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If I'm the type of guy who reads The Wire magazine, buys electronica albums, and makes excuses for lazy music, then this sort of stuff should be right up my street, but with the exception of an album by a guy called "Izmar", the stuff on Legal Torrents was sub-ambient claptrap.

All that said, this complaint holds no water because, bandwidth or internet connection aside, I got it for free under an open license. Which is cool and groovy. And while I'm a proponent of such distribution methods for music that would never sell off its own bat, people should have a little knowledge that if you get stuff for free, it's likely to suck.

Notable exception, the BBC's recent 9 Beethoven Symphonies. But then again, that does exactly what it says on the tin. Most legal free music downloads don't even have a tin for a description to be plastered on. (Concerning the write up on Legaltorrents.com a paragraph for as much as 20+ albums isn't going to give you much to go on. And if it's zipped, you may not be able to pick or choose the albums you get.)

Final note: legaltorrents has an excellent openly distributable movie (independent) called Blue. Simple stuff, nothing memorable, but it was done really well in Maya and Photoshop with good production values. Using Legal Torrents to reach an audience is smart, and great for those that would risk downloading a big file to see and indie animated movie. Link goes straight to download of torrent, beware Opera 8.02 users: Blue: A Short Film (DivX).

If I'm the type of guy who reads The Wire magazine, buys electronica albums, and makes excuses for lazy music, then this sort of stuff should be right up my street, but with the exception of an album by a guy called "Izmar", the stuff on Legal Torrents was sub-ambient claptrap.

All that said, this complaint holds no water because, bandwidth or internet connection aside, I got it for free under an open license. Which is cool and groovy. And while I'm a proponent of such distribution methods for music that would never sell off its own bat, people should have a little knowledge that if you get stuff for free, it's likely to suck.

Notable exception, the BBC's recent 9 Beethoven Symphonies. But then again, that does exactly what it says on the tin. Most legal free music downloads don't even have a tin for a description to be plastered on. (Concerning the write up on Legaltorrents.com a paragraph for as much as 20+ albums isn't going to give you much to go on. And if it's zipped, you may not be able to pick or choose the albums you get.)

Final note: legaltorrents has an excellent openly distributable movie (independent) called Blue. Simple stuff, nothing memorable, but it was done really well in Maya and Photoshop with good production values. Using Legal Torrents to reach an audience is smart, and great for those that would risk downloading a big file to see and indie animated movie. Link goes straight to download of torrent, beware Opera 8.02 users: Blue: A Short Film (DivX).

(sarcasm)Be my guest. Live without TV. Live without movies. Live without music.(/sarcasm)

Check out http://www.legaltorrents.com/index.htm There is a program called Go Open.

Their claim to fame was that it is the worlds first ever TV Program dedicated to "All things Open Source."
It includes interviews with major open-source figures such as Richard Stallman, Lawrence Lessig, Jon 'maddog' Hall, and Bruce Perens, as well as case studies and discussions of Shuttleworth's Ubuntu Linux.

An interesting drama-type thing from the view of the criminals is The Scene; the first 9 episodes in a torrent are here. They seem slow to release though; one wonders how it can take 3-4 weeks to record 20 minutes of desktop screenshots...

Does anyone have links to the first 5 (if it is even still legal to download them from anywhere)?

Anyway, this sort of thing is very cool. I have not listened to much Beethoven (aside from bits and peices in movies and such), so something like this is an excellent opportunity. If anyone knows any places to legally download performances of other classics, please post them.

I love getting free, good music from the internet. The Internet Achive's Audio section is my very good friend, as is LegalTorrents. Granted, that is completely different music from this, but still it is awesome to be able to enjoy music being made by people who love making music more than making money.

Illegal activities? Is linux illegal? Perhaps everything at http://www.legaltorrents.com/index.htm is illegal as well?

You can't complain about Socialists and then pledge support for the Greens damnit. It doesn't make sense. Green policy is supposed to be driven by social conscience and socialist policy, probably in a more European sense of the word - anathema to a lot of US citizens I guess.

I admire socialism, but I swing from right of centre to left of centre on issues that matter (and back again). I just think that stating that Socialists "don't care about liberty" is inconceivable unless you're referring to National Socialism, which had nothing to do with Socialism in any real policy instance.

Any authority can pin the terrorist tag on illegal copyright infringement, and generalise it to cover all downloading that's a bit shady because of public ignorance, and no promotion of what honest filesharing entails.

Hell, a lot of people who'd use BitTorrent or Azurues or other clients wouldn't even get far enough into the Wiki entry to click the link to Legal Torrents to see a sensible applcation of torrent use. If you're a record label which disseminates mostly crap music and makes no profit, why not use torrents to find a wider audience? Some like Alpha Cat Boogie do. If you make a movie with Maya, Photoshop and a few other apps, spend months on it, but it's still an independent animation from a nobody, who is going to see it? No one, unless you set it free to be downloaded by a suitable protocol. Downloading movies and music can make sense for all concerned, and there's no PR department for uploaders to make this point to public representatives.

And, to swing wildly back on-topic, linking terrorist fundraising or involvement otherwise to copyright infringement or piracy is nothing new. I'm Irish. Back when there was a war on if I saw someone selling bootleg videos/appliances/DVDs out of a car boot and they were knocked off or imitation I'd have guessed the money raised would be used to put arms in the hands of morons who wanted to perpetuate a stupid homicidal situation.

From speaking to people who served military service in Lebanon and a few other places, there are well established markets for pirate copies of mainstream movies in places around the world. And frankly, if you're profiting from shady activity in Lebanon, or other hotspots in the Middle East, then I'm guessing you may have an affiliation with Hezbollah, or some other group. Given that you can catch most Hollywood movies over there at the times they're being premiered in the States, if not before, then it's got to be organised - and contrary to popular belief Joe Downloader is no more organised than /. is populated solely by 1337 #4>0|25 (translation: "elite hackers" - for those opposed to such shite as what I just typed).

Such examples of sites publishing content legally, all while using BitTorrent:

http://bt.etree.org/ -- live records of bands who permit

http://www.legaltorrents.com/

http://www.commonbits.org/

Looks like there's even an older /. article about these:

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/03/08/032821 4

I would be hard pressed to find people who would be willing to give up music entirely. I think it's easier to get people to change what they buy, and if they can find a source of independent music that they find interesting it'd cut into their budget for RIAA goods.

Consider what Brazil has done in the recent past:

• Photo-ed and fingerprinted incoming American citizens in response to America's change in visa policies.
• Charged fairly hefty import tariffs for PCs to promote local industry.
• Promotes Brazilian music, and indirectly, interest in Brazilian culture and tourism, via the encouragement of free music downloads [I read this in a magazine, but can't anything online confirming it. Can anyone help?]

This slashdot post showed some sites using BitTorrent legally e.g. CommonBits, LegalTorrents et al.

Who's going to front the money to produce your music? Who's going to pay for the studio time? Not everyone has a DAW in their house, let alone the acoustical environment necessary for quality production.

I am a huge proponent of leveling the media playing field with appropriate use of P2P technologies, business models like Magnatune and tools such as the Creative Commons Licensing. Still, recording ain't cheap.

What's in your local library?

As far as nerdish fare, 'Hell's Faire' works. Audiobooksforfree is a good source. Old time radio shows can be pretty good listening as well.

http://www.legaltorrents.com/
http://www.xandros.com/products/home/desktopoc/dsk _oc_download.html
http://distribution.openoffice.org/p2p/bittorrent/ download.html
http://www.ferrago.com/
http://syd2.ausgamers.com:6969/
http://www.filerush.com/
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/faq/blizzarddo wnloader.html
http://www.slackware.com/torrents/

Who is the one living in the bubble here? Personally, I love being able to download popular files quickly. I guess you'd prefer to pay fileplanet for the privilege, hmm?

Do you really want this web site down? (or maybe this one?)

suprnova.org was used mostly for illegal content, this is about LEGAL uses for bittorrent.
Check out legaltorrents.com

"Signing with the RIAA or MPAA is not a 'choice' in the way you're probably thinking of it. They have the entire industry by the nuts. They have distribution and radio/television advertising tied up tighter than you can possibly imagine. Their grip on clubs and tours gets tighter every day. Even with the advent of the Internet, there is still no way around them."

This is an interesting observation and a refreshing counterpart to the usual claim that the magical power of the Internet is going to put the recording industry out of business any day now.

"Anything that challenges them gets sued (whether the complaint is legitimate or not), then gets bought at a bargain basement price, and finally is euthanized or utterly declawed (Select examples: mp3.com, Napster, and now LokiTorrent)"

Napster and LokiTorrent aren't the best examples. More appropriate examples are Magnatune, CDBaby, and LegalTorrents. These three enterprises show that you can compete with the established record companies in a way that does not involve piracy of copyrighted works.

"The RIAA is making slaves out of artists, not the "Pirates". The RIAA was making slaves out of artists long before the first bootleg tape was ever made. Please understand, Pirates (capital P) and the RIAA are at war, and it's not about getting music without paying for it. At its core it mirrors the "free software" movement in many ways."

I disagree. Pirating music does not embody the spirit of the free software movement any more than pirating Photoshop does. The free software movement is all about giving away your work willingly.

A much, much better analog to the free software movement is the vast legion of musicians who have eschewed going the traditional label route and have instead attempted to use the Internet to get their music directly to the consumers. Like the brave souls at the forefront of the free software movement, these folks must keep their day jobs, must be willing to work late nights, and work without the net of financial security that is possible by working with a larger entity, whether it's a huge software company or a huge record label.

No, I don't think it's dead.

Tons of torrent sites still exist: For everything (music/movies/games/etc):
ISOHunt (both BT and IRC)
VIP Torrents

For TV:
BTEFNet
TV-Swarm
TVTorrents

And for those who are only into "legal" material:
LegalTorrents

Not to mention, most Linux distributions offer a BitTorrent alternative download method for obtaining the ISO.

So it's definitely not dead...

Try http://www.legaltorrents.com/
There are many legal content shared with bittorrent protocol

sites like Machinima.com use bittorrent to distribute legal files. Legal torrents is a site like suprnova that doesn't tolerate illegal content. A mod team that I'm in in fact uses bit torrent to distribute, and a service like this would be well appreciated. By the way, a file doesn't have to be overly large to justify using bit torrent. I've downloaded *legal* files that are only a few megabytes big. (Firefox comes to my mind quite quickly)

But yes, there are plenty of legal files.

the website has all this crap about distribution solutions for business

You're an academic institution with three separate computer labs. Each of these labs has a few dozen machines, all interconnected by a fast 1 Gig lan, though the connections between the labs is much slower. You've got a central server, not in any of the labs, that needs to distribute several large files (virtual PC disk images) to all of the machines in all the labs nightly. (the disk images change that often)

I agree with you. To say that a new file sharing protocol can only be used for evil is tantamount to saying that all files are evil. Not all files out there are protected by overbearing copyrights! There's plenty of stuff that is either not protected by copyright, or has a license that permits distribution! Any GPL'd bit of software is a good example, but there's also stuff like this:

http://www.legaltorrents.com/

The reason why the "extra long tail" is so amazingly long is because the authors are merging two different types of BitTorrent usage. BitTorrent was designed for legitimate content, and for content distributors to run their own trackers. For example, my tracker is used just to distribute my own projects. Distribution is off the main website, with only one torrent shown. This is an example of BT's legitimate use, and even the largest legitimate BitTorrent sites pale in comparison to the piracy sites. There, you'll see much higher numbers of torrents, and few servers that only distribute small numbers of torrents.

LegalTorrents is a collection of legally downloadable, freely distributable creator-approved files, from electronic/indie music to movies and books, which we have made available via BitTorrent - we (concept/updates - simon c., code - reed, bandwidth - joe/tommy, logo - tony kinglux) are also hosting a 'guaranteed' high speed seed for them. Everyone that grabs the BitTorrent client and downloads helps contribute more bandwidth, because BitTorrent utilizes your unused upload bandwidth. Please note that all of the current torrents are made available under a Creative Commons license with the full permission of the rights holder.

LegalTorrents is a collection of legally downloadable, freely distributable creator-approved files, from electronic/indie music to movies and books, which we have made available via BitTorrent - we (concept/updates - simon c., code - reed, bandwidth - joe/tommy, logo - tony kinglux) are also hosting a 'guaranteed' high speed seed for them. Everyone that grabs the BitTorrent client and downloads helps contribute more bandwidth, because BitTorrent utilizes your unused upload bandwidth. Please note that all of the current torrents are made available under a Creative Commons license with the full permission of the rights holder.

There also is LegalTorrents.com

LegalTorrents is a collection of legally downloadable,
freely distributable creator-approved files, from electronic/indie
music to movies and books, which we have made available via
BitTorrent

Everything on it is made available under the Creative Commons license.

Here are some I found: http://www.legaltorrents.com/ http://www.filesoup.com/ http://bt.etree.org/

"It is appearent that some of these sites need to have fairly stringent policies about posting copyrighted material."

Many, many of them do. Check out legaltorrents.com. That's the way to run a torrent site. Sites like these -- that show that BitTorrent can be used in a way that respects both creator and consumer -- aren't the ones that are being menanced by the MPAA.

"Distributing copyrighted materials without a license is not a criminal offense. It is a violation of a civil right that gives rise to a civil cause of action."

It carries both civil and criminal penalties. Here's where one can learn about criminal copyright infringement.

"And, as others have pointed out, these sites are not distributing copyrighted content, but links to information detailing ways to obtain copyrighted content, subtle difference, but nothing worse than what Grokster is doing and that has already been ruled not to be contributory infringement."

The thing about the law is that those subtle differences can make all the difference. "A is kind of like B, so if A is legal/illegal, so must B" should not be assumed to be true. Torrents are derived from the works in question; they contain hashes of the file and other data. They're more than just an HTML link.

Either way, a quick look at their torrent page makes it pretty darn obvious they know what they're doing. Compare their operation to one of the dozens of legitimate sites like legaltorrents.com.

The vital difference is that what craigslist is doing is part of a healthy free market economy. Piracy is not part of a free market economy.

Examples:

• Kazaa, which exists primarily as a medium for piracy, is being sued. The iTunes Music Store, which respects people's rights, is not.
• Torrent tracker sites what deal primarily with unauthorized content, are being menaced by the MPAA. Sites like legaltorrents are not.

A much better analogy would be to compare craigslist with a company like Magnatune, an "open music record label" which I believe fits what many Slashdotters believe to be a better way to run a record company.

There are many places which only offer stuff meant to be redistributed. Start with Legaltorrents and if you need more there are plenty sites you could google up ;P

ever hear of legal torrents? http://legaltorrents.com/ check it out. lots o good LEGAL stuff!

Sorry, it's been done.

If I had the time I would start up "legittorrents.org" or something

To compete with LegalTorrents.com?

There are also sites that list legal torrents, try File Soup or Legal Torrents for example. These are just two that I remember offhand, I'm sure there are many others as well. Remember, BitTorrent, like any other P2P application, has plenty of legitimate uses. Don't get sucked in by the *AA propaganda machine (not directed towards the parent, just saying that in general).

Weren't these the guys that made that documentary about proffesional gaming (http://www.legaltorrents.com/index.php?fuse=29). No wonder they can afford to give out such an outrageous sum of money just to find a few new players to join their clan. Whatever happened to hosting some scrim matches over a few weeks and picking the best that played to save yourself A Million Dollars!

... it's because more people are geting sick of the same BS the RIAA is churning out (both in the musical and legal sense), and routing around them.

Well, I have personally seen http://www.legaltorrents.com/
I've not listened to all of it, but I love 8BitPeoples.

a legal torrent of which is here.

I like the David Byrne and the Le Tigre track, the rest is a little so-so, IMHO.

~jeff

Begin with http://www.legaltorrents.com/ for gigs of legal music. I'm sure Google can help you to fill your iPod.

Heres a 3 part documentry about moden day gamers in the uk, it explores lan parties - professional gaming and the general gaming subculture.
TORRENT

made by a student so not the best but still intereting.

• Legal Torrents

Clarification: By "The .torrent file is distributed in the RSS file", I should have said "a URL to the .torrent file is distributed in the RSS file". See this example RSS+BitTorrent file to see what I mean.

archive.org
netlabel catalogue
netlabel reviews

there is even torrents for whole archives:
legal torrents

or to keep yourself updated subscribe one of these mailinglists:
netlabel releases
netaudio

• Legal Torrents - net label mp3 releases