What Is A Torrent?

[z123killer]

What is a torrent and what are it's uses?

[Enderman]

[Nonco]

What is a torrent and what are it's uses?

 

A torrent is a type of file. It uses a file sharing system where it requires people to be Seeding a file (Uploading it) for others to be able to Download it. Pretty good system, but requires others help to stay alive

[WaterproofBeanie]

A torrent is a peer-to-peer based download, which takes small amounts of files from other people.

 

It has uses in piracy, as they are very hard to shut down without a central source, but also for small organisations or open-source software, as it limits the amount of badnwidth the creators have to pay for.

[thatguyyouknow75]

its a way of file sharing where people download (leechers) any given file and then once finished or sometimes during begin uploading what theyve downloaded to reduce download time for others (seeders)

[z123killer]

A torrent is a type of file. It uses a file sharing system where it requires people to be Seeding a file (Uploading it) for others to be able to Download it. Pretty good system, but requires others help to stay alive

I've heard that you can pirate software by using a torrent is that true or is it something else?

[z123killer]

its a way of file sharing where people download (leechers) any given file and then once finished or sometimes during begin uploading what theyve downloaded to reduce download time for others (seeders)

so is it basically helping others with downloading time?

[ThyFeared]

I've heard that you can pirate software by using a torrent is that true or is it something else?

It is true but very illegal 

[Nonco]

I've heard that you can pirate software by using a torrent is that true or is it something else?

 

Yes that is true, a large amount of torrenting is pirated software/media.

[AresKrieger]

so is it basically helping others with downloading time?

Yes, or giving them data they couldn't get otherwise legal or otherwise

[Ostwind]

Its a magical thing that has free stuff in it like games and music and movies and sometimes if you're not to smart about it a virus.

[AresKrieger]

It is true but very illegal 

Very illegal isn't a thing, also it would be classified as technically illegal if anything (neither are correct) because it isn't well enforced

[z123killer]

Yes that is true, a large amount of torrenting is pirated software/media.

how does that work?

[thatguyyouknow75]

so is it basically helping others with downloading time?

assuming people are kind enough to continue seeding yes DL times are reduced

[Nonco]

how does that work?

There are websites people host the pirated files on, and people download the torrent file and use it in their torrent client.

[AresKrieger]

how does that work?

I'll try to explain it simply let's say you have a file with 4 different parts and people are seeding said file, your torrent client connects to those people to get the parts, and can get different parts from different people that have it, then recombines them back into the original file

 

But no one person gave you the file thus being a technicality in copyright laws as a means of defense

[ThyFeared]

Very illegal isn't a thing, also it would be classified as technically illegal if anything (neither are correct) because it isn't well enforced

Pirating software which isn't free is pretty illegal there's not a big difference. 

[alphaproject]

How can you NOT know what a torrent is? Are u trolling?

[Aytex]

How can you NOT know what a torrent is? Are u trolling?

Because OP doesn't know...

 

Im pretty sure my mum doesn't know either.

[AresKrieger]

Pirating software which isn't free is pretty illegal there's not a big difference. 

I was getting at the point that it is not enforced well, and illegality does not have prefixes (it's black or white), charge classifications do, such as felony or misdemeanor, either way copyright law is a dinosaur that needs to be revamped before most people will care, I mean 87 years after the death of the creator or 120 years for a company  :huh: , also the main proponents of anti-piracy campaigns are doing illegal things all the time on the web.

[smeek14]

Is showbox illegal?

[z123killer]

How can you NOT know what a torrent is? Are u trolling?

I am only 13 and have a pretty old laptop so i don't download a lot of software which is why i don't know what a torrent is.

[alphaproject]

I am only 13 and have a pretty old laptop so i don't download a lot of software which is why i don't know what a torrent is.

Good answer. That explains it.

[Jade]

Is showbox illegal?

Yup.

 

To clarify because I've seen a few strange answers:

• Torrenting itself is not illegal, but a very common use of it is piracy (music, software, movies, etc)--which is illegal. But there are many valid uses, as well.
• Torrenting is the act of getting/uploading parts of a file from many difference hosts (seeders), rather than 1 (say, a server.)
• Torrenting requires a client that works with the BitTorrent protocol. qBittorrent and Deluge are good examples.
• Torrenting is done by getting a torrent file (or magnet link) from a site or person, then it will use the information from that file/link to get information about the seeders and peers from the server. The only data the server is aware of is: what the torrent is named, ratios, who's seeding it, what's their IP, who's downloading it, and their IP, amongst other basic information. None of the data you might download in the torrent go through the server; just basic metadata.
• Torrents can be faster than getting stuff from a server, if there are enough seeders or a few high speed seeders when you're downloading.

[LogicalDrm]

how does that work?

Torrenting or piracy? Or torrenting pirated material? I'll try to add something to this. But talking about piracy is mostly against forum CoC.

Pirating copyrighted stuff is when person or group uploads material to which they have no rights or aren't paying to original copyright holder for redistribution. Torrent search engines offer this material for free (ad supported) or from direct download (you pay monthly fee). AFAIK both are illegal. Thats how piracy on movies, TV shows, music and eBooks works. For software and games, bit more is needed. Just uploading installer isn't piracy as games/software require cdkey or other registration method to work. So downloading windows installer isn't illegal. Games/software that are cracked are illegal. It means that someone has broken their protection and manipulated files that otherwise would detect misusage. Uploading and downloading that kind of files is illegal. And ofc being one to do the actual work.

Torrent sites are just search engines that use trackers as source of information. Sites themselves aren't (or aren't supposed to be) illegal, same way as Google isn't. But they are often seen as such because they show illegal and pirated content as search results (Google shows it too so...). Torrenting pirated files work just same way as torrenting legal files. There's one or more base seeders who upload all the time. These can be original uploaders or some hubs. Then there are leachers who do mostly downloading and have some slight upload going on. Total download speed is calculated by dividing upload speed between downloaders. In best case you get your connection download speed maxed.

This kind of Peer-to-Peer (P2P) has been a thing for long time. Starting with Napster in late 90s and early 00s. Back then it was people sharing their music libraries but data moving style was same. If you wan't to go even earlier, we would be talking about sharing floppies on LANs. P2P isn't bad thing. Its becoming more and more industrial thing too. Like with movie studios sharing digital distribution copies to theathers instead of using hard drives. Or amateur movie makers using joint efforts for creating special effects (Iron Sky etc.).