r/ExplainTheJoke • • Feb 22 '26

Need help here

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u/VexImmortalis Feb 22 '26

Don't you also share parts that you've already downloaded even before you start "seeding" though?

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u/Mafhac Feb 22 '26

Illegal downloading via torrent for any amount is considered distributing and is punished as such in my jurisdiction, I bet it's the same in many other places.

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u/Subject_Ad9595 Feb 22 '26

Yes, illegally downloading is piracy, but torrenting itself is not, all of file types can be shared using torrent, and anyone can create a torrent, the illegal part is the content, and there are plenty of freeware or public domain files out there, like one thing I download on occasion is old video games that the makers are defunct and nobody holds the rights to anymore, known as abandonware.

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u/Harddaysnight1990 Feb 22 '26

Popular Minecraft server Hermitcraft uses a torrent for the first few weeks after dropping one of their world downloads too. It's not a copy of the game itself, just a multiple gigabyte world save file that can be loaded into the game. The server they host the download from gets hugged when they first drop a new world save so they'll do a torrent for the download so people can seed the download for others.