Torrents, trackers and magnets

Torrents are the most “mainstream” way to download media content. This approach is based on torrent files that get shared between users: users will connect, via trackers to other users sharing the same torrent file. The basic concept behind torrenting is that the file you want to download is not stored on any server or anywhere on a centralized place on internet but instead every person who has a copy (or a partial copy) of the file is sharing it with the others who are looking for the same file. Basically is a decentralized approach to file sharing. Each user downloading (leecher) or sharing (seeder) the file is called a peer and the tracker can be used to find more peers. This has quite some advantages like:

• No server can be “shut down” due to copyright infringement, since no server contains the copyrighted material
• The tracker server does not require a lot of bandwidth, because its used only to put two users in communication
• It's impossible to block the “swarm” of peers or censor it
• While it's possible to kill “public” trackers (but it has proven pretty difficult over the years) it's hard to do the same with private trackers
• Due to different laws and regulations, it might very well perfectly legal for you to torrent in many countries. But i am not a layer (and not YOUR lawyer) so YMMV.

Torrents also have some disadvantages:

• Files that are not seeded can be lost forever
• Your IP will leak and in some countries you might receive unpleasant requests or worse from your ISP/law enforcement
• Can be quite slow if there are few seeders in the swarm
• Requires a working port-forwarding setup to work reliably
• It's easy to block or throttle by your ISP

The IP leakage can be prevented by using a good (as in safe, privacy oriented) VPN service, which usually has to be paid for. You also want a VPN with port-forwarding and be careful for DNS leakage. All things that you need to take into consideration in some countries more than others. Since this is not a concern where i live, i will not go deeper on this subject myself and leave it to you to cover your tail.

Torrents are text files which report the name of the file/files shared, some hash for them, and trackers info so that you can find more peers to join the swarm. Creating torrent files for your content is easy, there are tools for that, but it's not your concern here unless you want to upload instead of downloading.

Since torrent files contains

Advantages of torrents:

  It's usually free (some private trackers might require paiment tough)
  Very easy to access (public trackers at least)
  Music, books and audiobooks are easy to find

Disadvnatages of torrents:

  Require keep ration up (private trackers) which is IMPOSSIBLE if you don't have a public IP and port-forwarding
  Private trackers can be hard to get into and even harder to maintain access to (hit and runners bans)
  Are much harder on your bandwith, because you need to keep seeding, and also are much more connections-wise heavier
  Can be slow downloads
  Might need a VPN in some countries (DMCA, i look at you)
  Your ISP will know what you torrent