Vuze, the developer of one of the most popular torrent clients around, has spoken out against illegal downloading and the people who use their program to partake in such activities.
“Although torrents themselves are a legitimate way to share files, understanding the rights of copyright holders and what content they have or have not authorized for free distribution is the core to understanding the difference between it being legal or illegal to share or distribute content using Vuze,” the outfit said. “Remember, if you use Vuze torrent client software for P2P file sharing then use it responsibly. Be aware of illegal torrents and avoid downloading them. Don’t infringe copyright.”
In its statement, Vuze even encourages users to report instances of illegal downloads to the firm. Vuze says it will also make a bigger effort, through social media and other methods, to shine a brighter light on content that can be downloaded legally.
According to TorrentFreak, several studies have concluded that 90 percent of BitTorrent-related “public transfers” infringe on copyrighted information in some way. Considering that, as of this writing, there are nearly 37,000,000 Pirate Bay users seeding content, the high percentage of illegal downloads isn’t shocking. However, one must also consider that Pirate Bay is just one of many torrent clients, albeit an incredibly popular one.
Assuming that Vuze’s statements are genuine, it will have to do a lot more than promote legal torrents/content to download if it wants to curb the prevalence of illegal file transfers.
