What you should know about torrenting

I was a teenager in the days of Napster and LimeWire, when illegal files flowed through the internet like free hamburgers through a freshman dormitory orientation session. I didn't understand the legality of file sharing, let alone the technical explanation of how it worked. Peer-to-peer file distribution has changed over the years. Though I feel more savvy to the legal issues, I am no less dumbfounded by how it all works. That’s why I invited my colleague Ashley Carman onto this week’s show. She provides a brief history of file sharing, then explains how torrenting works in the present. Is it legal? Who does it hurt? Why do people use it? We have answers to all that and more.

You can listen to What you should know about torrenting online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

What you should know about torrenting is an episode from What's Tech? by Vox Media Podcast Network.

This episode is 16:08 long.

This episode was published on Jun 14, 2016.

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