The Crier

Free Movies in Minutes

Torrents are making it easy to get movies for free. And they’re simple to use

Forest Casey · Ann Arbor Secrets · Feb 19, 2007

Sometimes, secrets can stay secret even if everyone knows they exist. Take the newly-christened Order of Angell, for instance. There might be no group on campus with more publicity; every student and professor seems to know the story behind the fall of Michigamua and its reconstruction into what we have today: the semblance of a real campus group. Yet this group will always be referred to as a “secret society.” Somehow, what they do behind closed doors (yacht racing, equine jousting, fencing?) will remain mysterious and intriguing.

Everyone knows the name of the secret, but on deeper inquiry, you’ll find only confusion and conjecture. The same is true for BitTorrent.

Many students will nod when torrents are brought up. A disproportionate number of these haven’t even downloaded one. But it’s actually a very simple process, buried beneath an imposing veil of technological jargon and RIAA lawsuits. The former is just a ruse, the latter just a sham.

Here’s how it’s done:

A torrent is a very small, easy-to-download file that tells your computer where to start downloading. They are commonly used to get free movies quickly. It’s like a road map of a red light district, and just like the street vendors selling these maps, websites that host torrents are only rarely shut down.

Two of the best public sites I’ve found for downloading torrents are www.thepiratebay.org and www.mininova.org. From there, all you need to do is search their files for computer programs, movies or music and download the torrent.

Next, you’ll need a program to read the torrent. For simplicity’s sake, I’d suggest either Tomato Torrent for the Mac or Azureus for the PC. Both of these allow you to collect torrents without spyware, ads, chat or any of the other bloat you’ll find with most BitTorrent programs.

Just open your torrent file with your new program, sit back and relax. The broken links and “peers” who sign offline in the middle of your download that you’re used to with Limewire aren’t issues with BitTorrent. It’s more of a community; if you’re planning on downloading, you’ll be uploading the same file, usually at the same speed. More popular files go faster because more data is being uploaded. Everybody contributes and everybody wins.

Now you know the full breadth of the secret. If only you could use BitTorrent to download an invitation to the Order…

Disclaimer: In the business of secrets, there are no refunds or exchanges. The Ann Arbor Crier takes no responsibility for the secrets in this article in any way, shape or form.