As you surely know, torrenting is typically associated with copyright infringement. However, this file transfer method can be used in a safe and legal way. That is because you need to know where to look for torrents. Numerous torrent repositories are dedicated to different types of media that can be downloaded in a legal way. If you’re looking for those websites, you’ve come to the right place. Let’s take a look at how to download torrents legally and safely.
Disclaimer:Â TechNadu does not condone illegal file sharing or copyright infringement. Even though P2P file sharing technology is legal, many of the files exchanged via P2P are indeed copyrighted. Uploading these copyrighted files can put you at risk of a civil lawsuit. While these lawsuits are often class-action cases, some have been targeted at individual users in an attempt to make an example of them.Â
Secure Your Torrent Downloads
Many of you will be surprised to know that your Internet browsing is fully visible by ISPs (Internet Service Providers). These companies have the power to collect your personal data and hand it over to third parties. Therefore, it’s imperative to keep your data protected and inaccessible to anyone who tries to collect it. This is especially important if you plan on downloading and sharing torrent files.
TechNadu strongly recommends using ExpressVPN to encrypt your Internet connection, change your IP, and make your device impenetrable to malware. This particular VPN software scored the highest in our tests, which can be seen in our ExpressVPN review. Use the provided link to read all you need to know about this easy to use and highly powerful application.
Make sure to sign-up for ExpressVPN and enjoy the Internet as it should be – open and without any privacy concerns.
How to Download Torrents Legally
Before we start talking about legal torrent websites, you need to know how this file transfer works. If this is your first time encountering this type of file transfer, we’d like to provide a few useful resources. Here’s how to download torrents on Windows, as well as how it’s done on a Mac. As you’ll see, an important requirement is having a solid torrent client. Therefore, check out the best torrent clients in 2018 and make sure to download and install one. Once you’re ready to proceed, keep on reading.
Archive.org
When it comes to downloading torrents legally, The Internet Archive is the first place you need to look. This is where you’ll find movies, music, books, software, and more. All of the content found here comes from the public domain, or it’s user-generated by the rest of the torrent community. It’s also worth mentioning that The Internet Archive is the perfect place for downloading e-books as well as audiobooks. There are even some niche types of content like recorded radio programs and even microfilm. There’s certainly a lot to explore.
Legit Torrents
Even though it’s not the most intuitive repository to legal torrents, Legit Torrents is a rich source of all kinds of media. This is where you should go if you’re looking for legal software, even though other types of digital media can be found as well. What’s missing here is an easy way to browse the available torrent files. Instead, you’ll have to rely on the search tool. Even then, you will see quite a few duplicates. So, prepare to spend some time digging – but it’s worth the extra hassle.
Public Domain Torrents
Once you open Public Domain Torrents in your Web browser, you will feel like you’re in a time machine. The website brings an outdated interface, which is really a shame. If you stick long enough to discover what this website is all about, you’ll be in for a big surprise. You can use Public Domain Torrents to download classic movies, usually more than 50 years old. In addition, there are numerous hidden gems if you’re into B-movies. At the moment, there are over 1,000 titles that can be browsed in many different ways.
Vodo
Finally, a website that brings a beautifully designed interface. Founded in 2009, Vodo is dedicated to bringing independent movies and TV shows. It works with a wide range of content providers who supply all kinds of content. We recommend you to use the ‘Free Films’ option, located in the top-left corner. This will take you to the website’s movie repository. Search for a specific title, or sort the list by different genres, dates, or ‘heat’. Before downloading a movie, you will see a short synopsis as well as other useful information.
Panda.cd
In the world of independent music labels, Panda.cd deserves a special place. This is a repository of music torrents that come with a Creative Commons license. This means that you can download the files free of charge, in a completely legal way. You will be required to register for a free account, and then you can dive deep. Search for specific titles or artists, browse different genres and tags. You can even preview files before downloading them which is a huge plus.
Etree
Next, we have another music torrent website. However, Etree is focused on live concert recordings. If you’re not into mainstream music bands and if you’re looking for something different, your search ends with this website. You can search for different artists, or simply browse the available selection of legal torrents. As you’ll see, the website is flooded with Grateful Dead and Phish recordings, which can be either be a good or bad thing – depending on your musical taste.
GameUpdates.org
Today’s AAA games are typically priced at around $60. Even though most of them bring highly polished visuals and tons of intense action, they aren’t exactly the most affordable thing. If you’re looking for older games (freeware), you should check out Game Updates. This website focuses on game updates in the first place. As you know, you have every right to install the latest patch for your game, after you buy it. So, it’s good to have a place where all updates and patches are nicely organized. As noted before, there’s also a huge selection of freeware games as well.
LinuxTracker
Do you know that you download operating systems, free of charge? Thanks to LinuxTracker, you can browse and find the perfect Linux distro for your computer. This website is maintained by a passionate group of Linux users who are doing their best to offers pretty much every Linux distro for personal computers and servers. In case you like to tinker with this side of software, we are sure you’re going to love what this website has to offer.
OpenOffice
Many of you have probably heard about OpenOffice before. Designed as an alternative to Microsoft's Office suite of applications, OpenOffice brings a lot of processing power. You can create text files, spreadsheets, presentations, and everything in between. On top of that, OpenOffice works with Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files. If you’re looking for a perfectly usable and free of charge MS Office alternative, download OpenOffice via P2P (torrenting).
Additional Resources: What’s Next?
Now you know how to download torrents legally, or at least where to look for such torrents. Still, there’s a lot about this file transfer waiting to be explored. Here are some of the useful resources found at TechNadu.
- First, here’s our guide on how to safely download torrent files. It’s imperative to protect your personal data and to know how it’s done;
- If you’re using uTorrent, here are a few useful articles. First, make sure to know how to use uTorrent up to its full extent. Then, here’s our article on how to disable ads in uTorrent;
- Last but not the least, learn how to open torrent files. This guide will come in handy if you plan on download different types of media to your computer.
Final Thoughts
We hope this guide managed to show you how to download torrents legally. In case of any questions or doubts, don’t hesitate to post a comment below. We’ll do our best to provide a timely response.
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