What is a Torrent?

Yep, yours truly again. I thank all who have helped a 40 year PC Vet along the way.

While browsing Youtube - I ran across some kid’s postings on pirate software. The Pirtate Ship. Org I think. He ran smoothly through finding and downloading MS Office 2008 for Mac. As usual the kids loose me on occasion. This time it was torrent. What the devil is a torrent, how are they secured, and are they safe?

I can’t believe MS or any software maker would sit back and watch thousands i dl’s of $400 programs. In addition to the apparent illegality - are these things safe? (You can tell I can live the illegality). (I missed being swept up in the Napster sting by very little).

And, at last, is Leopard just another name for OX S 10.5,x ? I ask, because I have a bud whose new Mac shows OX S Leopard under “about” - mine shows OX S 5.7 (now 5.8).

One more thing. I was trying to find a Youtube downloader - and ran across some pretty cumbersome ones. Then RealPlayer to the rescue. Great little downloader which even detects downloadable videos everywhere.

Mac-Forums community Guidelines said:

Respect copyrights and the law.
Don’t discuss or conduct content theft or any other illegal activity. Period. We follow U.S. law on the forums, so just because something might be legal in your country doesn’t mean it will be allowed here. If you’re ever in doubt, contact one of the moderators before you post.

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Trust me. MS doesn't just sit around "letting" people steal from them....

rboseley said:

While browsing Youtube - I ran across some kid’s postings on pirate software. The Pirtate Ship. Org I think. He ran smoothly through finding and downloading MS Office 2008 for Mac. As usual the kids loose me on occasion. This time it was torrent. What the devil is a torrent, how are they secured, and are they safe?

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Here is the BitTorrent Wikipedia page. I can't comment on the safety in terms of computer security but in many cases, they are used illegally. They can therefore be legally unsafe. While they can be used legally (I use them to download Linux distros quite a bit), torrents have become the new favourite medium for distributing copyrighted material. If you have to pay for something and you see a torrent for it, it's probably illegal. My advice when thinking of using torrents - only use ones that are made available by the content creators themselves. This way, you can ensure that they are legal. For instance, I get my Linux distribution torrents from the distribution website. As an aside, I assume you mean The Pirate Bay. You would be best to avoid that site.

rboseley said:

I can’t believe MS or any software maker would sit back and watch thousands i dl’s of $400 programs. In addition to the apparent illegality - are these things safe? (You can tell I can live the illegality). (I missed being swept up in the Napster sting by very little).

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As baggss said, they don't. And again, avoid using torrents unless they come from the content creators themselves.

rboseley said:

And, at last, is Leopard just another name for OX S 10.5,x ? I ask, because I have a bud whose new Mac shows OX S Leopard under “about” - mine shows OX S 5.7 (now 5.8).

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Yes, 10.5.x is Leopard, regardless of what that last digit is.

rboseley said:

One more thing. I was trying to find a Youtube downloader - and ran across some pretty cumbersome ones. Then RealPlayer to the rescue. Great little downloader which even detects downloadable videos everywhere.

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I used to use RealPlayer as well, until I found something even better, this FireFox extension.