Are these "torrent" things legal?

[Jesusfreak]

Already tried that (one of the first things I tried, actually). But yeh, it only crashes with the hotkey, I just thought it always crashed upon building a city because it simply never occured to me to try doing it without the hotkey.

And on a related note, a friend of mine tried the torrent that I couldn't get to work and both the torrent and the game worked fine for him O_O.

[neronix17]

I havent got enough time to read through all the replies to see if this has been said already but torrents themselves are completely legal, indie games and even commercial games (EVE online had the option once) distibute software using this, its sometimes quicker and can use alot less bandwidth for them which makes it much cheaper for them to distibute. Although some sites like The Pirate Bay offer torrents which may be considered illegal depending on what it is and where in the world you live, the site is based in a country (Sweden I think) where copyright laws allow distribution of copyrighted materials for free.

I myself have used the "Bay" to download games I already own but the disc has been corrupted, or some other problem has required me to download it. Also a good way to test games out if there isnt a demo, you could download the game and play it for a bit to see if you like it, if not then delete it, if you like it then go buy it.

A great many people dont care to pay money for things like games, movies, music or even porn, which is why sites like the Bay are considered illegal, but to be honest nobody gives a crap and theres no way they will know wether you have downloaded something illegaly without breaking several laws themselves, or if your stupid enough to give your real details away like you real name, address etc.

In short (think Ive went on a bit ) torrents arent illegal but I havent met a single person who owns a computer yet that hasnt downloaded something illegally either accidental or on purpose.

Wow my fingers hurt...

[hallsofvallhalla]

dude I couldn't have said it better myself.

[neronix17]

Yeah I had to type that all to explain it to a few people I know anyway so Ive just referred them to this exact page so they can read it without me having to explain it to them

[princezane]

If anyone still has questions on torrents, I can probably answer a few but Neroix pretty much covered it all. To put it really simple: the torrent file itself is perfectly legal, it's the content the torrent "maps" to which can cause legal issues.

And to further on thepiratebay... the reason they are still kosher is because they only host the torrent files, which is nothing more than a road map. The illegal copyrighted material is still hosted on the local pc/server that created the torrent, therefore the Bay's servers have nothing illegal on them and thus can't be shut down (until a law or something changes)

I love reading through their legal threat letters, good times...

[neronix17]

I love reading through their legal threat letters, good times...

Yeah I love the one where the company asks that the letter be kept private and not published anywhere and they reply telling the company because they have harrassed them that they WILL publish it on the legal section of the website

[Falken]

And to further on thepiratebay... the reason they are still kosher is because they only host the torrent files, which is nothing more than a road map. The illegal copyrighted material is still hosted on the local pc/server that created the torrent, therefore the Bay's servers have nothing illegal on them and thus can't be shut down (until a law or something changes)

Altho they got sentenced to 1 year in prison and a fine of a few millions in the district court...altho that is applealed to the next court instance, but still...will be intresting to see how it goes in the appeal court.

[neronix17]

And to further on thepiratebay... the reason they are still kosher is because they only host the torrent files, which is nothing more than a road map. The illegal copyrighted material is still hosted on the local pc/server that created the torrent, therefore the Bay's servers have nothing illegal on them and thus can't be shut down (until a law or something changes)

Altho they got sentenced to 1 year in prison and a fine of a few millions in the district court...altho that is applealed to the next court instance, but still...will be intresting to see how it goes in the appeal court.

Yeah the swedish laws changed recently which could have held them responsible for the torrents of copyrighted material on the domain. I heard that theres a company planning on buying the bay so they can start charging for the use of it, which they plan to use to pay off anyone that comes sniffing around with a court case...

[Falken]

And to further on thepiratebay... the reason they are still kosher is because they only host the torrent files, which is nothing more than a road map. The illegal copyrighted material is still hosted on the local pc/server that created the torrent, therefore the Bay's servers have nothing illegal on them and thus can't be shut down (until a law or something changes)

Altho they got sentenced to 1 year in prison and a fine of a few millions in the district court...altho that is applealed to the next court instance, but still...will be intresting to see how it goes in the appeal court.

Yeah the swedish laws changed recently which could have held them responsible for the torrents of copyrighted material on the domain. I heard that theres a company planning on buying the bay so they can start charging for the use of it, which they plan to use to pay off anyone that comes sniffing around with a court case...

That company was never really serious about it, the owner of that company is a little known for doing barely legal stuff and so. They even got thrown of the stock exchange because they could not show any concrete stuff about buying tpb.

[neronix17]

Oh well, at least its still there for now