Mac Gem "Transmission 1.22" Question, Please!

[lugesm]

Having zero experience with Bit Torrent sites, I note that this week's Mac Gem in an email from MacWorld strongly recommends the program, "Transmission 1.22."

I went to the download site linked by the MacWorld email and found that the current version is not 1.22, but 1.32. Strange that MacWorld would be recommending an older version.

Having said all that, and having zero experience with Bit Torrent, my question: Is there anything LEGITIMATE or LEGAL that can be downloaded from a Bit Torrent site? I have only heard rumors of copyright violations, and have never visited one of their sites.

Would appreciate opinions on this. Thanks for your comments.
L

 

[Sorkvild]

Well first of you all you need to know what it is you want!

 

[Mal]

BitTorrent is merely a transfer method, like any other P2P sharing tech. It can be used for good or for evil... Yes, there are things that are illegal to share on BitTorrent sites, and there are some that are perfectly legal. Some companies even use BitTorrent technology to assist in the downloading of software purchased from them or that they distribute (NeoOffice is a good example). Just a matter of knowing what you want and knowing whether that item is legal to download. Has nothing to do with BitTorrent particularly. BitTorrent just happens to be one of the faster and more reliable transfer methods available.

jW

 

[gulli3344]

Transmission 1.32 is indeed the latest version, but it was only updated a few days ago, so cut the site managers some slack for reviewing a version that was current a week ago.

I'd actually recommend sticking with 1.22 for a while, there have been some problems with 1.3 versions as far as I'm aware.

Bittorrent downloads are very common for "substantial" open source software downloads, like OpenOffice and Linux distributions, as it conserves bandwidth by not pulling the whole thing off one server. Bittorrent also allows you to stop and restart a download, which is useful for large things.

You find the odd free album and ebook available too, so it's not all pirated.