Question Is using a P2P downloading client going to alert my ISP?

onlythefreshness

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Jun 5, 2015
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I was a dumb kid once and tried to download something from a torrenting site that had stuff on there that was copyright protected and I got an email from my ISP saying not to do that. I currently trying to obtain a piece of software that is not available from the manufacturer anymore and only sold via second hand websites, by most definitions abandonware. Anyways the software is only available from a storage site that uses P2P for downloading and I really don't know what triggers my ISP to send me emails so i'm concerned to even attempt to download abandonware or non-copyright stuff using a P2P service like qbittorent or uTorrent. Am I over reacting?
 

Barty1884

Retired Moderator
It's not (generally) your ISP that generates the notice - there are companies that act of behalf of copyright holders, and they send the notice to your ISP, which they send on to you. Typically, those copyrighted files are uploaded by the owner (or companies acting on their behalf) to catch people illegally downloading their property.

A torrent, or torrent client, in & of itself is not a "bad" thing*.
Sourcing files in general, via P2P is perfectly legal*. If the program/file/game etc is abandonware, then you should be fine.


*Although some ISP's will throttle bandwidth if they suspect frequent torrenting.