When you download something from the Internet, What causes it to be illegal download? Stay tuned until the end to know the details.
We occasionally download different content from the Internet, and yes, we did nothing wrong by downloading. We have downloaded a file that will be useful to us. And we may never have thought that we have done any illegal work by downloading! But there is still exist a doubt. And I’m not sure if the file we downloaded is illegal. So are we legally safe? Will the law take action against us or guarantee our rights? What do you think about the other people involved, what they are doing is legally legitimate, doing something that could cause them to sue?
Downloading whatever you want is hard work, and if it is a file-sharing site, then there is no point. For those who have downloaded multiple files, downloading from BitTorrent is an excellent medium. Those who download from BitTorrent know that when you download files from BitTorrent networks, you get a speed of 1.5 megabits per second. And just like you can download any file for free from BitTorrent, you can share any file all over the world.
But downloading from BitTorrent may cause some problems. Even if you are the right hand of the law, you can still be arrested for illegal activity. However, most users are not trying to download illegal files and have been ignorant. Others deliberately download illegal content from torrent networks.
We are here to guide those who want to be legal in downloading files from the Internet. And we don’t want you to see the wrong side of the law by downloading illegal content.
Common Reasons for Why We Download Illegally
We all like to get products, services, and information for free. Everyone involved in what is available for free is doing so without exchange – except for those who are paid at the end of the month for their work. Below are some of the reasons why we download illegally:
1. Free music
Remember Napster? They were one of the first companies to launch a peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing service to download MP3s of popular songs. Over time, many songs became available for free download on other peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing networks. As a result, many people do not buy an entire album or a song from iTunes for money but download it for free using a peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing network.
2. Free movie
The pirates turned their attention to the movie industry just as the free music download festival was going on around here. Although the size of the movie is much larger than the music file, users can download the movie in a few minutes using the torrent network. And when we can download movies for free on our laptops, why go to buy movie tickets with money?
3. Free TV shows
Same thing here, why spend money on Netflix when you can watch any TV series for free?
4. Other media
Apart from music, movies and TV shows, other such media can be downloaded illegally from the Internet. And anything digital can be downloaded illegally. Paid subscriptions, video games and other creative work are subject to copyright law. And these laws are not always easy to follow.
Copyright Law
Everything creative is protected by copyright law, which protects artists and media companies. They charge a fee for the content they create but people download the content for free without their permission. When a content creator publishes a content, the content owner becomes the copyright owner of their content for a specified number of years. In most cases, however, they own the copyright for their entire life and for an additional 50 years. Because the copyright laws of each country are different, the laws of the country in which you live may be different.
Creative Common License is a special type of license. This license allows content creators to share, use, and modify their own work. For example, many individuals and publishing companies allow the public to use the work they create, but this is not always the case.
And all these laws protect content creator owners. The law ensures that every artist, actor, and the person receiving a royalty check is paid for their work. Also from their point of view, the exchange that is demanded creative work is very little. Creating a beautiful song or movie scene costs thousands of dollars and they want people to evaluate their work appropriately. Moreover, in the eyes of the law, it is completely illegal to download every song or TV show for free.
What Makes Download Illegal?
Copyright law makes it illegal to download paid content for free. If you download a PDF of your company following your company guidelines, you have done the right thing. Because your boss has allowed you to download that file. So you’re literally following the rules of your own company but are you using torrent for downloading paid content from another company for free? From today, use torrent to download free contents only.
However, if you download Taylor Swift’s new song for free, you have done something illegal. Since you did not pay to create the content, and you do not own the content or did not create the content, you will run into legal issues. And you definitely don’t want to get in trouble with Taylor Swift.
However, if you are still unsure about what is legal to download and what is illegal to download, ask yourself the following questions:
1. Did I own and/or create the content?
If you do not own the content or did not create the content yourself, you will have to pay for that content, which means you will have to download that content using a network other than the torrent.
2. Am I allowed to download the content?
This is one of the biggest and most common reasons for illegal downloads. Owners and producers of music, movies, and TV shows are not allowed to download their content for free. They will allow their content to be downloaded – if users pay for their content properly. And one easy way to get permission to download is to ask them. But sometimes, if you ask an artist if I can download your content for free? However, they usually do not allow the free download. But there are a few examples where artists allowed their content to be downloaded for free – and then one by one everyone asked them if they could download for free.
What Would You Do If You Get Caught by Download Illegally?
Suppose, for whatever reason, you have downloaded multiple songs using the BitTorrent network. At first, your internet service provider or ISP will not see that you are downloading illegal songs, they will see that you are using a BitTorrent network. Then your ISP will cut off your internet connection and your download will stop.
Not only do you know the ISP, but now there’s new technology that lets you know if you’re downloading using pirated media. Just a few years ago, all ISPs and copyright holders signed up to create a copyright alert system. This system alerts illegal users about their activities via email. Before signing the copyright alert system, media companies grouped together a lot of illegal downloaders and sued all of them in civil court. Over time, it became more and more difficult for the media companies to bear the cost, so they decided to sign an agreement on behalf of everyone involved.
The copyright alert system will email the user that they have downloaded illegal content using the torrent network. And the first two mails are sent to warn you. However, if you stop downloading illegal content, you will no longer receive these emails. But if you do not comply and continue to download illegally, then you have to fill in the form received in the third and fourth emails.
This way you will receive six emails and even then if you download illegally, media companies may sue you because they warned you to download content for free more than once.
How to Download Securely Using Torrent Networks?
Instead of downloading music, movies or TV shows, you can download other things using torrents:
1. For music, use Spotify, Apple Music, or other music streaming apps
Sign up for free on Spotify, Apple Music, or any of the other music streaming apps. Although they show ads every half hour, listening to all the music and most importantly downloading from here is legal. And if you don’t want to see the ad, you can subscribe so you can listen to all your favorite songs effortlessly wherever you are.
2. For movies and TV shows, subscribe to Netflix
Entertain yourself legally for a small fee and subscribe to Netflix without looking for free content. However, if you have friends or family who subscribe to Netflix, you can use their account. Just like asking artists for permission, ask your friends for permission to use their HBO Go or Netflix account.
What could be worse than that?
Of course, no matter how much we tell you not to download illegal content, some of you are still downloading illegal content. We warn you of the risks of downloading illegal content. But even then, if you continue to do so, you will be fined several times more than the amount you need to subscribe.
All in all, the best way to download legal content using the torrent network is discussed below:
1. Do research
Take a moment and search all torrent networks for legal content. There are some networks that can identify your content as illegal, even though you have been downloading legal content for many months. And the reason for this is that the association sees downloading from torrent as wrong. Additionally, some illegal content on the torrent network may accidentally show your IP address. Also, there may be some illegal content inside the content that you did not know at the time of downloading the content.
2. Go to old-school
All you have to do is ask the owner of the content. Then content owners do what you have to do. And if they don’t allow you to download their content, don’t download that content. Wait to ask them politely again later.
3. Keep your identity secret
We offer this advice for your identity and protection. But it would be wrong to think of it as a way to download illegal content and it would not be right to think that no one will know about your activity. And there are some people among us who go to keep their identities secret so that they can download illegal content for free. Below we will discuss some ways to keep your identity secret while downloading in torrent:
- Tor – Use the Tor network to protect yourself from an Internet surveillance system known as “traffic analysis”, and to keep your identity secret. The Tor network connects to its network using a series of virtual tunnels, allowing users to improve their privacy and security. According to the Tor website, there is no need to worry about privacy, You can share your information using the public network.
- VPN – Hides your IP address from those who download to the torrent network through a virtual private network, or VPN. Like Tor Browser, all VPNs exchange all your data through their virtual tunnels.
- Proxy Server – These servers act as intermediaries between your computer and the Internet. They convert your IP address to their own IP address. As a result, like trackers and hackers, you can keep your identity secret, you can now show your location in Japan using a Japanese IP address from Bangladesh, so your identity remains secret.
- Virtual Machines – A virtual machine or VM is another computer that you can control using your own computer. And when you need to download a file, download it using a virtual machine, then you can view or edit the file and finally delete it.
- Seedbox – Seedbox is a dedicated server for uploading and downloading content to the BitTorrent network. You can also think of it as a VPN through which you can download content anonymously. You can also hide your personal IP address using their public IP address when you want to download something from the torrent network. And all torrent files are stored in a remote location and you can transfer these files to your personal computer if you want without anonymity.
Last Word
From today’s tune, we learned that almost all the content that we download for free is illegal. And what are the disadvantages of downloading these illegal files? And we also know how we can protect ourselves from this and if we have to download illegal files, we can do so by keeping our identities secret and so on. I hope you have learned a lot through this tune, and so I request you to share the tune with your family and friends. Because if you share knowledge, it does not decrease, on the contrary, it keeps increasing.