TorrentFreak » poll

What is the Best BitTorrent Client?

Ernesto — Sun, 17 May 2009 16:18:52 +0000

uTorrent has a dominant market share when it comes to BitTorrent clients. Along with BitTorrent’s increasing popularity, its base has grown to 30 million monthly users, leaving Vuze and the others far behind. But does this necessarily mean that it’s the best client, or the client preferred by TorrentFreak readers? Let’s find out.

We’ve restricted the results to a few of the most used clients plus ‘seedbox’ for the hardcore torrenters. If you’re not using one of these, please let us know what your preferred BitTorrent client is in the comments.

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Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

Poll: Where Do You Get Your BitTorrent Fix?

Ernesto — Sun, 03 May 2009 16:44:01 +0000

Although private BitTorrent trackers have a much lower profile than most sites, they are not in any way ‘safer’ than public ones. In fact, the only BitTorrent users in the US who have received jail time were heading a private tracker that was dismantled by the FBI. Nevertheless, after various crackdowns in recent years, people flood to these sites and their popularity continues to grow.

More recently, however, the pressure is being applied to the administrators of public BitTorrent sites and trackers who accommodate millions of users every day. At any given point in time 25 million peers are connected to The Pirate Bay’s trackers, which dwarfs every other tracker on planet earth while making the site the prime target of the entertainment industry.

If the Pirate Bay were to close, roughly 50% of all public torrents would be put to a halt, and many of the smaller public trackers would have a hard time in coping with the extra load and could even collapse under the strain. Meta-search engines like Torrentz would have much less to index too. That said, if you’re lucky enough to be a member of a private site, the show probably goes on.

What we’re interested in is how many of you rely almost exclusively on public trackers such as The Pirate Bay and what percentage get your BitTorrent fix mainly on private trackers. For clarity, we define a public site as one that requires no membership or logins and is open to all, while a private site is one you have to join and have probably been invited to. This leads us to the following question for this week’s poll.

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Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

Poll: Will The Pirate Bay Crew Be Found Innocent or Guilty?

Ernesto — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 16:16:14 +0000

February 16 marked the start of The Pirate Bay trial and as the days passed, plenty of information was presented by both the prosecution and defense.

The prosecution claimed that the four defendants were ‘assisting in making copyright content available’ and demanded millions of dollars in damages. The defense did not agree, and all pleaded not guilty – backed up by the inimitable King Kong defense.

In an earlier post we summarized some of the key arguments in the case, but much will depend on the judge’s interpretation of the word ‘assisting’. The Pirate Bay’s Peter Sunde still predicts an EPIC WIN, he told us so, and the IFPI and MPAA fancy their chances too.

Of course, if we ran a poll asking you if you believe the defendants are innocent or guilty, it’s likely the response would be overwhelmingly in favor of the former. So what we would like to know in this poll is not whether you think the four are innocent or not, but purely what you believe the court’s verdict will be. Your personal opinion of The Pirate Bay doesn’t really matter, only what you believe the court will decide – good or bad.

The court’s decision may not be straightforward. It’s possible that one, two or more people walk, or equally be found guilty, or any other combination incorporating the four defendants. So we ask for your feeling overall, when all things are considered.

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Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

Poll: Why Do You Use BitTorrent?

Ernesto — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 15:05:14 +0000

Technically speaking, it is impossible to steal something when you are using BitTorrent, as the original files always stay intact. Nevertheless, the entertainment industry likes to label BitTorrent sites as evil places, where thieves gather to steal music and movies. In reality, however, not all BitTorrent users are the same or so easily labeled, and neither are their motivations to share files.

A recent post by isoHunt founder Gary Fung inspired us to run a poll. We know that TorrentFreak readers might not be representative of the average file sharer, but we would love to find out why you use BitTorrent. The following poll has four answer options, based on the four types file-sharer, as described by Lawrence Lessig in his book Free Culture.

The options are as follows.

1. Because it’s free

Some use BitTorrent to download music, movies and software so they don’t have to pay for them. Instead of purchasing a CD or buying a DVD, they prefer to download it for free on BitTorrent.

2. To ‘try before I buy

The second type uses BitTorrent mainly to sample content and try before they buy. They download music to discover new artists and might end up buying the album if they like it. Similarly, they try software or download movies but buy them when they live up to their expectations.

3. Because I can’t get it elsewhere

The third group mainly downloads content they can’t get elsewhere. The TV-show that it not on TV in your country yet, or that song you can’t buy easily online without having to deal with all kinds of digital restrictions.

4. To download ‘legal’ torrents

The last type of file-sharer mainly downloads content that the creator wants to share for free, often indicated by the misleading term ‘legal torrents’. Music from Jamendo for example, or films that are ok to share.

So where do you fit in? Let us know.

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Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.