When you hear the word “torrents”, you might find yourself thinking twice. Pirating files illegally? Perish the thought. There are actually all sorts of legal torrents available if you need something new to watch or listen to.
In this article, we'll go over the best online sources to find legal torrents, all for free.
Is Torrenting Legal?
You might have heard reports of people getting in legal trouble after downloading torrents. There is a widespread belief that torrents themselves are illegal, but that simply isn't the case.
Torrenting is a method of file sharing, in which people (called seeds, peers, and downloaders in torrent-speak) host a file for others to download (also known as leechers). A torrent file that you download from the internet is nothing more than a tiny file that shows your torrent client where to look for other users hosting the real file that you want.
The illegal part is pirating material such as movies or music albums. Sharing copyrighted content without paying for it is, obviously, still a crime, no matter how you do it.
When you use a torrent, you are not only downloading the file—you're also hosting it for others to download from you. This means using that of a torrent to download a file like a movie could get you in a lot of trouble.
Torrents can also be used for all sorts of legitimate purposes, such as when sharing open-source software like Linux distributions. This method allows the software to be available to everyone without requiring the original developer to host the file themselves. This is important for free and open-source software. It makes everything much more accessible for everybody.
Other legal use for torrents include sharing non-copyrighted movies or commercial commons' music. Many older movies are now in the public domain, which means they are free to watch, distribute, and share. You can use torrents to download these classic movies easily and legally.
To learn more about legal torrents, check out our torrent guide for everyone.
Where Can You Find Legal Torrents Online?
If you want to find a torrent online, there are a number of sites that specialize in hosting legal torrents exclusively. Some once-popular torrenting sites like Cat Torrent and ClearBits have been shut down since the torrenting bubble burst. You can download torrents from the following websites without worrying about any legal issues at all.
1. Legit Torrents
Legit Torrents hosts torrents for a wide variety of different types of content, including movies, music, and software. You'll find categories for downloading Linux distributions as well as software for Windows, Mac, and Linux. There are categories for entertainment content including anime, books, and games.
This site is one of the most popular legal torrent sites online currently, so the torrents you get from here will often have the highest number of seeds for you to download from.
2. Public Domain Torrents
Although this site looks basic in terms of design, it's one of the best sites on the internet for finding legal torrents. Everything shared on this site is in the public domain, with classic movies spanning genres like horror, drama, animation, and comedy.
It's a great site for film buffs and B-movie fans, with movies available to download in multiple formats for mobile consumption. There's also a category for streams if you want to watch online without downloading anything.
3. Vuze
Vuze is known as one of the best torrent clients, period. You might not yet know this, but it also hosts a directory of legal torrent content.
The site hosts torrents for regularly updated video content like news programs, TED Talks, and comedy shows. It's a popular place to host audio or video podcasts, which can be downloaded daily or weekly as new episodes are released.
There's a great selection of informative podcasts about science and nature, as well as other educational topics. The site offers torrents for downloading book bundles, software, new music artists, and classic movies as well.
If you're looking for a site with free torrents for popular, legal content, Vuze should be your first stop.
4. Jamendo Music
If music is your passion, and you love to hunt down new bands and artists, you should try out Jamendo Music. This site features free and independent music, which can either be downloaded using torrents or streamed online.
This site is home to a lot of free music that can be used in YouTube content creator projects; you'll find music that's free for commercial use in the royalty-free music section.
You can also search for artists by genre or find the latest trending tracks. If you still can't decide what to download, you can use the site's Radios page to hear a selection of free music from the genre of your choice.
5. Linuxtracker
If you're a Linux user, chances are, you already know about Linuxtracker. This site specializes in sharing torrents for downloading Linux distributions.
While the big Linux distros like Ubuntu or openSUSE can be downloaded directly from their websites, this option isn't feasible for smaller distros that might be more niche. For these obscure distros, you're much more likely to find what you need on a legal torrent site like Linuxtracker.
You can find just about every Linux distro you can think of on this site, as well as multiple versions of older distros, which can be useful for testing purposes.
6. The Internet Archive
If you don't yet know about The Internet Archive, you're missing out on one of the greatest collections of information and content to be found anywhere online. The site is an online library with a huge list of material available to be downloaded legally and for free.
As well as books, software, and music, the site offers a massive selection of public domain movies. You can watch these movies online or download them via torrent in the site's Feature Films section. There's a large collection of film noir movies, cult horror classics, and silent movies from the earliest days of cinema. It's a great resource for true movie buffs.
Download Free Content Online, Legally
People tend to associate torrents with piracy, but the truth is that there's a lot of content that can be downloaded legally using torrents.
The sites that we've mentioned will let you download classic movies, open-source software, and free music, all legally and via torrent. Your Saturday evening just got a whole lot more exciting.