Do you approve of the use of torrent? Why/Why not?

I torrent.

I consider what I do ‘responsible’ torrenting.

That is, I download a television shows I do not have access to, since BBC’s iPlayer system doesn’t work for us here in the States, and I don’t want to be financially ass-raped for 250 bullshit cable channels when really all I want is BBC, SyFy, and maybe Discovery Civilisations, unless that channel has been turned into reality crap, too.

If I enjoy the series, I go buy it on DVD as soon as it’s available.

I also torrent hidden object games. I’m kind of addicted to them. I think I owe Big fish games like, $30 now, since they sell full versions of most of their games for $2.99 each.

Of course, it’s a great way for distributing large files without having to spend a lot of money on hosting. This is useful for example when you’re making, I don’t know, an open source operating system or something – it’s great that people can start projects like that in their bedroom.

Yes, it’s a very efficient tool for transferring files. Torrenting is agnostic – it’s a stupid piece of software that transfers whatever is sent through it. The bible, the US constitution, a term paper, and copyrighted material.

The objection to torrenting is that a lot of people use it for transferring movies. But that’s the ‘fault’ of the person making the movies available, not the protocol itself.

I don’t torrent but it’s less from fear of doing something illegal, than from fear of downloading unwanted nasties. My daughter torrents and even though she has good professional antivirus software, my partner is still asked to help “fix” virus damage a couple of times a year. Also I am too tech-dumb to understand how to do it anyway.

@downtide So maybe you can consider me a good citizen :)

I don’t use it. And as to content I can’t otherwise get, so I miss something obscure, it won’t make a real difference to my life one way or another. there’s plenty of stuff to keep me amused and happy.

Ima be a pirate fo’ life.

I am with @elbanditoroso; torrenting itself isn’t bad, it’s what gets torrented that makes it so fishy. But since the only publicized use of it is illegal copies of movies/music, people have the wrong idea about it. Oddly, these people do not advocate ripping up all the roads and outlawing cars to stop DUIs. The same goes for TOR; sure, pedophiles use it, but so to others who fear government backlash, like those who want a free Tibet.

@downtide A good antivirus program will stop that. I use Avast!, but Avira also served me well. Just don’t go for AVG or Norton. I judge my AV software by independent head-to-head comparisons, not just straight-up reviews.