Are all the bit torrent sites now infected with viruses or malware?

Nope.. There are tons of private trackers with clean files. Even the pirate bay isn’t that bad if you just want movies/music/tv. But downloading software from TPB is a major crap-shoot.

And you can try here.

^ Well, I will have to figure out how to use that site, and give it a try. Thanks for the heads up. I guess it us the torrent wave of the future because the tried and true of the past seems to be nothing but cyber leapers these days.

That site just lists private trackers that currently have open sign-ups. You can’t actually download anything from there.

Basically you have public tracker like TPB and KA and then you have private ones. The private ones you need to make a account and abide by their rules regarding ratios and so on. Private trackers are generally well staffed and have active comment sections. So bad files are generally removed pretty fast. I have never downloaded any nasties from a private tracker.

I wouldn’t suggest using a public tracker if you live in the United States. They are actively monitored by media companies and they will complain to your ISP and ISPs have canceled accounts for too much piracy. And since we have so little broadband competition here you might be back to AOL if your ISP kicks you. That is why I rent a dedi in Germany to use as a seedbox.

No, but you need to be smart about where you go. I agree with @Hypocrisy_Central second comment – for movies and music you will do fine at Pirate Bay or others.

But software from a torrent – very very very risky.

Why not just buy stuff ?

I used to get torrents and rebuild software from newsgroups etc..nowadays, if its important enough I’ll buy. If not, I dont steal it.

The safety of the sites themselves has more to do with popup ads that may infect your computer – so use a good popup blocker. But the safety of the torrents themselves is a risk you have to assess on a case-by-case basis. This is why torrenting sites have ways of indicating the trustworthiness of the uploader (as I’m sure you know if you’ve been doing this for some time). It’s also a good reason to read the comments if you have any doubts. I haven’t noticed any increase in risk of getting a virus or malware.

I’m with @Apparently_Im_The_Grumpy_One. I buy it.

@Apparently_Im_The_Grumpy_One Why not just buy stuff ?
Why buy it when the parts are free? It would be like going camping on federal land and coming up to a fallen tree due to old age or rot, you want to use some of the wood for a camp fire to roast your s’mores are you going to pass it up or leave a check for the wood at the ranger’s station, it technically is not yours. Some of the stuff might be legacy and not sold outright anywhere that is easily found. If you had a way to get the pieces free for an Ikea three piece dinning set from 30 different people, in the end you would have the dinning set, you jest did not go through Ikea to buy it

what is a “dinning” set?

@Hypocrisy_Central
What happened for me is that I realized I didnt need most of he stuff I was getting (ikea or otherwise).

Then I realized that there was no reason to swim in viral waters to get stuff I dont need.

Then, I further realized (I realize this is a lot of realization) that stealing digitally is really no different than knocking off a liquor store in principal. In fact, most torrenters have probably stolen things of far greater monetary value than that.

Its just a crowd I no longer want to associate with. As a result, my computer thanks me for not giving it digi-herpes.

I dont mean to sound overly pious or anything. Lord knows theres a number of things I havent been able to stop doing..like jaywalking.. just sharing my perspective is all.