Movie Downloads - Whats it all about Alfie? Currently there are millions of users downloading "free" Movies,Music,Games, and Software,and many are doing this on file-sharing networks,or P2P (Peer to Peer),which are not unlike the infamous music file sharing networks that operated untill recently. Most  P2P networks cannot guarantee 100% legality for all their Movie downloads,as generally speaking, popular music, movies, games and software are protected by copyright,however many download sites provide details on how to stay within the legal framework. There is still a large amount of interesting material to be accessed, as in many cases artists authorize the sharing of their work for non-commercial purposes as it can provide valuable worldwide exposure in a short amount of time. P2P file distribution allows users having specialised software to download large files such as Movies, etc by directly connecting to other members of their network using a technique called "BitTorrent". BitTorrent The basic principle behind BitTorrent is that users should upload at the same time as they  download,thus using the network in an efficient manner. The conventional method of downloading a large file from a single server to numerous  clients normally means the owner of the server has to pay for excess bandwidth charges, and if the server experiences excessive demand there can be a high risk of a server crash. However by using  BitTorrent the bandwidth costs are distributed throughout the network and the risk of a single PC crashing due to excessive demand are minimal. The way in which BitTorrent works with regards to P2P Movie downloading is that a Movie file is downloaded to an individuals computer by transferring thousands of relatively small files that make up the Movie, from numerous other computers in the same network, while at the same time uploading files in a similar way to other users requiring missing files. The Movie download process is initiated when a user starts a "BitTorrent" by performing a web search for the torrent file that contains specific details relating to that Movie. A torrent file contains the data relating to the multiple files that make up a typical BitTorrent Movie file as well as the location of the master computer (tracker). The tracker computer or server,manages communication between each individual peer and seed computer in the "swarm".     Terminology A torrent file contains data relating to the location of files and computers in the network. Confusingly,a completed movie download is sometimes referred to as a torrent. A seed is a peer that has a complete copy of the torrent file and is able to offer it for upload. A peer is a member of a P2P network that you can connect to and transfer data. Usually a peer does not have the complete file, but only parts of it. Together, all peers (including seeds) sharing a torrent are called a swarm. A tracker is a server that keeps track of which seeds and peers are in the swarm. The sophisticated P2P software used by the major Movie download sites only allows other users to access the files that reside in a "shared" folder of a users PC,while keeping all other files and folders protected,however a good anti virus program is still recommended,and in most cases users will have this installed already. Legality Taking the legal angle,it has been very difficult for movie companies/copyright holders to stop downloads of copyrighted Movie and TV series etc,for a variety of reasons : The tracker does not contain a copy of the Movie The tracker is not directly involved in the transfer of the film data. The user does not search for the Movie by name,but for the torrent file. 1000's of fragments of the Movie are distributed between hundreds or even thousands of computers,so who's breaking the law? In practise it is extremely difficult to prosecute individual users for the downloading of a copyrighted Movie and far easier to shut down the movie download tracker/server than it is to trace each individual PC involved in the transfer of 1000's of files. Personally I don't believe in downloading a copyrighted Movie for free,even if practically,I could get away with it,but the fact is there are thousands of interesting non-copyrighted Movies,Videos and TV series available on the internet for free download,and for most Movie buffs that is enough incentive to join such a Download Site. A recent US court ruling stated that although file sharing (P2P) can be used for illegal practices, file sharing itself was not considered illegal and by consequence file sharing networks in the USA are not considered illegal. DivX Most films that are downloaded at present,are in the DivX Format,and by using this method of compression/decompression, a Movie can typically be compressed to about one tenth of its original size and downloaded without noticeable loss of quality to a users PC. Here it can be stored on a Hard Drive or burnt onto a CD/DVD and viewed on a DivX compatible Media Player. Due to the massive popularity of Movie Download networks, DivX has become a very popular video compression technology (it was initially derived from MPEG-4) ,and is doing for video what MP3 did for music. In practise DivX is used in the form of codec software,(a codec is a compressor/decompressor). when a DivX encoded Movie is played out from its storage media (DVD/CD/Hard Drive),it is decompressed by the DivX software and relayed on to a DivX compatible Media Player such as Windows Media Player for Viewing.   For example,a Movie containing several Gigabytes of data can be compressed to several hundred Megabytes of data,and downloaded via the internet to a PC in about 2 hours using a typical 512kb DSL connection,this compares to about 20hrs for an uncompressed Movie! For reference : 1GB =1000 Million Bytes 1MB = 1 Million Bytes A typical DVD can store about 4.7GB A typical CD can store about 700MB