Is it against the law to download torrents

Junaid makes a good point. Do I take my external hard drive and laptop with me in my carry on bag or do I put my external hard drive in my suit case? Do US customs check the contents of my external hard drive and laptop? The internet, the final frontier, these are the downloads from those bold enough to share what no man has shared before.

What is any law enforcement group going to do really…. They cant say you did it, only that it was done using your internet connection. You could claim a virus did it on your computer. Basically i couldnt imagine any court deciding that based on your ownership of an internet service policy that you are responsible for things downloaded without knowing that you were the one to download it. That would be like saying that you are responsible for a car crash when your car was stolen just because you owned it, this shit wont ever make it through the system based on expense and the fact that they cant pick and choose who they want the prosecute they cant ignore part of the list and send different parts of it to gaol, that would be discrimination.

If you are concerned with the ethics behind it then consider that you basically still pay the full amount to see the movie at the cinemas. Paying the full price to watch the movie once and then paying the full price to get the movie to watch again is a scam anyway.

As for the torrent software, you do not have to delete it. There are cases when downloading certain things through Torrent is either legal or permissibly decriminalized. I can tell you more details if you want to know. The files that were downloaded must be deleted in order for you to clear yourself of any probable cause for infringement. Most likely, nothing will happen.

But if you want to completely clear yourself of any wrongdoing, eliminate anything that may show signs you still possess the copyrighted material. Thank you very much for your reply! As far as I can see, everything is copyrighted.. Works of art that are either in the public domain music, movies, etc.

I think that for the US, the author has to have been dead for at least 70 years. Syria has copyright law here. The government there has many more things to worry about than someone downloading music, software, or films illegally.

I have watched 20 movies in the last few days. I learn some tricks from experts for the ppz that have problems with downloading from torrents. If you can, get a 2nd laptop. Torrents are illegal and they are all digital copies, so digital copies are also illegal so when you buy a dvd and they give you a digital copy it is also illegal.

If you make copies and sell them that I can see would be very illegal. What I do is exactly like streaming view it and forget it. I downloads torrents such as :- Tv Series Game of thrones , Games CoD , Movies etc from pirate bay I just search the thing I want , looks for a better quality and seeds and download it via Utorrent.

Is it Illegal? And is pirate bay illegal in bangladesh? Hello everyone. To keep it real, yes torrenting is illegal. Using utorrent, bit-torrent, and all the other programs will definitely get you in trouble. My service provider turned off my internet and sent a letter in the mail a few days after my internet was shut off. I was mad when I thought my router was broken. I talked to my service provider and they told me that there was illegal downloading being performed that was being monitored.

They even knew that I downloaded a movie 4 months prior to the shut off of my internet. Save your money and pay for what you want no matter how bad you want a program, music, or to watch a video and delete it after you watched it.

If you dont believe me, read what the privacy of what information they gather and what these Antivirus programs do with your personal information after it scans your computer for viruses and malware. Its too easy now and days to get thrown in jail. Especially from downloading a few of your favorite programs. Save that money and buy it. I think if your country does not forbid you to download torrent and you use it for private use, then it may be legal?

It is so easy to use. Just paste the URL to it and it will download the movie with high speed. Fed Up with Facebook? Switch to One of these 7 Alternatives. Affiliate Disclosure: Make Tech Easier may earn commission on products purchased through our links, which supports the work we do for our readers.

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Feb 9, at am. May 28, at pm. Kyle Fenole. Sep 30, at pm. Oct 4, at am. Nov 17, at pm. IF U deleate it …it is not a remedy for ur offence,……….. Nov 18, at am. Deleting is helpful, but not entirely vindicating. Oct 9, at am. Thanks in advance. Nov 5, at am. Jan 1, at am. Some sites have been shut down several times, but it keeps coming back. Apr 20, at pm. GGEplayer Aritaleres.

Nov 19, at am. Mar 12, at pm. Apr 9, at am. Apr 9, at pm. This happens when someone uploads or downloads a file that can be accessed by other people on the network, who are referred to as peers. It is not illegal to load something on to a flash disk and share it with your friend; this is essentially what torrenting is.

If, however, you distribute copyrighted material downloaded from the internet for financial gain, you might bump into problems with the law. This is the difference between torrenting and pirating.

While there are a few countries that are more lenient than others and allow both torrenting and pirating, the truth is that pirating will always be frowned upon. Just make sure you understand the necessary requirements in your region. Since digital file sharing has surpassed more traditional ways of enjoying music, movies and many other forms of entertainment, the popularity of torrenting has exploded.

It has caused a stir in the industry, as some old-school content owners are not yet ready to adapt to the new way of doing business. However, there are a few countries that are embracing, or at least looking the other way, when it comes to the use of torrents.

Although the Mexican government has rules and laws that forbid torrenting, these laws have yet to be enforced. There was a time when it was widely believed that Spain would cut the internet access of those who attempted to download or share files using a torrent. The courts decided in that as long as no financial gains were involved, Spaniards are free to enjoy the luxury of downloading and sharing files legally. On top of this, IP addresses can only be obtained by law enforcement.

Spain appears to have seen the forest for the trees and essentially legalized torrenting completely. They have acknowledged, however, that the law will take its course in cases where piracy occurs. So, you are able to share as much data as you like, but you cannot make any money out of it. Although there were objections, it is now legal and you can torrent as much as you like.

It is perfectly normal and acceptable to download anything, as long as you strictly use it for personal reasons. If you are not planning to sell the work you download, you are free to enjoy torrenting as much as you like. The Netherlands has an interesting approach making it even more difficult to understand is torrenting illegal or not.

The country decided to allow anyone to use torrenting to share works of art. People are allowed to torrent artworks for personal use not personal gain. However, this law does not apply to other things such as software.

The Dutch are allowed to download art but not to share it. 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. There are nearly 7 billion people on this planet but only around million are subject to US laws.

The rest of us are subject to the laws of our own countries. What you see as criminal or unlawful behaviour in your Nation is not so in others! Hence the comments about Education and resolution issues. Let me give you an example or two of cultural differences, right or wrong who is to say as most of us are neither subject to, or obliged, to submit to U. S law or U.

S moral codes of behaviour outside the U. Are you starting to see the diversity here! This applies to attitudes from one country to the next.

Nu Guinea — familial feuding and other practices are still accepted even though frowned upon. The Jewish culture of eye for an eye, is that still practiced in what you might see as a less enlightened country and they have www access. Wife beating, stoning and burning in various Middle Eastern and Asian cultures and they have www access.. This comment is meant to try to illustrate to you the diversity in thinking around the globe.

Education is key here not American litigation even though justified in some cases Pirate Bay may be a good example here. In stark contrast here is an example of the US blowing off another nations sovereign laws.

There was an Australian who had broken quite a number of that nations state and federal laws and was a highly sought after criminal on the federal wanted list. I cant recall what he was wanted for but he tuned up in the U. S 20 odd years later and it was revealed that the U. This is typical of one country the U. Still what remains is the differences in perspective towards torrenting and what you and I may see as Right or Wrong, as different or not as that may be.

And everybody knows that. To put it frankly, Duplicating copyright material is not illegal everywhere. Your legal perspective and probably more appropriately your moral perspective does not apply to me.

The TV as it is a physical item, ones and zeros Binary Code are not physical. Both a TV and a TV show are property: the former is physical property, the latter is intellectual property. A content owner is entitled to determine the pricing and distribution mechanisms for their content. You either pay the price or you do without. I think not this is an education process to get all thinking the same way and what a boring place it would become around the world.

Intellectual property rights are not enacted into law everywhere. Paragraph 3: Read my previous 2 comments thoroughly please.

Paragraph 4: Your absolutely correct in that statement, it opens up a wide variety of options legal and illegal depending on where you live and your moral code. Paragraph 5: genuinely not sure what your trying to express here, but as far as pricing options are concerned you shop around, but I fear, where you live my choice may be viewed as illegal. In conclusion, you are entirely correct, that torrenting of copyright material without the appropriate licencing in countries that have outlawed the practice is wrong and anything outside that is a matter of debate within the bounds of that countries borders, looking from a legislative point of view.

Moral Justice is too subjective considering the wide range of cultures around the world we need to look to a more objective way to resolve the matter, to level the field so to speak.

Out of the ish nation states that currently exist, are party to the Berne Convention — including Australia, NZ and India. The same applies when region codes and regional formats applied i. Just an example of the differences in law. So far, the strongest consequence of being caught torrenting in Switzerland has been receiving a letter from your ISP, but this could change at any time.

And as with elsewhere, historical evidence could be used against you. Russia is a signatory to the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works since , and by law states that downloading and uploading copyrighted content can lead to fines of up to , RUB approx. In reality, though, copyright piracy is rife, with little real attempt made to stop it. Some ISPs do implement somewhat piecemeal blocks on torrent sites, and the hugely popular social network VK once a hotbed for file swapping has begun blocking access to movies and music on its platform.

It is possible that the apparent lack of official action over copyright infringement is simply due to the secretive nature of the Russian legal system, and that cases exist which have not become public knowledge. Given the harshness of penalties stipulated by law, it seems prudent to protect your torrent sessions with a VPN.

As home to the infamous The Pirate Bay, Sweden in the Noughties achieved notoriety for being pirate heaven. Things have changed since TPB's inception, however, with all founding members receiving jail time and Sweden transposing the EU directive on intellectual property rights enforcement IPRED into local law in A legal challenge on human rights grounds did crop up but was ultimately quashed by the European Court of Justice in This has limited the scope of the law to serious cases, despite copyright infringement being a criminal offense that can result in fines or imprisonment for up to two years.

After an initial scare evidenced by a 30 percent drop in Internet traffic , Swedish users started to adopt VPNs in order to carry on P2P downloading as before. Moves are afoot, however, to swing the pendulum back in the favor of right-holders. These changes were set to come into force on 1 July , but as of January , we are unable to determine the current state of play.

Spain has a reputation for being something of a pirate haven. These high levels of piracy have resulted in at least a partial crackdown by Spanish authorities under pressure to do something about the situation.

In , for example, ISPs were ordered by a court to block The Pirate Bay and several other high-profile torrent sites.

Any such efforts have been undermined by a court ruling that downloading content for personal use is not a criminal offense, as long as there is no intent to profit from it. Despite this, a number of successful high profile civil cases and speculative invoicing campaigns have been brought against copyright pirates. This is basically a cease and desist letter. Most countries also have similar legally binding instruments, which are commonly if inaccurately referred to simply as DMCA notices.

What happens next depends very much on your ISP, who can easily map the IP address and the time it was used to your customer account. These systems have all died a quiet death, however, with ignored warnings potentially resulting in your ISP handing over your account details to the copyright holder instead.

Please note: Your ISP is under no obligation whatsoever to issue a warning before handing over your details or even to inform you once the act is done. Once a copyright holder has identified the owner of the IP address that has been caught torrenting, it can push for criminal prosecution if such laws exist in your country or pursue civil damages in court.

Even in countries that technically criminalize torrenting, there has so far been little appetite for convicting individuals who download purely for personal use, although those who profit from copyright piracy have faced some extremely stiff jail sentences. This leaves pursuing civil damages in court. But doing so is an expensive and time-consuming process for all involved, with a high chance of failure for the copyright holder.

It involves extorting smaller amounts of money from offenders by threatening them with ruinous legal action unless they make an out-of-court settlement.

The UK government's official advice is to never ignore such a letter and to seek legal counsel if you receive one.