Torrents?

J

JacquesZA

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I am totally daft here.. But is torrents legal in RSA?

1. Is it legal to download from torrents?
2.is it only illegal to share?
3.If it is illegal why do so many do it?

Every one says just download it but no one can tel me if it is legal or not in sa?
 
JacquesZA said:
I am totally daft here.. But is torrents legal in RSA?

1. Is it legal to download from torrents?
2.is it only illegal to share?
3.If it is illegal why do so many do it?

Every one says just download it but no one can tel me if it is legal or not in sa?
Click to expand...

You are allowed to "import" into SA for your own personal, domestic use. :)
But you are not allowed to "distribute" copyright works.
Torrents is a form of importing, but unfortunately also a form of distributing. :(

Having said that though, not one single person in South Africa has ever been charged or convicted of downloading copyrighted material in SA.
The cops only go after the guys who are burning them to DVD and selling them.

I would say that you are pretty safe if you are just doing it for yourself in your own home.
There are other ways to download though, that do not fall foul of the "distributing" restriction.
And there are also ways of protecting yourself and making yourself invisible online.
 
Yes torrents are legal, they are a way of downloading content from the internet.

In most cases however the content of the torrents being downloaded are not legal.
 
Garyvdh said:
You are allowed to "import" into SA for your own personal, domestic use. :)
But you are not allowed to "distribute" copyright works.
Torrents is a form of importing, but unfortunately also a form of distributing. :(

Having said that though, not one single person in South Africa has ever been charged or convicted of downloading copyrighted material in SA.
The cops only go after the guys who are burning them to DVD and selling them.

I would say that you are pretty safe if you are just doing it for yourself in your own home.
There are other ways to download though, that do not fall foul of the "distributing" restriction.
And there are also ways of protecting yourself and making yourself invisible online.
Click to expand...

So if i only download and not upload its legal?
 
JacquesZA said:
So if i only download and not upload its legal?
Click to expand...

Look dude, any copyrighted material IS ILLEGAL TO DOWNLOAD WITHOUT THE CONSENT OF THE COMPANY WHO PRODUCED IT.

Stop believing bull**** twaddle by people who wants to justify their own actions.

If you intend to distribute it for a profit, then you're going to jail, end of story.
 
AcidRaZor said:
Look dude, any copyrighted material IS ILLEGAL TO DOWNLOAD WITHOUT THE CONSENT OF THE COMPANY WHO PRODUCED IT.

Stop believing bull**** twaddle by people who wants to justify their own actions.

If you intend to distribute it for a profit, then you're going to jail, end of story.
Click to expand...

Exactly...

It's the same as stealing a movie or a purse.

That being said I doubt anyones going to bust down your door and arrest you.
 
The moment you DOWNLOAD any copyrighted content you are committing Copyright Fraud. Easy as that. The platform you are using is legal, that being the torrent client (uTorrent) and the torrent site (Mininova etc.), because they do not distribute the content. The content is being distributed by "The People" collectively.
The bottom line is that times are changing and Producers must find new ways to "sell" their media.
 
JacquesZA said:
So if i only download and not upload its legal?
Click to expand...

Due to the mechanics of P2P networking especially over the BitTorrent protocol , where the entire point of the network is to seamlessly share your data with others, it's actually fairly difficult for you to exclusively download anything. Your're almost always going to be uploading pieces of whatever you're downloading or have downloaded, possibly without it being clearly evident. Given this, you are in fact distributing what you've downloaded.

However, unless you publicly declare your activities or enter into some kind of trade with the material you've downloaded, you're probably not going to raise any eyebrows.
 
I dont know... Il rather then just stick to netflix.... Watching "every body loves raymond" or "top gear" from season 1 isnt worth going to jail.
 
JacquesZA said:
I dont know... Il rather then just stick to netflix.... Watching "every body loves raymond" or "top gear" from season 1 isnt worth going to jail.
Click to expand...

O come on!! Don't be a woosy! Live a little! Look, that being said, 'Everybody Loves Raymond' is definitely not worth going to jail for...
 
JacquesZA said:
I dont know... Il rather then just stick to netflix.... Watching "every body loves raymond" or "top gear" from season 1 isnt worth going to jail.
Click to expand...

newsflash: If you are somehow watching netflix (which is not legally available in SA due to licensing restrictions), then you are already "breaking the law"! ;)
 
Garyvdh said:
newsflash: If you are somehow watching netflix (which is not legally available in SA due to licensing restrictions), then you are already "breaking the law"! ;)
Click to expand...

So we have sabc, dstv or nothing...
 
The method is legal...the contents are not.

If you download Ubuntu or other Linux ISO's that are free to download directly then yes it's 100% legal.


If you are downloading Anal Sluts 5...not so much.
 
I get annoyed when the comparison is made between downloading/copying and the theft of a physical object such as a CD/DVD or a purse. If somebody steals my wallet then that person "owns" it and I do not, that means I made a loss because I cannot spend the cash that was in the wallet.
If I download a movie/song etc. the original movie still belongs to the distributor, the only difference is that I can maybe watch it before DSTV screens it, nobody really lost anything.
If I make hundreds of copies of that movie onto a DVD and sell it, then I can expect to be busted by the cops.
But in the strict letter of the law it is illegal for me to download the movie, whether it is via a torrent or a direct download is
 
Roelie said:
I get annoyed when the comparison is made between downloading/copying and the theft of a physical object such as a CD/DVD or a purse. If somebody steals my wallet then that person "owns" it and I do not, that means I made a loss because I cannot spend the cash that was in the wallet.
If I download a movie/song etc. the original movie still belongs to the distributor, the only difference is that I can maybe watch it before DSTV screens it, nobody really lost anything.
Click to expand...

That is just where you are wrong. The original author does lose something, because less revenue will come from advertising/subscription fees resulting from lower viewership when the movie is licensed to SABC or DSTV.

You say you get annoyed - I get annoyed when pirates claim that they are not stealing anything. You see, the difference between you and me is that I am a content producer while you are a content consumer. If one day you too have to earn a living from creating content, your opinion on piracy will very quickly change. It sucks (for me) that my work is so easy to steal. But that is not your problem. As long as there is little chance of getting caught, the victim is not one of your friends or somebody you know, and you can continue to convince yourself that you are doing nothing wrong, then piracy is perfectly OK. Right?
 
BarnettE said:
That is just where you are wrong. The original author does lose something, because less revenue will come from advertising/subscription fees resulting from lower viewership when the movie is licensed to SABC or DSTV.

You say you get annoyed - I get annoyed when pirates claim that they are not stealing anything. You see, the difference between you and me is that I am a content producer while you are a content consumer. If one day you too have to earn a living from creating content, your opinion on piracy will very quickly change. It sucks (for me) that my work is so easy to steal. But that is not your problem. As long as there is little chance of getting caught, the victim is not one of your friends or somebody you know, and you can continue to convince yourself that you are doing nothing wrong, then piracy is perfectly OK. Right?
Click to expand...

While I agree with most of what you said, take a look at this:

http://mybroadband.co.za/news/internet/68978-p2p-file-sharers-buy-more-music-than-non-users.html

Sure it pertains to music here, but who says it doesn't hold true for other media? Another thing that baffles me is that Entertainment Groups (for lack of a better term, referring to the music/movie industry) moan so much about piracy etc, but year in and year out post about the billions and billions of dallahs they made -sometimes "Record Breaking!"

Just because a show/movies/music is available to download, doesn't mean I was going to go buy it. In fact, I've gone and bought many movies, music, games, etc, after downloading -just because it was THAT good. So if I didn't download it, I would not have bought it.
 
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