The word “torrent” always received a bit of a negative connotation, especially thanks to illegal file-sharing services that make copyrighted material, such as movies, music and software, available for free. The act of torrenting is legal, however, as long as you are downloading content that is not copyrighted. Internet Archive, which tries to bring “universal access to all knowledge,” made available over 1 million torrents. It includes a large collection of films, live music concerts, books, and old time radio that are all legal to download. The organization explained why it chose BitTorrent as a means of delivery:
You can find the full list of 1,402,950 torrents on Internet Archive’s website. It includes video from Maroon 5 and John Mayer concerts, The Foundation Trilogy, a 1080p version of “The Night of The Living Dead“, and more. It is certainly a cool project, because it offers content in the public domain and makes it easy to download. John Glimore, founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, talked about why he supports BitTorrent: [Torrent Archive via Internet Archive Blog]
- Over 1,000,000 Torrents of Downloadable Books, Music, and Movies
