What is BitTorrent?

What is BitTorrent?

BitTorrent is software that lets users share files between peers, without the use of a central server. Unlike similar p2p applications, BitTorrent is designed to widely distribute large amounts of data, so that the more peers who host the file on their personal computers, the faster the file can be downloaded and shared with others.

Torrents are simply the encoded files that can be shared with others through BitTorrent p2p file sharing. Services such as Prodigem make it especially easy for lay people to begin sharing or downloading torrents in a few simple steps.

BitTorrent has been criticized by the entertainment industry for enabling the swapping of movie and TV files, but even Hollywood studios have begun to work with BitTorrent to enable faster downloads of their content.

See Wikipedia for information on how BitTorrent works. It's perfectly legal to use BitTorrent to share your own files, or files with the copyright owners' permission.

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