequences of getting caught downloading torrents?
How can I protect myself when downloading torrents? These are some of the questions most torrenters grapple with. In this post, we will provide answers to these questions and discuss ways to stay safe when torrenting. A torrent is a computer file that contains metadata about files to be distributed. Torrenters can use a BitTorrent software to easily download the torrent files to their personal computers.
Torrenting per se is not illegal. The practice only becomes illegal when you acquire copyrighted content — content that you do not have the right to own or distribute. This is especially true of games and software which must be installed on your computer.
While this helps the torrent client to connect to users, it makes you vulnerable to hackers looking to steal identities and personal information. Consequently, your ISP may take certain actions to discourage you from downloading torrents. These include threatening to hand over your personal information to a copyright troll or throttling your Internet connection.
These companies get permission on behalf of the copyright holders to take legal action against such torrenters. Copyrights trolls use aggressive and opportunistic strategies to extort money from people. 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. Comcast and Verizon will set you up with a DVR and you can record anything that comes down the service, including sports events, movies, TV shows, local news, anything.
As I mentioned elsewhere — I am severely restricted in how I can use that recording. Never seen so many comments on a topic here, or so many responses from Leo. He is correct of course, breaching copyright is illegal. The trouble is, it is also very common. Like marijuana use and prostitution except in McKeesport it will have to be made legal eventually. Those who make available original creative work are going to have to come up with a different pricing structure.
The pricing structure is completely irrelevant. E-books that would cost a buck to buy are illegally shared. Services such as Netflix, Spotify and Kindle Unlimited provide very cheap access an enormous collection of movies, TV shows, music and books — and yet people still choose to download material illegally. As I said, illegal file sharing has nothing to do with things being overpriced; it has to do with people not wanting to pay anything at all and preferring to steal.
For the most part I agree with your intent, but using P2P is and has a legitimate purpose and for those who use those excuses can offer credibility to their opinion even though not correct in law depending on the country you live in.
You need to remember P2P is a world wide phenomenon and not everybody earns a western blue collar salary. If you want to resolve the problem you need to listen to them. However the pursuit of the all mighty US dollar tends to be a hurdle and now we have a copyright cluster. To answer, because the services these companies provide around the world are seriously lacking in the provision of comparable content and pricing.
This is experienced in particular by the NZ and Aussie customers and was quite clearly outlined in the Australian parliament when they instituted the new piracy laws in Go to the torrent freak blog to read the transcripts or go to the Australian Federal Govt website and you can access them directly.
There is also a very simple solution to the issue too by the way. You are entirely off the mark here and the TV comment is out of context with the issue at hand.
The TV as it is a physical item, ones and zeros Binary Code are not physical so there is popularly a different perspective around the world regarding code and physical items and whether your stealing, Education is a good start. Not everybody is a thief and in a lot of cases it has much to do with being overpriced, your economic and geographic situation. Once again there is a solution to this issue.
We are not subject to American Law here so what constitutes an offence in the US, it is not necessarily so here. The fact that a content owner will not permit Netflix, Hulu et al to make their content available in a certain region does not make it acceptable for people who live in that region to steal the content. And as for people living in Mumbai not being able to afford the content: so what? Unfortunately some of your last comment is a bit like an over easy egg….
S services offered in my country because I can get better service from them by going off shore. I still pay my subscriptions to obtain legitimate access. So is that stealing? I am entitled to my privacy both in the real world and in the cyber. We both know it is pretty lawless, uncontrolled and unscrupulous on the www.
Security, Security, Security, always. The Mumbai comment was an example, a good one or bad who knows, but what I am trying to illustrate to you is this, where the copyright material is being torrented i.
Not at any stage did I say that it was right morally or legally, in my own culture. There are nearly 7 billion people on this planet but only around million are subject to US laws. The rest of us are subject to the laws of our own countries.
What you see as criminal or unlawful behaviour in your Nation is not so in others! Hence the comments about Education and resolution issues. Let me give you an example or two of cultural differences, right or wrong who is to say as most of us are neither subject to, or obliged, to submit to U.
S law or U. S moral codes of behaviour outside the U. Are you starting to see the diversity here! This applies to attitudes from one country to the next. Nu Guinea — familial feuding and other practices are still accepted even though frowned upon. The Jewish culture of eye for an eye, is that still practiced in what you might see as a less enlightened country and they have www access.
Wife beating, stoning and burning in various Middle Eastern and Asian cultures and they have www access.. This comment is meant to try to illustrate to you the diversity in thinking around the globe. Education is key here not American litigation even though justified in some cases Pirate Bay may be a good example here. In stark contrast here is an example of the US blowing off another nations sovereign laws. There was an Australian who had broken quite a number of that nations state and federal laws and was a highly sought after criminal on the federal wanted list.
I cant recall what he was wanted for but he tuned up in the U. S 20 odd years later and it was revealed that the U. This is typical of one country the U. Still what remains is the differences in perspective towards torrenting and what you and I may see as Right or Wrong, as different or not as that may be. And everybody knows that. To put it frankly, Duplicating copyright material is not illegal everywhere. Your legal perspective and probably more appropriately your moral perspective does not apply to me.
The TV as it is a physical item, ones and zeros Binary Code are not physical. Both a TV and a TV show are property: the former is physical property, the latter is intellectual property. A content owner is entitled to determine the pricing and distribution mechanisms for their content.
You either pay the price or you do without. I think not this is an education process to get all thinking the same way and what a boring place it would become around the world. Intellectual property rights are not enacted into law everywhere. Paragraph 3: Read my previous 2 comments thoroughly please. Paragraph 4: Your absolutely correct in that statement, it opens up a wide variety of options legal and illegal depending on where you live and your moral code.
Paragraph 5: genuinely not sure what your trying to express here, but as far as pricing options are concerned you shop around, but I fear, where you live my choice may be viewed as illegal. In conclusion, you are entirely correct, that torrenting of copyright material without the appropriate licencing in countries that have outlawed the practice is wrong and anything outside that is a matter of debate within the bounds of that countries borders, looking from a legislative point of view.
Moral Justice is too subjective considering the wide range of cultures around the world we need to look to a more objective way to resolve the matter, to level the field so to speak.
Out of the ish nation states that currently exist, are party to the Berne Convention — including Australia, NZ and India. The same applies when region codes and regional formats applied i. Just an example of the differences in law. I must admit at first I all I saw was another U. While non-member states are obviously not subject to the terms set out in the Convention, they likely do have their own laws relating to copyright.
For Leo. Just wanted to say thanks firstly, for the newsletter and secondly for your patience, tolerance and for the band width on this issue.
S thanks for fixing that typo for me too! Ray Smith A couple of genuine questions here if I may, 1. China was not a signatory to the patent or copyrights agreements for many years as I recall and we could see direct copies of well known brands coming out of china but under different trade names on our shelves.
Are they now part of the International agreement on these issues? Where I reside we were always permitted to make copies of our legally obtained media however a couple of international companies tried to have a go at the little man using our judicial system and came of second best. Are US Citizens now allowed to make copies of their own media? Answered by Mark! So once again thankyou to everyone for the interesting and enlightening debate.
There also seems to be a reasonable level of ignorance regarding some aspects of this issue and that in itself can add a level of context and perspective to the issue. The making available of copyrighted music files on peer-to-peer systems is illegal in Canada. Uploading a copyright file and sharing it is illegal. There is no doubt. If it were possible, is just downloading free available yet copyright material illegal? I suspect that this is the reason that virtually all court cases are aimed at those uploading.
Outside that all the charges and fines apply. To imply that your law US law, presumably takes precedence over all other law is not only arrogant but it is factually wrong! Unless of course that person, involved in that activity, is subject to those laws outlawing that specific activity. I am required to submit to my national laws and they take precedence. You are obviously a strong supporter of your nations laws regarding this and I do genuinely respect that, I also support and believe in my nations legal system in as far as what I am permitted to or not to do otherwise anarchy would reign and that system greatly differs from yours.
In Nazi Germany, it was strictly illegal to hide Jews from being picked up for instance. They still have it. What you simply have done, is taken away the opportunity of the owner to frustrate you for not being able to see the movie, so that this frustration can be turned into a deal where you can relieve your frustration against paying the owner. Does that mean that I endorse illegal activity?
0コメント