Perhaps inevitably, peer-to-peer technology and torrenting has become synonymous with illegal sharing and downloading of copyright material. However, the BitTorrent protocol is actually a really fantastic way to distribute information online in a non-centralized way. The information shared doesn’t have to be an infringement of copyright. In fact, there are many legal torrent sites where podcasts, art, creative commons literature, music, games and software can be legally shared and are available for free. So before you dismiss BitTorrent entirely, take some time to check out these legal torrent websites - you might be surprised what you can find there.
Bitlove.org
Bitlove is one of the better legal torrent websites. Here people can share free torrentified Podcasts. Click on “new” or “top” to check out fresh or popular ones. The torrents with the most peers will tend to download very fast. The BitTorrent protocol is also an excellent way for the content creators to save bandwidth on their own site.
Katcr.co
The free torrents here tend to be underground and alternative in nature. There is also torrents dealing with art and political satire. Browsing this site may open your world. Definitely one of the top legal torrent websites.
FrostClick.com
FrostClick is an offshoot of the BitTorrent, Media Player and “Cloud Downloader” known as FrostWire. It’s also one of the best legal torrent websites going.
FrostClick functions like a combination of a blog and a directory. Here you can find loads of cool and legal torrents. They scan the web and connect with various net labels to give you the puck of the coolest legal music, software and games available online.
FrostClick is a champion of the “Creative Commons” philosophy. This is where artists and creators make their creations free to share with the idea of building an accessible world.
I’d encourage you to browse through this website. You are bound to discover some really amazing things.
Gameupdates.org
If you are a PC gamer you’ll know that games always need updates and patches. This is especially true for new releases. Since the advent of high speed internet, unfortunately developers now feel more free to release a game to market without testing for all the bugs. It’s also a consequence of more complex open world games, where the player is more free to do something unexpected.
Anyway, if you are sick of waiting in line for a patch or update for a new game you should try out this site. These are legal torrent versions of partches for PC games. It’s a community site, where anyone can upload or download patches. There are also legal demos and mods available here for all the latest games.
This has to be one of the best legal torrent sites for gamers in the know.
Jamtothis.com
I’m not 100% sure about the legality of this website. It is pretty cool though - so I thought I’d include it in this list of the best legal torrent websites anyway.
Jamtothis is a place where people can share torrents of unofficial recordings of concerts and music events that they have filmed themselves. It’s essentially like the old bootlegging that used to go one in the 60s, 70s and 80s. With some of the higher quality recordings and videos it can really feel like you are there in the crowd. Enjoy!
Linuxtracker.org
If you are a Linux user, then this website would be one of the best legal torrent websites for you. They share legal torrents of software, patches and updates for the the Linux platform.
Panda.cd
Panda.cd was one of the more promising legal torrent websites. The idea was to create a BitTorrent tracker that featured completely free, legally distributed creative commons music. However, the site never really took off, and now has been surpassed by the likes of nowbit, FrostClick and Bitlove. It’s still worth checking out however - you might find some musical gems on here.
bt.etree.org
This is a community for sharing recordings and videos of live concerts from “Trade Friendly” artists. Here you will find a real community and a nice selection of music old and new. The most popular artist here seems to be The Grateful Dead. So if you are a hippy at heart, and a deadhead, then this is probably one of the best legal torrent sites you are likely to come across.
Trade friendly artists are bands that grant fans the privilege of trading some of their music which usually means live recordings of performances. The Grateful Dead are probably the most famous of these artists, but there are others. If you are sad you missed the opportunity to jump in a Volkswagen bus in 1971 and follow “The Dead” around the USA, taking LSD until it made you strange and avoiding showers and soap, try downloading some of these recordings and see if you can transport yourself to that free spirited time.
Verdict
I hope that today’s post has shown you that torrents needn’t have to be illegal. There are a lot of cool and interesting legal torrent websites out there. Indeed, today’s post only really scratches the surface - but it’s a good place to begin.
Legal torrent sites are a cool underground world, where people share, and things are more open. They can also be incredibly useful and practical - for instance the sites that share software patches and updates.
Let us know what you think below. Do you know of any other cool legal torrent websites that you could recommend?
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