because everything should be free anyway, so until it is, just steal what you want.
torrenting is a way to share files from one computer to another without the need for a centralized server to hold everything. to start torrenting you need to get a torrent client. there are several different options for all operating systems but my favorite one that is compatible with Linux, OS X and Windows is called Transmission. you can download it from here: https://transmissionbt.com/
now that you have the application you need to download stuff, let’s find something to download. trackers come in two varieties: public and private. private trackers are beyond the scope of this post, but the main advantage to them is security. it’s much harder for your ISP to tell what you’re downloading, so you’re much less likely to get sent a copyright claim email if that’s something your ISP does (more on that later). they also typically have higher quality and more obscure content, and usually enforce seeding ratios so that files are always available. by their nature, private trackers are very strict about who they allow access to. there are more extensive guides online for how to gain access if you’re interested. i’m going to focus on public trackers for this post. these don’t require user registration but are susceptible to snooping by some ISPs and their contractors, which i will detail how to get around later in a couple paragraphs.
there are many trackers out there. my favorite public tracker right now is called 1337x and can be accessed at 1337x.to. one thing to keep in mind about trackers is that due to their legal-grey-area nature they often resort to sketchy shit to stay afloat, such as displaying ads for malware and scams, and dark patterns such as fake “Download” buttons which dont actually lead where you want. a good way to avoid those things is to install an adblocker like ublock origin.
using a tracker site is pretty self explanatory: search for what you want and hit download. if you have a torrent client installed, it should automatically come up and ask you to confirm the download. then you just wait until the download finishes, at which point you can open it. tada!
each torrent on a tracker has a certain number of seeds and peers. these numbers indicate how many other people have copies of the files, and consequently determine how fast your download can finish. try to pick torrents with the higher number of seeds when you can.
keeping the files in the same directory that your torrent client downloaded them to allows you to act as a seed. this means that when someone else wants the torrent, their torrent client will download some parts of the files directly from your computer. this is the basis for all peer-to-peer sharing and it’s encouraged to seed as much as you can, so that everyone can have consistent access.
some ISPs in the US, such as Comcast, have automated systems in place that detect copyrighted material in torrent traffic. when they detect it, you get sent an automatic email that lets you know that they know what you’re doing and you’d better stop right now. in practice, legal action against torrenting is on shaky legal ground, since you can’t actually prove that just because something was downloaded from your connection, it was actually you who did it - after all, it could be a random person who broke into your wifi, or a guest, whatever. these kinds of emails are still scary, however, and i dont trust the courts to protect people forever, so i prefer to go the extra mile by paying for a VPN in those situations. i use mullvad which is $5 per month. again though, not all will ISPs require this; if you’re on a provider who doesn’t care, you don’t have to bother.
you can torrent stuff directly to your computer but i like to keep all my torrented media on a file server on a network share, because then your files are accessible from any computer on your home network, and they’ll still be there if your computer breaks. there are many software projects that exist to facilitate this; i tend to just build these systems myself but i really like what FreedomBox is going for, so if you have a spare computer and time, i encourage you to play around with that.
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