I am quite sure that the homo-sapiens-geekosaurusses know well about the torrents.

I don't think the majority of people with PCs do, since if they would, the software companies would go bankrupt.

Ok, so beside the pirate stuff you might have downloaded for evaluation the better question would be, what stuff have you downloaded legally ?

that means, downloading stuff, which aren't considered stealing

Free movies? Linux?

there are things you can download legally?

doesn't sound like much fun.


. . .

There are certain things only available as a torrent. Even legal stuff. Especially if it's a movie..that is free and it's 1-2 gigs or bigger, and the one giving it out doesn't have the server to handle it.

For many years, I made extensive use of torrents for entirely legal purposes.

The big media corporations want people to believe that "p2p = theft", one of many lies they like to spread.

p2p technology is vital, and has many perfectly legal uses. For the future of computer technology, we ought to fight against any and all legislation that targets these protocols and methods of transferring data.

I don't understand why people pirate software - I can easily find excellent free software for most things I've ever wanted to do, and crappy free software for everything else.

Downloaded Linux through torrents. Downloaded a version of Windows XP Professional but it didn't work.

Lemme see.. Legally? HMMmm.. I have 4TBs of h/d space.. Legally..? Uh.. Firefox browser.. uh.. proggies from download.com .. damn, this is hard..

4TB's a LOT of porn

If we are speaking of legally downloading...I have downloaded movies that are "public domain"

there are many sites that offer copyright free books and videos

I've downloaded multiple distros of Linux to try them out. Keyboard pack for stepmania (not 100% sure of the legality there), Ophcrack with free tables, and Virtualbox. That's all I can think of.

i tried downloading some games from those torrents, got nothing but trojans... music is the only thing i get thats worth a crap on there.

You didn't download the right one. There are plenty of good ones out there..some of them heavily modified, made better by these hackers..I don't think Micro$oft can stop them now..they know the play-around the activation thing.
I'm not complaining, although I use Vista that paid for..don't wanna buy Win7, there are several things (my printer, my TV card) don't work with it..plus I still don't feel the need for it at all.

I've used torrented copies for every version of Win. since XP with no problems. But after running 7 I decided to buy it. Vista was always too unstable so I'm glad I never forked over the hard earned cash. As for other things I like to "try before I buy" and not every program offers a demo.

Fellows, fellows ,fellows the crime is not in the downloading it in sharing it, so if in the downloading and your sharing it in order to get the download then your committing the crime (Torrent, limewire, ect...)
You can download anything you want except child porn and instructions on committing the crime that your going to do.
All those people that got hit with fines were caught sharing it, and when you get caught sharing it you better not have it on your computer.
You just cant share it.

When I download, I share, knowing that there is a legal risk involved. If I'm not willing to share, I ask myself what my real motivations are for the downloading, and whether its really the 'right' thing to do.

I hope everyone here who might be involved in illegal downloads also promotes the agenda of rolling back the expansion/extension of copyright - in your everyday conversations and at the polls. I hope you respect the principles of open source software. I hope you all also support legislation that promotes computer privacy, and I hope you are willing to financially support producers who aren't playing the corporate game - be it independent musicians or open source developers.