Is Bit Torrent illegal?

[Potatoman]

Hi everyone!
I have found Ubuntu Linux, which is a free and open source software.
When i go to the official site to download a copy, i have an option to use bit torrent.
My question is this. Isnt Bit Torrent illegal? I see on the news that people are getting in trouble for using it. The software i would like is free, but i dont want to get trouble!
Why would legitimate companies use a 'dogdy' way of distributing their free software?
Im confused!

Thank you for your help
PM

[barry1010]

BitTorrent is not illegal to download stuff that has no copyright and is genuinely free to use, such as Linux.
It is illegal to download copyrighted material such as films, music, tv programs.

[barry1010]

Have you tried downloading it from here?
http://www.ubuntu.com/GetUbuntu/download

[Potatoman]

Nice one, thanks for helping!
:-)

[OH-SHlT]

Dam, if it is legal I will never be using it again

[VHG]

Some people use cars as get away vehicles after robbing a bank.

It is does not make using a car illegal.

The torrent concept is not illegal and many files which are downloaded are not copyright.

As has been said, it is WHAT you may download that is illegal.

[ACtheTROLL]

it's not a good download option ... if you are just downloading ... ISPs (whatever they say) are monitoring P2P activity ... and most also throttle back bandwidth whenever it's used

straight downloads are also seen ... but are only throttled between 08:00-22:00

a download manager can be scheduled to download out of hours ... and will pull the file(s) down far quicker and without anyone taking your bandwidth

[Potatoman]

Got it, thanks for all your help.
I downloaded it 'normally' in my brower (http?).

Just wondering how ISP's would know what files are being downloaded over Bit Torrent!

[casson57]

Actually a lot of torrent or the use of torrent is being blocked now. If you take for example the greatest torrent site pirate bay, it is being blocked by several ISP's in different countries. But that doesn't stop people from making means to gain access to pirate bay. Some build redirects some create websites like http://piratebaynew.co/ which is a proxy site so that you can bypass the blocking made by the ISP.