torrent?

[masterjedi73]

hi guys -

I've been using some newsgroups lately to download stuff and found something called "torrent" files....how do i download them and use them?

thanks!

matt

 

[King Cobra]

*remembering a line from Jurassic Park* ... "You didn't say the magic word!"

No discussions of serials/warez/illegal P2P activities allowed here. That includes torrent files, which give you access to such.

Speaking of which, edesign (if you're here in time), the magic word is Wasteland. Got a pic for this one?

 

[vraxtus]

*remembering a line from Jurassic Park* ... "You didn't say the magic word!"

No discussions of serials/warez/illegal P2P activities allowed here. That includes torrent files, which give you access to such.

Speaking of which, edesign (if you're here in time), the magic word is Wasteland. Got a pic for this one?

But there's no indication that he's doing anything illegal...

BTorrent files are legit files for anything, including file distribution. Say I had a PDF of a resume I wanted distributed I could use a torrent file to have it submitted across other websites...

You're basically saying he's guilty by association... when in fact there's no proof he's guilty of anything illegal at all!

 

[musicpyrite]

Well first off, you'll need a client. Tomato Torrent or BitTorrent will work on the Mac, though I prefer BitTorrent.

Next you need web sites to download stuff, www.suprnova.org is the one I like best. But there are others that I'll let other people recommend, like MTKA.

Go to the torrent site, find something you want to download, click on the link and it should begin to download, that file is called a torrent. Then go to your bittorrent client, choose file>open, then select the file you just downloaded.

It can take a while to download stuff on BT because BT doesn't work like Kazaa or LimeWire. BT works like this: Imagine you have a 100MB file, bittorrent will break up that file into 100K bites (the size varies) you start to download that chunk, then you start to share that chunk. So basically, if you happen to download a movie** you will not necessarily start to download the beginning of the movie, you might start at the middle or end.

I'm probably missing a few points, so anyone else fell free to correct me.

** as always, I do on *officially* support the download of copyrighted material, ex: music, movies, ect. You can still be fined/jailed for sharing copyrighted material.

 

[King Cobra]

You're basically saying he's guilty by association... when in fact there's no proof he's guilty of anything illegal at all!

Wrong. I'm saying you're not allowed to discuss such activities here. And arn has stated this several times in the past, including in quick in-thread reminders. I know I said: No discussions of serials/warez/illegal P2P activities allowed here. That is still true. But I didn't say he was guilty of association, nor did I restrict the usage of torrent files to access only illegal files.

 

[vraxtus]

No discussions of serials/warez/illegal P2P activities allowed here. That includes torrent files, which give you access to such.

But you've contradicted yourself here...

1) He's not discussing "illegal P2P activities." He's discussing downloading files. We don't know what kinds of files they are, they are merely "files."
2) Under your logic, you can't discuss webpages that allow the downloads of MP3s, since those give you access to "illegal" files.
3) Thus we see his guilt by association. He is guilty because he's asking about something that OTHER PEOPLE can use to download files illegally. However HE himself is merely asking WHAT torrent files are.

Riiiiiiight.

 

[howard]

correct me if i'm wrong but i think arn doesn't want us to discuss where we can download illegal files and also talking actually downloading them. All he was asking was how the technology is used.

That said musicpyrite pretty much described it. Theres more info at the bittorrent website.

 

[seamuskrat]

Its a fine line. This would be a great time to Educate someone that illegal P2P is wrong, and hurts the Mac community by taking funds away from developers and dissuading them from further Mac Development.

As to torrent files themselves, my work (university) uses Torrent to legitimately distribute all sorts of files of data and such. Its actually quite a handy tool. In fact, Blizzard solely distributes many of its betas this way to registered users and often its new Trailers. So, you could easily have a web link to a Torrent file and have no idea what to do with it.

Now, if the user wanted to know about Warez, discuss the latest hot sites, etc. Then Ban away. Its a Macrumors policy, its illegal, etc.

But as was pointed out, we do not know if this is for an illegal activity. It could be legit. We should take the time to educate and inform users about P2P and the ethics and the impact of such activities- as its NOT victimless.

But the question could have easily been : "I got a link to a torrent file for a new trailer of WoW from Blizzard. How do I open it?" This is perfectly legit.

I think it wrong to apply black and white rules to posts that do not directly discuss wrongdoing.

Hopefully MasterJedi is using his Torrent files for good and not evil and will not succumb to the dark side.

Wrong. I'm saying you're not allowed to discuss such activities here. And arn has stated this several times in the past, including in quick in-thread reminders. I know I said: No discussions of serials/warez/illegal P2P activities allowed here. That is still true. But I didn't say he was guilty of association, nor did I restrict the usage of torrent files to access only illegal files.

 

[macidiot]

Well first off, you'll need a client. Tomato Torrent or BitTorrent will work on the Mac, though I prefer BitTorrent.

Next you need web sites to download stuff, www.suprnova.org is the one I like best. But there are others that I'll let other people recommend, like MTKA.

Go to the torrent site, find something you want to download, click on the link and it should begin to download, that file is called a torrent. Then go to your bittorrent client, choose file>open, then select the file you just downloaded.

It can take a while to download stuff on BT because BT doesn't work like Kazaa or LimeWire. BT works like this: Imagine you have a 100MB file, bittorrent will break up that file into 100K bites (the size varies) you start to download that chunk, then you start to share that chunk. So basically, if you happen to download a movie** you will not necessarily start to download the beginning of the movie, you might start at the middle or end.

I'm probably missing a few points, so anyone else fell free to correct me.

** as always, I do on *officially* support the download of copyrighted material, ex: music, movies, ect. You can still be fined/jailed for sharing copyrighted material.

There is also Azureus. I'm not that familiar with it, but all my pc-using friends use it. Its java-based and works on mac.

 

[King Cobra]

But you've contradicted yourself here...

1) He's not discussing "illegal P2P activities." He's discussing downloading files. We don't know what kinds of files they are, they are merely "files."
2) Under your logic, you can't discuss webpages that allow the downloads of MP3s, since those give you access to "illegal" files.
3) Thus we see his guilt by association. He is guilty because he's asking about something that OTHER PEOPLE can use to download files illegally. However HE himself is merely asking WHAT torrent files are.

Re: #1: I didn't say to discontinue the discussion of illegal P2P activities. I said: No such discussions are allowed.

Re: #2: My logic is fine. Secondly, to your (irrelevant) example, those would be allowed, since those are public domain sites run outside of P2P networks.

Re: #3: If he wanted to know what torrent files are, then there is plenty of information outside of MacRumors to learn about torrent files. Unless arn changed the rules sometime in the past 3 months allowing more specific discussions of P2P-related activities that you know and I don't, then here is not the place to do so. With that being said, I still don't see the guilt by association, if unless (again) the rules have been changed.

So I have not contradicted myself, either.

I think it wrong to apply black and white rules to posts that do not directly discuss wrongdoing.

Man, I hate when people use phrases like "black and white rules"...what exactly does that mean??

Hopefully MasterJedi is using his Torrent files for good and not evil and will not succumb to the dark side.

Again, information on Torrent files is something he could have found out through search engines like Altavista, Google, etc.

 

[Rower_CPU]

Chill, KC. You went off on the guy about wastelanding the thread right off the bat - you over-reacted.

Asking about P2P apps/technology/etc is fine here, as others have said. Instead of trying to throw your weight around, it would have been better to point him to mac-p2p.com (another of arn's sites) where there's a page about BitTorrent and gently remind folks about the no warez/serials specifics rules.

Leave the moderating to us, please. Thanks

 

[vraxtus]

Re: #1: I didn't say to discontinue the discussion of illegal P2P activities. I said: No such discussions are allowed.

Re: #2: My logic is fine. Secondly, to your (irrelevant) example, those would be allowed, since those are public domain sites run outside of P2P networks.

Re: #3: If he wanted to know what torrent files are, then there is plenty of information outside of MacRumors to learn about torrent files. Unless arn changed the rules sometime in the past 3 months allowing more specific discussions of P2P-related activities that you know and I don't, then here is not the place to do so. With that being said, I still don't see the guilt by association, if unless (again) the rules have been changed.

So I have not contradicted myself, either.

1) Yet your implications were that this thread should be trashed for the discussion of it, yet THERE WAS NO SUCH DISCUSSION OF ILLEGAL ACTIVITY. Hence, the idea that it should be ceased was implicit.

2) Your logic is not fine. P2P networks are also in the public domain. Anyone can access them with the appropriate client, in the same way web browsers are internet clients.

3) You are not the judge of whether someone should seek information within or outside of this forum. Your example here is illegit and flawed. Third, he is not speaking of direct P2P activities, but rather the root files. It would be as if I asked what a cache file was for it's internet purposes.

So, yes, you have contradicted yourself.

 

[King Cobra]

Appreciations for the clarifications, Rower. Yeah, I know about the P2P site, but arn has not drawn a fine line in the past as to how specific of a P2P discussion is allowed. Hence, I'm trying to (well, tried to) avoid heated P2P debates.

1) Yet your implications were that this thread should be trashed for the discussion of it, yet THERE WAS NO SUCH DISCUSSION OF ILLEGAL ACTIVITY.

I didn't say there was. I simply made an announcement. Where did I say: "You are discussing torrents, which are always illegal" or anything like that? Also, don't use all caps like that.

2) Your logic is not fine. P2P networks are also in the public domain. Anyone can access them with the appropriate client, in the same way web browsers are internet clients.

No, my logic is fine. I mentioned that websites are run outside of P2P, but I don't see any clear explanation as to how what you said just above has anything to do with it.

Your example here is illegit and flawed.

Which one specifically?

So, yes, you have contradicted yourself.

First, I made the declaration that certain discussions weren't allowed. (That was finally cleared up by a mod.) That is not the same as an imperative statement, which basically tells someone to do something, or not to do something (i.e. don't discuss torrent files). I did the first case, not the second one. Second, I have not contradicted myself, since you haven't defended your side of "guilt by association" because of the declaration.

Third, I'm not sure where (much less, why) the hell this all went downhill, but if the reason stems from my not explaining something clearly (which might be the case), then point that out in the future, rather than debate me to hell.

Edit: Like, actually say I'm not explaining something clearly enough, and then show where I didn't explain it clearly enough.

 

[vraxtus]

Third, I'm not sure where (much less, why) the hell this all went downhill, but if the reason stems from my not explaining something clearly (which might be the case), then point that out in the future, rather than debate me to hell.

Edit: Like, actually say I'm not explaining something clearly enough, and then show where I didn't explain it clearly enough.

Eh, it doesn't really matter anymore. I'd rather not waste any more typing on it... since the mod basically owned you

 

[kant]

"You didn't say the magic word!"

You were a hall monitor in elementary school, weren't you?

 

[King Cobra]

*blank stare* Huh???

No, no, that line is from a scene in Jurassic Park where the system is offline and access to the system keeps getting denied because one of the techies didn't also use "the magic word" when accessing somebody else's computer. It's like the funniest scene in the whole movie.

 

[Makosuke]

Petty arguments and overreaction aside, musicpyrite pretty much summed up the theory. Another site with an extensive FAQ is this one recommended by Mozilla.org: http://dessent.net/btfaq/

I personally use Azureus because it has lots of statistical and tracking features (it also does well with non-English characters), but the two mentioned early in the thread are easier to use for a beginner.

Interestingly, BitTorrent has been taking off as a way to (legitimately) distribute large files, which I think it's a great idea for--spread the load around; the Mozilla Project, for example, now offers the browser via a torrent as well as direct download.

 

[FuzzyBallz]

But there's no indication that he's doing anything illegal...

Don't kid yourself. When P2P is mentioned, it's 99% sure that somebody's talking about something illegal, add Torrent into the mix, and the discussion is turned into 110% illegal.

 

[kant]

110% illegal.

Interesting conclusion.

mandrake:
http://qa.mandrakesoft.com/torrent/Mandrakelinux-10.1beta2.torrent

knoppix:
http://torrent.unix-ag.uni-kl.de/

fedora:
http://torrent.linux.duke.edu/FC3-test1-binary-i386.torrent

Those three took me all of 30 seconds to find.

 

[masterjedi73]

Wow. I didn't realize I'd cause such an uproar! I kinda feel like Dr. Evil. haha


Ummm....thanks for the info.? I just wanted to know what these files were as I had never heard of them.

FYI: I don't download illegal materials....I have an extensive collection of music that I've purchased from iTunes, and hard drive space is too packed with my family movies to worry about downloading others. lol

Still....I feel proud that I've sparked such a thread!

 

[Counterfit]

Petty arguments and overreaction aside, musicpyrite pretty much summed up the theory. Another site with an extensive FAQ is this one recommended by Mozilla.org: http://dessent.net/btfaq/

I personally use Azureus because it has lots of statistical and tracking features (it also does well with non-English characters), but the two mentioned early in the thread are easier to use for a beginner.

Interestingly, BitTorrent has been taking off as a way to (legitimately) distribute large files, which I think it's a great idea for--spread the load around; the Mozilla Project, for example, now offers the browser via a torrent as well as direct download.

I use Azureus also, but it seems to cause some stability problems. 2.1.0.4 is much better than when I started using it at 2.0.0.8, but they still happen.

kant: don't forget X-Plane!!

 

[vraxtus]

Owned.

Don't kid yourself. When P2P is mentioned, it's 99% sure that somebody's talking about something illegal, add Torrent into the mix, and the discussion is turned into 110% illegal.

And your proof?

Oh wait the poster just said he doesn't download illegally!

Nice job... being wrong that is.

 

[seamuskrat]

Fuzzy-

You should not make broad sweeping generalizations.

As I said, Blizzard software regularly distributes its WoW demo, updates, trailers via BT. Many Linux mirrors and distributions use Torrent for legit distribution. Many universities transfer to many other groups large files this way. In fact, I know more people that use it for legit purposes than warez, or P2P.
All in all, BT would be rather risky for P2P. It can be easily tracked and traced, so someone hosting an illegal file is at risk. Now a legit company can publicize the trackers to allow the torrent files to be shared.

I am sure much illegal downloading occurs with any number of applications. But to say BT was created expressly for the purposes of illegal activity does a disservice to us all.

Don't kid yourself. When P2P is mentioned, it's 99% sure that somebody's talking about something illegal, add Torrent into the mix, and the discussion is turned into 110% illegal.

 

[Nermal]

I am sure much illegal downloading occurs with any number of applications. But to say BT was created expressly for the purposes of illegal activity does a disservice to us all.

I remember the same sort of arguments a few months ago when PearPC came out. People were saying that it had been created specifically to break the Mac OS licence, when in reality its intention was nothing of the sort.

 

[matthewreid]

Actually,

There's a huge community of Jamband (i.e. Phish, Grateful Dead, WSP, etc.) fans that trade live shows LEGALLY using torrents.