Quote:
Originally posted by Larry_OHF:
The problem with these laws is that I cannot easily distinguish between what is okay for use and what is not. If anybody can prove in written form that either of these programs are legal...please post them so we can know for the future.
|
Sorry, I just don't have time to go hunting for detailed sources but the use of both is entirely legal and rightfully so. You can't be prosecuted for running a programme, providing it doesn't break patent laws etc. This includes eMule and other equally notorious programmes like Kazaa and eDonkey.
Certain elements within the United States have sought to make outright use illegal but that's been unsuccessful and in any case would only apply to US citizens.
Asides from the fact that sharing illegal content with either programme is..well..illegal, the only outstanding legal issue relates to the people who actually share illegal files and those that maintain torrent trackers.
Again in the US, legal moves are afoot to show that providing a tracker system that is used for illegal content is tantamount to hosting that content yourself, even when you actually have no contact with the offending data at all.
Stories like
this show the Torrent response in an attempt to distance themselves legally from their users.
As a side note, the latest version of the Opera browser has
integrated BitTorrent support into their latest browser version; not something a reputable company would do if its use per se was illegal.
The only people who currently have anything to fear are those that use these technologies illegally. Bittorrent certainly is a tremendous programme that plays a huge role in distributing large files with minimal impact upon hosting servers, eg for linux distribution images.
Quote:
|
The problem is this: I have an official listed speed of 512 / 256 kbps, but I haven't seen my downloads register anything much over 1 kbps for months. Often they may say they are downloading, but at 0 bps. I was never expecting to see downloads moving at 256 kbps, but less than 1? Come on!
|
Yeah, it's not great, but is unfortunately a fact of life. The reason - you're limited by the upload speed of the person who is serving the file. If they're on dialup, 1KB sounds about right.
Look for files that are served by multiple hosts to have a better chance of landing one with a nice connection speed.
Also worth double-checking the speeds with your firewall completely disabled - I forget the technical aspects, but some p2p programmes (eg gnutella) will open up a ton of connections on different ports and downgrade your priority if you're firewalled.