Stupid question, but i have always wondered how a program like BitTorrent or Kazaa or Limewire works.. and how do they differ? Also, how detectable are they? I hear a lot of kids talking about using Limewire and Kazaa, not that many for BitTorrent - does that mean its safer to use?

Stupid answer, but BitTorrent is about 34.497% less illegal than Kazaa. I'm not going to presume to know what you mean by "safer"--but I can tell you they're both equally unlikely to jump out of the screen and eat you.

Check wikipedia for an explanation on P2P networks. They're all "detectable" if you want to break it down like that, but you should try actually buying what you're downloading sometime...

For music I buy from www.allofmp3.com, it's about 12 cents per song.

BitTorrent is a torrent program and the other two are P2P programs. A torrenting programs work similarly to a P2P program. They download the file from many different hosts at the same time.

What do you mean by safer? Less chances of downloading malicious files? Less risk of being perused by the IRAA? Both have the same risk. Obviously don't download a file that says "Adobe Photoshop (porno sex horney www.porn.com!!!)". And downloading stuff illegally is your choice.

have you read the forum rules guys....

quote:

5. Do not ask questions about how to get pirated software. Studentfilms.com does not support software piracy.

Good call XeOn...

So far this topic is in the clear in regards to that rule ("so far" being the key words there). I'll keep it open as long as the discussion remains innocent.

it was perfectly innocent to begin with. my intent was to ask how it works and anything else you guys may have heard about the software itself. im not downloading anything yet and i dont need you to tell me how to do that either.

i did my research before i asked the question too, i just cant read wikipedia because 1) i dont really understand the technical terms and whatnot and 2) wikipedia, like many other sources, is ridiculously unreliable - the article on bittorrent and other p2p's contradicts itself several times in terms of statistics and 3) other websites have junked up explanations as well.

i was just wanted to get your guys' opinion and then formulate my own. that is all.

as for safer (sorry i should have been clearer), i meant how harmful would it be to my computer to install and use? i remember reading this http://forums.studentfilms.com/eve/forums?a=tpc&s=20860...041090101#8041090101 and i also have heard from some of my friends that this happened to them as well.

Torrenting works by transmitting small pieces of a file. It was described very well by someone as being similar to this situation. You enter a room where a large group of people are sitting around a table, and each one of them has a few pages from a book you want. Very few of them have the entire book. You sit down, and ask for the book. They all start copying single pages and passing them to you, until eventually you have the entire thing.

There's nothing inherently illegal about torrenting - it all depends on the license of the content you are accessing.

quote:

Originally posted by funkbomb:
but you should try actually buying what you're downloading sometime...

For music I buy from www.allofmp3.com, it's about 12 cents per song.

Ben, if you're going to recommend buying something rather than outright dling straight from a P2P, don't recommend allofmp3.com. That's no more morally superior. You might as well say, "Don't download my movie off mininova, go to China and buy a camrippped DVD for $2. I like you, but that has got to be the stupidest thing I have heard you say on this forum.

As simply as I can approach the topic at hand, I'll use old Napster because it had more dissimilarities between it and Bittorrent.

(I swear to Jeebus, if you're going to use a Bittorrent or P2P use them for legal purposes, or so help me...)
(Also, do as I say, not as I do.)

Napster:
Napster.com>Download Napster>Download file directly from one source(one other single person) via Napster>The file is now yours.
Imagine someone burned you a CD for your listening pleasure (you can't record over it, but you can throw it away.)

Bittorrent:
Bitlord.com>Download Bitlord (called the "client")>Go to suprnova.org>Download a torrent>The torrent now downloads through your client (Bitlord in this example)>The file is now yours.
Now imagine that same friend gave you an address to a place where a bunch of different people with a bunch of little pieces of that burned CD glue it together using Bitlord(or any client) Glue and then give it to you for your listening pleasure. A funny visual guide.

One of the legal gray areas, to the best of my knowledge, was the fact that Napster was kind of a one on one thing. When a person was downloading a file, they were downloading that entire file from only one other user, that was pretty explicitly bad. Kazaa, and other P2Ps, and Bittorrent changed that, however, allowing you to download that one, single file from many users at once. Thus blurring that line of legality. However, Bittorrent's biggest difference remains that you never really use the client program to download a file. With Bittorrent, you download a torrent file (usually a paltry 4KB) from a website with which the client program will use to start the download of a much larger file (~5KB to ~600GB.) A P2P will use it's program to directly download from another program with no intermidiate.

There are, of course, a few more things to it, here and there, but that's as much as I've ever needed to know. If you're not satisfied, check out:
How Stuff Works
or This Wired Blog

If any of this has helped, please, share with me your own convolutated analogy.

elliott (otiose)...

This message has been edited. Last edited by: MeGrimlock,

I don't know remember the specific name of this specific program, but I know theres something out there that allows you to legally download mp3s that have been encoded so you can'
transfer them to mp3 players. But you can listen to them off of your computer all you want for free. Anyone else know what Im talking about?

You mean legally download without paying? Because as far as I know, downloading anything via P2P and BT, without paying, is not actually illegal in the US, rather frowned upon because it's on the verge of becoming so. In that case, the answer is any P2P program or BT client. Now, if you're talking about downloading free music without fear of the wrath of the RIAA or just free mp3s in general (indie bands, public domain, etc.) I have no idea. Songbird, maybe?

elliott (otiose)...

It's not 100% illegal to download everything from BitTorrent. There are legal torrent sites, they have movies from the public domain.

quote:

Originally posted by MeGrimlock:

quote:

Originally posted by funkbomb:
but you should try actually buying what you're downloading sometime...

For music I buy from www.allofmp3.com, it's about 12 cents per song.

Ben, if you're going to recommend buying something rather than outright dling straight from a P2P, don't recommend allofmp3.com. That's no more morally superior. You might as well say, "Don't download my movie off mininova, go to China and buy a camrippped DVD for $2. I like you, but that has got to be the stupidest thing I have heard you say on this forum.

yes, They're being sued by the RIAA to the tune of $1.6 billion dollars, or something like that. Yes, they're a shady Russian outlet for what appears to be stolen music. But they're still operating under legal ground, and you won't be investigated for downloading from them. You really want to get down to morals? The iTunes music store pays it's artists less than 6 cents of profit for every song sold. The rest goes to the label and themselves, yet I don't hear you talking Apple down.

P2P and BT is blatently illegal, thanks to the Digital Millenium Act. At least allofmp3.com stands on some kind of ground, however shaky.

Downloading from multiple users doesn't blur legality. It just (1) implicates multiple violators and (2) makes it harder to track. The Digital Millenium Act (you should read it) makes it more illegal to share files than download them. Having 23 "seeders" feeding you the latest Beyonce album just means 23 pairs of handcuffs.

I'm with you as far as iTunes is concerned. I dislike their business practices and the software itself is a clunky piece of crap on Windows. However, I still don't believe allofmp3 is legit. I'd rather just "steal" a song than give twelve cents to some Russian ****s who claim that they're even paying a percentage back to the artists. I doubt Beyonce's getting her monthly helping of rubles.
As far as the DMCA, I doubt that it'll hurt me right now anymore than buying from allofmp3 will help you from not being prosecuted for having unlawful files on your computer in the near future.

elliott (otiose)...

quote:

Originally posted by funkbomb:

quote:

5. Do not ask questions about how to get pirated software. Studentfilms.com does not support software piracy.

Good call XeOn...

Way to be a DICK. also you got me on some dumb technicality it says software piracy basically all torrents are piracy and lime wire and your handle used to download them is software sooooooooooooooo............ put two and two together and you get the forum rules

if you use i tunes and you update your ipod firmware with pirated music you can get in some deep Sh*t it happened to a buddy of mine got fine 500 000 dollars

quote:

Originally posted by XeOn:

Way to be a DICK. also you got me on some dumb technicality it says software piracy basically all torrents are piracy and lime wire and your handle used to download them is software sooooooooooooooo............ put two and two together and you get the forum rules

? Take it easy, I was agreeing with you...sorry if my tone doesn't translate over the 'net.

how in the heck do you update your ipod firmware with pirated music and get fined $500k? That makes nooo sense.

quote:

The online infringement of copyrighted music can be punished by up to 3 years in prison and $250,000 in fines. Repeat offenders can be imprisoned up to 6 years. Individuals also may be held civilly liable, regardless of whether the activity is for profit, for actual damages or lost profits, or for statutory damages up to $150,000 per infringed copyright.

How ridiculous.

There is no way you could be fined for having pirated music if you updated you ipod firmware. How could they detect what is legit and what is not? I know they could detect iTunes downloaded songs but what about songs from CDs, which constitutes the bulk of my library. If Apple and the RIAA have that sophisticated software to do what you said, they would be rolling in lawsuits right now because of how many fines they would hand out.