Is it illegal to use torrents?

Answer 1

No generally speaking it is not illegal in some countries like Germany there might be some restrictions of copyrighted material like latest movies and TV serials tricky lawyers try to make money by protocoling the IP address of the downloader : who is downloading what and sending letters what the user is downloading and sending letters with fines of between 800 and 1200 euro per movie, so get familiar with the legal conditions in your country of residence. It's legal to download material which is not having copyrights like Classical Music from Mozart for example or the Bible texts. Beware of any Hollywood productions and latest TV series from USA.

Bittorrent by itself is perfectly legal, it depends on what is being transferred that might make it illegal. Same thing with Napster, Kazaa, BearShare, and many others that came before Bittorrent. All of them had legal problems because people were using them to share copyrighted files (movies, games, many things) that were not free.

If you use a torrent to get something public domain, such as a free book, Linux, or OpenOffice, it is absolutely legal. If you use it to transfer Windows or a commercial movie, then it is illegal.

Answer 2

It depends on what you are going to download. If you are going to use uTorrent to get lots of copyrighted music and movies, then yes it is illegal. There is also material that can be download on uTorrent that is non-copyright, so it would be legal in that case because you are given permission to download it.
No it is not illegal to use. Downloading certain files may be.

Answer 3

It depends on what file it is. If it is a open source\freeware game such as Xonotic, the downloading of the torrent is not illegal. However, it will become illegal if you download copyrighted games, movies, and music. I downloaded Xonotic via a torrent, and used UTorrent, and torrents seem to provide faster downloads, and the process of downloading is more CPU safe, if you want to know.

Answer 4

Here's the case of www.isohunt.com, which is still running...

To sum it up, it's not really illegal since the websites mostly help track the torrents and the content doesn't necessarily reside on their own servers. It's kinda like a torrent search engine.

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As Reported Everywhere, MPAA issued a press release that thay are now suing isoHunt.com, TorrentBox.com, and a number of other BitTorrent, eDonkey and Newsgroup indexing sites. I still have yet to receive a formal cease and desist letter directly from MPAA Legal, but all seems to indicate this is for real and it's only a matter of time.

This is somewhat a followup to the series of MPAA letters we've received a year ago.

At this point, it is still uncertain what they are actually suing us for, considering we have a thorough copyright policy outlining our stance and takedown procedures. It is sad that despite our best efforts in cooperating with copyright owners, in both disabling copyright infringing links to their works everyday while for others, helping them distribute their works globally and cheaply using P2P technologies, it is still not enough for the MPAA. Have they ever learned from the VCR or Napster? When will corporations stop fighting technology and learn to embrace it to benefit all of us?

To this end, us, isoHunt.com and TorrentBox.com, are forming a coalition together with other P2P operators being sued and yet to be sued, and if possible with the help of the EFF, we will fight for the right for technological progress and the legality of the search engine itself. It is too early right now to say what we need for help from you, but if the MPAA will not back down, I'm sure we are going to need your help. And no, we will not go the way of LokiTorrent or Suprnova.

Anyways, nobody panic, and let the torrents flow. If you like to talk to us live and chat with other fellows in the community, come chat on IRC on #isoHunt on P2P-IRC (SSL enabled on port 7000, you need a client like mIRC ). We'll update as we learn more.

UPDATE 26/02: Of all the P2P sites being sued I am in contact with, none of us have received anything directly from MPAA yet regarding their pending lawsuits. And so far we are not aware of any US court cases that has actually been filed yet against us.

UPDATE 28/02: It's official now, lawsuits have been filed against us and all the sites as mentioned in MPAA's press release. I have to say I am impressed by the depth of their legal research, evidently their lawyers have been watching us for at least a year, since we exchanged letters last year. However, their core accusation is false. We do NOT operate this search engine and other P2P services for the express object of infringing MPAA's copyrights, there are many other torrents of content we index that are not owned by the MPAA, copyrighted or non-copyrighted. We would comply with DMCA takedown requests, given sufficient identification. Which they did not.

We are looking for legal representation and working with the EFF. We will fight this, but we need your help. First, we need money. Estimated legal fees will be at least $20,000 per month. I will be opening a legal defense fund, you will see it on the frontpage here when it's up. Other than your financial support, which you have our best thanks, we also need media attention. Give us as much buzz as possible, or we will get buried in MPAA's "burn the pirates" campaign. We need to get our side of the story out, that we are willing to work with the MPAA and turn P2P into the new VCR. I have asked in a poll in the past, on how much is a TV episode download worth? Most of your responses varied between $0, with commercial, to $2. And I'm already working with a TV show producer who sees the potential of this. Why can't the MPAA?

So, if you know any news reporter, be it local or national, online or on dead paper, we are happy to talk! Please send all media inquiries to <media a-t isohunt.com>.

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Answer 5

It isn't illegal to use the torrent its self, however if you are downloading copyrighted stuff via torrent it is illegal.