The question still remains???

forsaleireland

Is torrenting legal or illegal???

The debate goes on or does it!!!

http://ask-leo.com/is_it_illegal_to_download_torrent_files.html

http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/ontherecord/2009/01/28/eircom-and-irish-record-labels-settle-action/

whats your views on this....

Johnboy1951

forsaleireland wrote: »

Is torrenting legal or illegal???.

Of course it is not illegal.

The debate goes on or does it!!!

http://ask-leo.com/is_it_illegal_to_download_torrent_files.html

http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/ontherecord/2009/01/28/eircom-and-irish-record-labels-settle-action/

whats your views on this....

What debate? On whether a torrent or the use of a torrent is illegal?
Nonsense!
A torrent is nothing more than a means to download something.

What that something is, and whether it is illegal or not to download it, is outside the scope of your question.

PogMoThoin

Pity there was no other method of downloading

forsaleireland

so if i made a torrent site and posted that it was open i guarantee you the mods will take it down twice as fast

Johnboy1951

forsaleireland wrote: »

so if i made a torrent site and posted that it was open i guarantee you the mods will take it down twice as fast

You mean the boards.ie mods?

It is their forum and they apply their own rules ..... that has nothing at all to do with legality or otherwise of a torrent file.

PogMoThoin

Oops, here's a torrent
http://releases.ubuntu.com/11.04/ubuntu-11.04-desktop-i386.iso.torrent

croo

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

You mean the boards.ie mods?
It is their forum and they apply their own rules .....

Ahem... given the nature of this forum I would like to think it's "open" and "our" forum and that the rules were posted with an open invitation for changes to amend them if it improves on them!

After saying that, I'm not sure why a discussion of torrents is even considered an open source topic?
I don't see myself why one thing has anything to do with the other.

PS. though I think PogMoThoin's post must answer this question definitively! There is a torrent that it is perfectly legal to download.

forsaleireland

croo wrote: »

Ahem... given the nature of this forum I would like to think it's "open" and "our" forum and that the rules were posted with an open invitation for changes to amend them if it improves on them!

After saying that, I'm not sure why a discussion of torrents is even considered an open source topic?
I don't see myself why one thing has anything to do with the other.

PS. though I think PogMoThoin's post must answer this question definitively! There is a torrent that it is perfectly legal to download.

i was told by a mod here (not naming anyone) that all torrents are illegal,also i know another user that got warned cause he mentioned the word torrent on boards!!!!

Johnboy1951

forsaleireland wrote: »

i was told by a mod here (not naming anyone) that all torrents are illegal,also i know another user that got warned cause he mentioned the word torrent on boards!!!!

Then IMO, that is a matter between you and the mods of boards.ie, and there are sections in which to post about such things, as well as the facility to communicate with mods if you feel aggrieved about a particular decision of a mod.

Torrents are NOT illegal.

Torrents, like any other downloading scheme, can be used to download content to which you have no rights. That act is illegal, and discussions of such acts are moderated on boards - this is based solely on my reading of posts.

I suggest you discuss the matter with mods if you have a problem with the actions of any of them.

regards.

Orion

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

Torrents, like any other downloading scheme, can be used to download content to which you have no rights. That act is illegal, and discussions of such acts are moderated on boards - this is based solely on my reading of posts.

That's a very gray area. Technically the act of making available copyrighted material (sharing) is illegal (read illegal as civil not criminal). Torrenting by it's nature shares as you download so falls into that category. An old skool example would be buying a dodgy dvd down the market - buying it is not illegal but selling it is. Giving it to your mate afterward you've watched it is illegal. Other methods of acquiring copyrighted material do not involve sharing - hence are not illegal in that sense.

Torrenting though is not illegal as PogMoThoin so elegantly demonstrated. It's similar to the case taken in the 80s about twin tape decks. The ruling was that the device itself has legitimate uses therefore is fine. If people use it for illegitimate purposes that's not the fault of the device. Technology cannot be illegal basically. There are plenty of perfectly legitimate torrents out there. Linux distros, game updates, etc. I'd bet it's not a tech mod who told you that all torrents are illegal. If it was I'd double up that you misunderstood it.

I'm curious as to why this hasn't been moved - it's definitely not an OS discussion.

Johnboy1951

Orion wrote: »

That's a very gray area. Technically the act of making available copyrighted material (sharing) is illegal (read illegal as civil not criminal). Torrenting by it's nature shares as you download so falls into that category. ........

Interesting .... reading the above would indicate that regardless where I obtained copyrighted material, it would not be illegal for me to have it.
It would only be illegal for me to share.
I understood it was also illegal to posses copyrighted material for which the copyright 'levy' had not been paid.

BTW, one can use a torrent without sharing it ..... although I do accept the concept works because many people share from their private resources. Nonetheless it is not necessary to share when d/loading via a torrent. It is a user choice.

croo

This is not the torrents forum its the open source forum.
I asked what the relevance the topic had to FOSS and have heard no good reason why this topic should be discussed here.

So I'm locking this thread.