subject: Should Your ISP Ban Torrents? [print this page] A torrent is one of the most popular way of downloading games, movies and different kinds of software programs. It is actually a file and the more people that use the torrent, the faster the download will go. Obviously, this is a very attractive idea for folks that want to download items from the internet. The problem is that often torrents are often used for downloading programs or movies illegally. Some countries and ISPs have pondered the idea of getting rid of torrents completely. The concept is that if they can cut off this type of connection, that the piracy problem will be taken care of. Whether it is uninformed lawmakers or people not grasping the full concept of torrents, this is a plan that will not work under any circumstances. If torrents never existed, people would have still pirated software, music, movies, and everything else. If torrents are banned, these activities will still go on. People who pirate would just use a different form of bandwidth. Let us examine how shortsighted this thinking is. For example, some people have downloaded illegal content using Internet Explorer. Does this mean that if you banned Internet Explorer, piracy would go away? No, people would simply use a different type of software to obtain the pirated information. If one form of bandwidth is banned, another will be used. As the law presses in harder and harder, the technology will become even more private and advanced to do piracy. Obviously, those pirating right now can care little for what the laws say. There are many peer-to-peer connections that can be made that are not actually a torrent. Getting rid of this one form will not solve the problem because there are too many other ways to download illegal information. Trying to control multiple forms of bandwidth would not work because it would only be an administrative nightmare and would end up taking away people's privacy online. A big point about being against the banning of torrents is the fairness factor. There are many folks who use torrents legally to save bandwidth in regards to hosting costs in transferring large legal files. For these people, the torrents are a huge help in quickly downloading their information to their clients at a reasonable cost. Banning torrents would be quite an imposition for those that use torrents in a legal manner and would not dissuade those bent on illegal activity anyway. Those that want to pirate software will always find a way. Therefore, banning torrents is not a rational solution to piracy.
