In some ways, you could just as well ask “Is it legal to download files from the web?”, to which the answer is (obviously, I hope), of course it’s legal. Similarly, the technology you might use to copy a file to your machine is not illegal. In general, copying a file to your machine is certainly not illegal. It’s highly efficient technology, optimized for large files and decentralized storage of downloaded files, but ultimately, it’s nothing more than a way to copy a file to your machine. It’s just file-transfer technologyīut here’s the catch: bitTorrent is nothing more than a technology used to copy files. And that’s more than likely what you’re asking. So while you might use the “.torrent” file to initiate a download, most people call the download itself a “torrent” as well. The word “torrent” is also frequently, though incorrectly, used to refer to the actual files being shared using bitTorrent. To be super pedantic about it, because the “.torrent” file itself has only some administrative information in it, there’s nothing wrong with downloading it.īut that, of course, is not what you meant. “ Torrent” files are, specifically, a small file of information used by a file-sharing technology known as “bitTorrent”. This is mostly just common sense with the high level concepts we’re talking about.) Please, realize I’m no lawyer, and this shouldn’t be taken as legal advice. (Caveat: I’m basing this on my knowledge of the current state of Copyright law.
#How to download free programs using bittorrent illegal movie
It’s quite legal to download torrent files.īefore you run off and start downloading last week’s bootlegged theatrical movie release, you really need to understand why that particular download, and others like it, probably are illegal.