Download With Bittorrent? - Comments Page 1

One salient detail you didn't mention is security. With any P2P software on your system, you are sharing your computer with everyone else on the network. While it only shares the directory of the programs files, it is nonetheless a doorway in so you should treat it accordingly. And only use reputable versions as Bob mentions.

Another thing to note is that it shares all files, including viruses and trojans and the like. Its a great way for getting your virus distributed. So always virus scan ANYTHING you get from an unknown source like this before you use or run it. Make sure your anti-virus is up to date. Also note that you get what you pay for, so you'll find lots of missing pieces, poor quality and such. It can take extra time to find the best.

And finally, if you start using file sharing a lot, you may need to review your traffic agreement with your ISP. Some ISP's limit you to X traffic per month. If you exceed that, the overage charges can be hefty. Keep in mind that whenever you have the P2P program up, it may be sharing your files with others - its not just your own downloads that add up.

So as long as you recognize that with a P2P program running, your kitchen door is open and people will wander in and snack you should have no problems. Theres some amazing content out there and P2P can be much easier than FTP to use.

It has been my understanding that it was perfectly legal to tape and share a television program that had been aired on a channel that was not paid for an any way. I do not pay for NBC, it is broadcast through the air, most people can watch HOUSE with rabbit ears and no monthly bill. Not only are televison shows sent out to millions of people, they are free to watch and record. If the person quoted above had used a tape or DVR, then NBC would have never known. By using BT however, they got a version of the show that had no comercials, was probably high def, and could be put on a DVD very easily. That is probably the reason for the letter, since if you download the whole season of your favorite show in HD and burn it all to DVDs, why buy the box set?

EDITOR'S NOTE: Wishing or hoping does not make it so. All television broadcasts are copyrighted. There's no difference in the law for cable, high-def or commercial-free broadcasts. So yes... if you record a show on a crappy old VCR -- for your use only -- that's permitted by law. But any kind of sharing is not.

To the person who downloads House and the Apprentice. I'd invest in a TV tuner card, for your machine. Let your PC record the shows and then you can watch (or burn) then delete. This can be done with XP Media Center or a 3rd party program like Beyond TV. It works like TiVO or the cable companies' DVR setups but with no fees. There are single and dual tuner cards available.

To talk about the REALLY GOOD aspects of BitTorrent, it is very popular with music tapers (and let's remember that lots of bands allow taping at their shows). Phish has even set up it's own torrent site to make it easier to share. While it's technically still copyrighted material, it is very cool to go on a BitTorrent site and find recordings (and even video) of your favorite artists of 30 years ago (many deceased), the kind of stuff that should be in an archive somewhere and made available.

As for traffic and ISPs, the ISPs are going to have to come to grips with the fact that they are selling massive bandwidth for the purpose of fast and large traffic. You could easily surpass most of the invisible caps (and the visible ones) with totally legal downloads. These same ISPs want to be delivering legal video and music downloads to us, so they'd best adjust their agreements to reflect that now.

> "I received a letter from my cable internet provider, who was contacted by NBC Universal saying that they'd tracked illegal downloading of a HOUSE MD file."

"Tracked"? I didn't think that was possible....

EDITOR'S NOTE: Sure it is... neither HTTP nor Bittorrent hides the IP address of the file requester. All they (NBC) have to do is host a file on Bittorrent and wait for people to download it. Then they know your IP address, which leads them to your ISP.

Besides the copyright issues and the security issues being discussed here and in other forums is the latest that bit-torrent is effectively using up almost all of the available bandwidth for the entire internet. In fact, one article puts the percentage fugure at a very high number and suggests that the internet as we non-bit-torrent users is about to be overwhelmed.

I also think hooking up to a circle of bit-torrent users is too great a risk for malware infection, especially since just this week I have had to remove about 30 pieces of malware that leaked in...

I think it would be helpful if people knew exactly what falls into the public domain, or what is not copyrighted. Obviously much that is being shared is copyrighted, but your example of a movie from the 30's being downloaded because it is in the public domain makes one wonder, how do I easily find out if something is in the public domain or not. I understand that copyrights on some things have been extended recently. It's a wee bit confusing to try and figure out.

EDITOR'S NOTE: In the USA, copyright term is the life of the author plus 70 years for works created after January 1, 1978. Works published before 1923 are all in the public domain. Anything that falls between 1923 and 1978 is life of author plus 50 years. That effectively places almost ALL works created in the last 50 years under copyright.

One reason I use BitTorrent is to keep track of the latest TV shows because it takes forever for them to show it in my country. We're usually several seasons behind. With the popularity of the internet there's more possibility for SPOILERS. If I watch cable TV talk show with a guest from my favorite TV show and I'm several seasons behind, what they talk about usually ruins it for me when the season their talking about finally gets here. The same goes for movies but not to the same degree. If TV stations can broadcast through bittorrent much like Podcasting (even with commercials included) I'm sure less people would take the trouble to download "illegally"

I received this NBC Universal letter today from my cable company. I had missed a couple episodes of 30 Rock and grabbed them from a torrent. Now I feel like I'm being watched. I'm planning on buying the DVD set when it's available because it's one of my favorite shows. Sad to feel like a criminal because I wanted to watch a couple episodes I missed.

I've gotten two of the same letters from NBC... one for downloading an episode of "Heroes", and another for downloading "Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas". It seems so ridiculous to me... I watch Heroes EVERY week on TV, and I see ALL the advertisements.. but I don't have a VCR or DVR, and I like watching the episodes several times.. so I get them off of BT.. it seems completely fair to me. - And as far as "Fear & Loathing".. well.. this is a movie I already own on VHS *AND* DVD.. I just wanted to have a copy to watch on my laptop when I was bored (no DVD rom), but didn't feel like ripping/encoding it myself. - Both of these things pose NO moral dilemma for me, and I generally am a person of strong convictions. - I'd hate to think that there is a possibility of them actually pursuing legal action about this. Any thoughts?

EDITOR'S NOTE: Did you get the letter from NBC, or your ISP? If the latter, it's doubtful that NBC can personally identify you.