Is BitTorrent all about sharing pirated movies and stuff, or am I missing something?

 

What could it be used for legally?

Sharing dashcam footage. Or large amounts of photos.

Just a couple off the top of my head, that I have used myself:

 

Blizzard use it for game patches (and installing from scratch now).

Linux ISOs or other freeware.

So how is it different from just a large download from a website? (Sorry I know this is a thick question but I've never used it)

So how is it different from just a large download from a website? (Sorry I know this is a thick question but I've never used it)

Because you share the upload bandwidth with everyone else who has a copy and is on the tracker.

 

In the example of the patch:

 

Blizzard add the patch.

Person 1 downloads the patch from Blizzard.

Person 2 can now download the patch from Blizzard and P1.

Above grows exponentially.

 

Blizzard's bandwidth costs go down and total rate of transfer between all clients goes up, so everyone gets the patch quicker as they are not all limited to the speed of the initial host.

 

This works because the file is split into fragments and the client requests fragments at random so it self load balances between all available peers. Even if one peer is very slow, its not a problem overall as the fragments are often around 256k in size, so you can download one fragment from one person and 10 from another who has a 10x faster connection.

So can you legally get TV shows and movies from bittorrent?

No. Stick to iplayer etc if you want to do it legally. Unless the copyright has expired obviously.

So can you legally get TV shows and movies from bittorrent?

 

Generally not.

As said distributing large files to many people. So legal game files, operating system images (usually linux).

A number of tech companies offer it as an option - to avoid the fairly slow servers that can occur when issuing a big software update.

 

I have used it in the past to send a friend living overseas a large number of files to replace data lost from his stolen laptop.

Stay away from Bittorent if you want to stay legal in my opinion. Not to mention you don't know what your downloading.

 

Not to mention you don't know what your downloading.

 

But that is true of EVERYTHING you download.

 

I scan everything with two different malware programs before opening it.

But that is true of EVERYTHING you download.

 

I scan everything with two different malware programs before opening it.

 

Not really... 

 

Legit websites will provide you with a MD5 hash which can be verified before run.

The higher the seeds, the more likely it's legit.

All an MD5 hash does is prove the file hasnt been altered; it doesnt PROVE what it is, or that it is safe.

Legal application for BitTorrent? What it was created for....distribution of Linux OS. :-) great system and from what I understand rather untraceable! As others have said, one person can share a file others then download that file from you and re-seed it, however people who then download from those seeds don't download the whole file just bits from all the different seeds meaning you will get the fastest speed and not downloading from one source?! Or at least that's my understanding :-)

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I have used it in the past to send a friend living overseas a large number of files to replace data lost from his stolen laptop.

 

I can't see how bit torrent would work in this instance, unless lots of other people were downloading copies of your mates data too?

Too much to email and too long (and expensive) to post; no we used it as a simple one to one transfer, I uploaded the link and when he called to say he had it, I made sure I was connected and ready to upload.

 

Yes, uploading it to a dozen others would have made his download faster, but it would still have taken me exactly the same amount of time to upload it - plus he didnt want everyone having access to all his stuff. As soon as he had finished and confirmed it was all right, I deleted the torrent link and closed uTorrent.

 

This was back before Dropbox; I think a couple of semi-legal file storage websites were about, but most of them wanted money for anything about a few MB.

 

My current uTorrent use is to download todays Grand Prix - I would watch it on BBC iPlayer - except the whole BBC domain appears to have gone titsup.

All an MD5 hash does is prove the file hasnt been altered; it doesnt PROVE what it is, or that it is safe.

 

exactly. if the provider is proving MD5 as verification and it is verified then there's no reason to scan the file is safe so scanning every file is OTT in my opinion. 

 

each to there own. 

[shakes head at circular argument]

 

[finds bag of pills lying in the street, they must be safe to eat because it says they are safe in big red friendly letters on the side]

 

x x

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Edited 25 August, 201411 yr by GentleGiant

As said the hash only provides assurance of file Integrity not the content.

 

So if the supplier hashes the file while it contains malware then all the hash will do for you is provide assurance that the malware was downloaded correctly.

 

Trust nothing on the web. Plenty of occasions where genuine suppliers have ended being malware distributors because they were infected and the infection was integrated into the product. It's even happened with hardware.

Stay away from Bittorent if you want to stay legal in my opinion. Not to mention you don't know what your downloading.

 

I'm sure I read somewhere that the downloaders aren't the ones doing anything illegal, it's the users uploading/hosting the content?

Trust nothing on the web. Plenty of occasions where genuine suppliers have ended being malware distributors because they were infected and the infection was integrated into the product. It's even happened with hardware.

 

Sure Sony released some CDs/DVDs with some rootkit stuff on them?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_BMG_copy_protection_rootkit_scandal

 

I'm sure I read somewhere that the downloaders aren't the ones doing anything illegal, it's the users uploading/hosting the content?

 

The dubious bit is the tracker sites, as they open up the access for you to start downloading things.  However when you look at the court cases, most tracker sites seem to say "we aren't hosting the content, we just enable people to find it".  The music and film industry as going for the main "shares" of content, so if you like the "uploaders" as they say for each upload that is potentially one less sale of a CD/DVD/etc.

 

I have been stung in the past - bought an album based on one track and the rest of the album was **** (imho) - Tragic Kingdom by No Doubt.  Now had I torrented the albums first I would have thought what rubbish, deleted it and not bought the album.  But I took a punt, and wasted £12.  As music shops are few and far between in the high street these days (HMV used to have 'listening posts'), you have very little way of determining what the rest of the album will be like, short of turning to technology.  Granted, I think that some online retailers (amazon?) let you listen to tracks first, so certainly a step in the right direction.

Sure Sony released some CDs/DVDs with some rootkit stuff on them?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_BMG_copy_protection_rootkit_scandal

 

Forgot about that, but that was deliberate. A few places have been unknowingly infected with something and integrated the infection into their products. Typically I can't find it now but the factory produced hardware with a virus preloaded into the firmware (might have been a mobo can't remember enough detail).

A number of high profile companies have sent out malware after someone managed to infect the machines at the production site; I can vaguely remember a swathe of infected USB thumb drives being sent out from one maker after the machines that tested them were infected.

 

A friend got caught out by a South African Zumba DVD carrying an infection a couple of years ago.

 

GCHQ have already admitted that one of the ways they get their "malware" onto PCs is to disguise it as a software or driver update from a reputable company.