Are there many uses for torrenting, BitTorrent & P2P?
BitTorrent is an excellent technology, allowing users to download and share large files with ease. But most people only know about the “shadier” uses of torrenting.
When in reality, there are lots of uses, and it’s even implemented by tech giants, scientists, and more. Keep reading to find out about all of the different uses for torrenting.
Uses of Torrenting contents
Individuals Use Torrenting to Share Media
We’ll start with the most obvious (and infamous) use of the BitTorrent protocol, which is to share media or software between users. This can include everything from movies to video games to computer software. And of course, Linux distros.
Unfortunately, this use is controversial, since much of the material shared is copyrighted – and sharing it is illegal in most countries. This causes it to overshadow some of the more “legitimate” uses for torrenting which we’ll cover below.
Musicians Use Torrenting to Share Their Music
While much of the music industry is against torrenting and other forms of file sharing, this doesn’t apply to all musicians. In fact, some willingly share their own music via torrenting.
Why? Well, there are a couple reasons.
- For established artists, sharing their music for free can lead to increased merchandise and concert sales, as well as donations. Due to how many record deals work, this can actually be more profitable for the musicians than selling a lot of albums.
- For up and coming artists, sharing their music can help them get noticed and “get the word out” about their work. It’s a savvy way of marketing.
Game Developers Use Torrenting to Share Games
Let’s face it: most video games shared via BitTorrent are pirated. However, a few indie developers have posted their own games on sites like The Pirate Bay over the years, allowing users to download their games free.
These include titles like:
- Darkwood
- No Time to Explain
- Please Fix the Road
...and others. Depending on the developer you ask, their motivation is somewhere between marketing tactic and a statement about their principles.
Companies Use Torrenting to Share Files
It isn’t just indie bands and game developers sharing their work online. In fact, some of the biggest technology companies around use BitTorrent technology.
Why? Because it allows them to share large files between users or even within the company, while saving money and resources on server and bandwidth costs.
- Microsoft – Microsoft has been using p2p filesharing to help users download updates for years
- Facebook – This social media giant uses BitTorrent on the backend, to share large amounts of data between their many servers
- Blizzard – The company behind hit games like World of Warcraft, Starcraft, and Overwatch lets users download their games (and updates) via torrent filesharing
- WarGaming.Net – The developers of World of Tanks, World of Warships, and other popular wargames also uses BitTorrent to share their games with users
Scientists Use Torrenting to Share Data
Scientists love to collect data. That’s kind of their thing.
Unfortunately, it gets a little difficult to share all of that data with their colleagues when it balloons into sizes of multiple gigabytes or even terabytes.
But torrenting is there to help. Through projects like Academic Torrents, the scientific world has discovered the benefits of using BitTorrent to share or download data, videos, and more.
Uses of Torrenting: Wrap-Up
As we’ve seen, BitTorrent technology isn’t just for downloading movies from shady websites. On the contrary, there are many uses of torrenting, and everyone from academics to tech companies can take advantage of it.