Is it legal to download a torrent

Once that happen, you will wonder what happen to the internet and the technology. I say get rid of the internet if it involves downloading a file, sales, or just viewing a movie. In a case where I legally purchased an album digitally, would it be legal to redownload that album, considering you already bought it elsewhere?

One would think, but this is one reason why people hate DRM so much. Unless you have a way to download the original from iTunes again, it is apparently still illegal to redownload the album from elsewhere. Stupid, IMO, but apparently the way it is. As always remember:. Because i know downloading movies is but im not sure about Series…. Then if I share it with a friend by sending it over the internet does that make it illegal? HI I am now even more confused. Please clarify..

If I use different torrent website to download movies and music not sure about copyright status , is it illegal? Can I get in trouble?? Ok, I understand exactly what you are saying and am grateful for the insight.

Thank you. Since I already purchased a VHS copy of these movies is it still illegal to download a copy from a torrent sharing site?

IS it illigal to download pictures that are not copyrighted and post them on a website that you are building? Would if you download a picture that was not copyrighted but you get a letter from a lawyer stated it was. Maybe someone before you downloaded a copyrighted picture and you just copied it from him. How would you know that it was copyrighted? Let me see if I have this right!! If I download torrent and start download music or movies; it coming from a share file so it would not be illegal to do that.

But if I use it to download music or movies that are copyright from the computer than it illegal. So, let me get this right. So, you can use BitTorrent to re-download the track, right? So let me say this. Say I download a movie from a website as a torrent. Is it ok? Still in torrent format. What are the chances of getting caught if you downloaded movies, say from a popular torrent site. Thanks for the article. I absolutely LOVE it!

Also, there is currently a worldwide convention going on with all kinds of governments and law enforcement agencies to attempt to come up with enforcement and penalties having to do with copyrighted material on the Internet. It is still in the discussion phase and like anything of that magnitude, it changes day by day. Some of it is mind blowing on the penalty side of things with some very draconian punishments.

The negotiations are still considered secret but new reports are regularly leaked. They are down-loadable in PDF format. The last one I got was from July 10, The agreement covers everything from fake Gucci bags to pirated software. Read it and be afraid! There are groups trying to fight it or at least bring an element of sanity to it. Please find and join one. Is it legal to provide search for torrent files. Is this true? Thanks for another great article Leo.

These developers claim no right to restrict distribution otherwise, so as long as you follow those guidelines, you are free to do as you will with said goods. Once it is publicly declared in the GPL, I believe, they legally forfeit any right to restrict distribution beyond those general terms. Does this mean that it is illegal to accept a book from someone because the book is copyrighted and I did not pay for it?

Sadly, my DVR restricts this. Of course the ISPs will. Comcast and Verizon will set you up with a DVR and you can record anything that comes down the service, including sports events, movies, TV shows, local news, anything. As I mentioned elsewhere — I am severely restricted in how I can use that recording. Never seen so many comments on a topic here, or so many responses from Leo. He is correct of course, breaching copyright is illegal. The trouble is, it is also very common. Like marijuana use and prostitution except in McKeesport it will have to be made legal eventually.

Those who make available original creative work are going to have to come up with a different pricing structure. The pricing structure is completely irrelevant. E-books that would cost a buck to buy are illegally shared. Services such as Netflix, Spotify and Kindle Unlimited provide very cheap access an enormous collection of movies, TV shows, music and books — and yet people still choose to download material illegally. As I said, illegal file sharing has nothing to do with things being overpriced; it has to do with people not wanting to pay anything at all and preferring to steal.

For the most part I agree with your intent, but using P2P is and has a legitimate purpose and for those who use those excuses can offer credibility to their opinion even though not correct in law depending on the country you live in.

You need to remember P2P is a world wide phenomenon and not everybody earns a western blue collar salary. If you want to resolve the problem you need to listen to them. However the pursuit of the all mighty US dollar tends to be a hurdle and now we have a copyright cluster. To answer, because the services these companies provide around the world are seriously lacking in the provision of comparable content and pricing. This is experienced in particular by the NZ and Aussie customers and was quite clearly outlined in the Australian parliament when they instituted the new piracy laws in Go to the torrent freak blog to read the transcripts or go to the Australian Federal Govt website and you can access them directly.

There is also a very simple solution to the issue too by the way. You are entirely off the mark here and the TV comment is out of context with the issue at hand. The TV as it is a physical item, ones and zeros Binary Code are not physical so there is popularly a different perspective around the world regarding code and physical items and whether your stealing, Education is a good start.

Not everybody is a thief and in a lot of cases it has much to do with being overpriced, your economic and geographic situation. Once again there is a solution to this issue. We are not subject to American Law here so what constitutes an offence in the US, it is not necessarily so here. The fact that a content owner will not permit Netflix, Hulu et al to make their content available in a certain region does not make it acceptable for people who live in that region to steal the content.

And as for people living in Mumbai not being able to afford the content: so what? Unfortunately some of your last comment is a bit like an over easy egg…. S services offered in my country because I can get better service from them by going off shore. I still pay my subscriptions to obtain legitimate access.

So is that stealing? I am entitled to my privacy both in the real world and in the cyber. We both know it is pretty lawless, uncontrolled and unscrupulous on the www. Security, Security, Security, always. The Mumbai comment was an example, a good one or bad who knows, but what I am trying to illustrate to you is this, where the copyright material is being torrented i. Not at any stage did I say that it was right morally or legally, in my own culture.

The number of concerts doubled from 71, in to , in , and the number of people attending concerts increased from Despite the troubles weathered by the entertainment industry, file sharing and torrent websites were ruled legal in Spain in March The judge responsible for the court ruling stated that ' P2P networks are mere conduits for the transmission of data between Internet users, and on this basis they do not infringe rights protected by Intellectual Property laws '.

On 20 September , the Spanish government approved new laws that will take effect at the beginning of The approved legislation will mean that website owners who are earning 'direct or indirect profit,' such as via advertising links, from pirated content can be imprisoned for up to six years.

Peer-to-peer file-sharing platforms and search engines are exempt from the laws. Since January , Vodafone Spain blocks thepiratebay. The Digital Economy Bill proposed that internet service providers ISPs issue warnings by sending letters to those downloading copyrighted files without authorization.

Following this, the bill proposed that ISPs slow down or even suspend internet access for repeat offenders of unauthorized file sharing. The bill aimed to force internet service providers to disclose the identities of those offenders as well as making conditions for the regulation of copyright licensing.

The Digital Economy Bill incorporated a graduated response policy despite the alleged file sharer not necessarily having to be convicted of copyright offences. The high penalty is considered to be proportionate to the harm caused to UK industries. The Act was seen as controversial, and potentially creating serious repercussions for both file sharers and internet service providers.

Conversely, the Liberal Democrat party spokesman for Culture and Media claimed the bill was reckless and dangerous stating that children could unwittingly be file sharing causing an entire family to lose their internet connection.

In addition to this, there was concern that hackers may access internet connections to download files and leave the bill payer responsible. Specific concerns raised included:. The bill provoked protests in many forms. The Guardian reported that hundreds were expected to march outside the House of Commons on 24 March Formed in and intending to enter candidates in the UK general election, the Pirate Party advocates reform to copyright and patent laws and a reduction in government surveillance.

The Code which would implement these sections of the Act was never passed into law by Parliament, and no action was taken on it after around The Digital Economy Act updates the anti-infringement provisions of existing laws, creates or updates criminal copyright breach provisions, and provides for a wider range of sentencing for criminal infringement.

In Sony Corp. Universal Studios, U. Decades later, this case became the jumping-off point for all peer-to-peer copyright infringement litigation. Napster , F. Here, the 9th Circuit considered whether Napster was liable as a secondary infringer.

First, the court considered whether Napster was contributorily liable for copyright infringement. To be found contributorily liable, Napster must have engaged in 'personal conduct that encourages or assists the infringement. The standard applied by the court was whether Napster 'has the right and ability to supervise the infringing activity and also has a direct financial interest in such activities.

The next major peer-to-peer case was MGM v. Grokster , U. In this case, the Supreme Court found that even if Grokster was capable of substantial non-infringing uses, which the Sony court found was enough to relieve one of secondary copyright liability, Grokster was still secondarily liable because it induced its users to infringe.

It is important to note the concept of blame in cases such as these. In a pure P2P network there is no host, but in practice most P2P networks are hybrid.

This has led groups such as the RIAA to file suit against individual users, rather than against companies. The reason that Napster was subject to violation of the law and ultimately lost in court was because Napster was not a pure P2P network but instead maintained a central server which maintained an index of the files currently available on the network. Around the world in , an estimated five billion songs, equating to approximately 38, years in music were swapped on peer-to-peer websites, while million songs were purchased online.

The same study which estimated these findings also found that artists that had an online presence ended up retaining more of the profits rather than the music companies. In November , the U.

House of Representatives introduced the Secure Federal File Sharing Act, [76] which would, if enacted, prohibit the use of peer-to-peer file-sharing software by U. The right to reproduce or redistribute the picture, music, lyrics, text, video, or images of a video. The right to distribute the picture, music, lyrics, text, video, or images of a video.

The right to produce derivative works of the copyrighted work. The right to perform the work publicly. The right to display the work publicly. The right to transmit the work through the use of radio or digital transition.

In summary, these exclusive rights cover the reproduction, adaptation, publication, performance, and display of a copyrighted work subject to limitations such as fair use. Anyone who violates the exclusive rights of copyright has committed copyright infringement, whether or not the work has been registered at the copyright office. If an infringement has occurred, the copyright owner has a legal right to sue the infringer for violating the terms of their copyright.

The monetary value of the lawsuit can be whatever a jury decides is acceptable. In the case of file sharing networks, companies claim that peer-to-peer file sharing enables the violation of their copyrights. Is it allowed to download movies from torrents in the USA? Add your answer. Submit Cancel. Report Abuse. File sharing is the practice of distributing or providing access to digital media, such as computer. When Judge Paz Aldecoa declared it legal to download indiscriminately in Spain, if done.

If you torrent copyrighted movies and music, there is a serious possibility you WILL be caught and face legal action. You should, therefore, take precautions to hide your location and identity, because torrenting can be illegal and against the law! Are torrents legal? Already exists. In United States of America.

If the torrent is of a commercially produced movie or televisionprogram, then seeding the torrent is illegal. UTorrent is the official torrent client from the creators of the BitTorrent protocol. It is proprietary—not open source—software maintained by a legal US company. Like BitTorrent, the software itself is legal, although it can be used for piracy. If you are downloading or viewing illegal content, it can be a security risk since many of the sites hosting the content are supported by malware.

The websites listed below allow users to watch TV shows through their site, by way of streaming video. Some of these sites provide the streaming TV at no cost, but available content may be limited. Other sites require a small subscription fee to watch all available TV shows or a subscription to a cable or satellite service. You may need to log in with your cable or satellite service account to verify your eligibility to watch TV shows through the site, but no additional costs are required.

Downloading a Copyrighted TV show or movie that you have not paid for or received permission to download is considered Copyright infringement and illegal. Two popular devices that support many of these online programs are the Roku and the Xbox. Hulu and Netflix are two common programs included on Smart TVs.

For many of us, torrent files and the BitTorrent protocol are synonyms with movie and software piracy. We only need to choose our movies carefully. Let's see how to download movies for free with torrent files, and how can we make sure we are entirely legal. To download movies, programs, or anything else with torrent files, we need a torrent client. It is the program that will open the torrent file, manage the necessary connections, and make sure the files download without any data corruption.

On PCsteps, we have already seen BitComet, which combines a download manager and a torrent client. For this guide, though, we will be using qBittorrent, which is one of the most popular and easy to use clients.

He said that they are not going after the average citizen who downloads from torrents, but more going after those supplying the illegal content to the torrent sites and those bootlegging and trying to sell the stuff on the street, etc.

I said to him, in light of this new information. I wish to confess to downloading illegal content via torrents, and clapped my writs together in prep. He laughed and told me that even if he did, it would get thrown out before it made it to court. It would cost the court system over a million dollars to prosecute me and such, even if I said I was guilty and made a written statement to the fact.

Interesting anecdote, thanks for sharing. I too have been downloading for years and have received a few warnings from my ISP from time to time without any other more substantial consequence. Just so that everyone is clear. Downloading copyrighted material is in fact NOT illegal. It is not you responsibility as a downloader to determine if a distributor has a legal right to distribute a copyrighted work.

What IS illegal when bit-torrenting, is the distribution a copyrighted product without license to do so. By default when downloading in a swarm you are uploading, hence distributing the copyrighted product. Aviod identification by this by using an open VPN. A quick google search and 60 minutes of reading up and learning how to use tools such as this will keep you anonymous and keep the torrent market booming.

I actually run through a paid VPN and a open VPN also remote connect to a server that was paid for with bitcoin that has rutorrent on it.

I travel alot, and use a live cd distro of linux on a mb encrypted thumbdrive to access all of it. The lesson here is, one can be to paranoid, or one can avoid being detected and avoid the threat letters and possible jail time waiting to see a judge.. Who the hell uses onion routing for Torrents? I didnt know it was illegal and im panicking. I have maybe a movie or 2 and three cds downloaded on my computer now.

They need more than a warning and a record of you downloading something to persecute you, if it ever even gets to that. At one point I had that software on my mac but now I have the newer version I am an expat who lives in China.

Over the past few years I have torrented about one terabyte of movies, music, and TV shows which I then copied onto a removable hard drive upon download completion. I plan to return to the U.

My question is, is there a way for the government to track my torrents to my removable hard drive? They may confiscate them no charges, depending on the country and just send you on your merry way.

And yes, I did. I feel spied on. Their obligation was to tell me that they received complaints from someone representing the copyright holder. I thought it was only illegal to do the coping and sharing of files. Guess I better stop downloading. Thanks for the info. All of you — just go check out Seedboxes — been using them for ages. Super fast, easy, simple. You can access from anywhere in the world, even mobile phones. You can stream the stuff after you download it if you have to.

I learned from my son and it is simple. You are not so clever as you may think. At this point it is a matter of ethics and moral responsibility. If you are downloading something that the public has to purchase buy you are stealing. No more torrents, no more media theft. Stop it. It is not worth it. Though original software is for free but some of its contents are paid version and the torrent file which I downloaded was not on most of the torrents site so will it be easier for me to be get arrested.

And If torrenting is illegal so why are the downloaders arrested, I think the one who uploads it should be arrested. I circumvented it by using onion routing. Leave the innocent people alone and go after the real bad guys. Should this worry me?? Was it an email? Did it contain your IP address and a time stamp, and the file you were downloading?

Or was it just saying how much you have to pay and how many hours you have? These are questions you should ask in the process of scrutinizing an email. Interpol usually deals with maritime piracy, not digital piracy. And yes it had a time frame which was counting down from 48 hours.

They had my IP address and they even knew my location and the user name of my computer. So I immediately disconnected my internet on all accounts and went into safe mode, using system restore to get my computer working again… So getting to a conclusion this is possibly, maybe, just someone trying to scare me? My real question is what should I do now? Or should I also get rid of any and all items, maybe even the hard drive I was using?

Seems to me like the F. Makes up for being illegal no? In some countries its very difficult to buy Original DVDs of movies, games and music etc. So, living in a country where the original content is not available in the shops, what do you recommend people should do? Pay 1USD for the pirated content available in the markets. I have not heard of any law that stops pirated content to be sold in the shops in the country im talking about.. Or may be there is a law but im not aware of it.

Just food for thought. At first? However, they can get clear evidence that you downloaded them, and that could be enough for a lawsuit. Usually, cases of piracy are tried in civil court, although I have heard of countries in which it was moved or initiated through the penal system. Very few people get caught, but I recommend not risking it if you are afraid.

Chances are you might. Also i feel that i am addicted to downloading torrents. The longer you do this, though, the higher your chances are. Most people use this. How can we get caught it? If i download it from example Ipad and they come to the door and just hide the Ipad and turn off can they find it then :D?

Im moving from Croatia to Germany next week so wondering how to dl torrent and be safe. Im downloading torrent to some Franch server justseed. Is that safe enough? What do you suggest? Hi guys, Im moving from Croatia to Germany next week so wondering how to dl torrent and be safe. I cannot speculate on this, since this is a highly sensitive matter that could have legal implications. I am asking if this is legal what I am doing since the torrent is being downloaded to franch server and I just dl completed file with out any sharing to my mac?

The same can be said for German law. Hello, I live in Bangladesh. I know torrent is legal here since everybody download via torrent and nothing happens. I downloaded over 2 TB of movies and tv shows and copied everything in a hard drive. I will go to california for university within a couple of months and take the hard drive full of movies with me. Will I get caught if I watched theses torrent downloaded videos from the hard drive over there in my pc.

Another thing is are streaming websites for tv shows available in usa such as watchseries.