gourimoko
Fighting the good fight!
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@Tornicade @gourimoko what is the legality of torrenting? I have actually done it for a few playoff games that I want to be able to watch for memories sake (i.e. 2009 Cavs Magic game 2), and I know it's a lot harder to get caught than a direct download, but I've read that people have gotten in some major legal trouble doing it.
Thanks to everyone for all the information.
It's illegal, period.
With that said, it is rare to see someone get in a lot of trouble for downloading torrents - the problem arises when you setup seedboxes. That's who companies go after. If anything your cable company will send you a warning letter saying "umm, you're being too obvious."
To avoid that, use common sense precautions, such as: avoid honeypots, use encryption, use a cheap and easy to use proxy server (you'll never get caught and costs ~$15/year if you have time to set it up yourself).
As X said, yes, Usenet is another option. You will never get a legal notice for using it, and it's vastly superior to torrenting for a great many things. The only problem with usenet is that it's not as vastly used, and thus, there is less content. But for popular content, you'll very likely find much of what you're looking for. Unlike torrenting however, usenet is not free; but with that said, usenet is far far faster than any other method and that's really what you're paying for (the bandwidth).
An Astraweb membership (just randomly picked, not my pick necessarily), can be found right now for $6.67/mo or about $80/year. It's cheaper than Amazon Prime, Hulu, Netflix, etc, and offers more content.
Also, if you play games on your PC, have a modded last-gen consoles that you still use, or play lots of PS1/PS2 games, then Usenet is fantastic.