Quote - Personally I've never really figured out how this torrent thing works. I installed something way back when ReBirth (music making thing) was given away free from the manufacurers and that required a torrent-something-program but I've never used it since.

Bittorrent is a mechanism for transferring files in a way that saves bandwidth for the person offering it and in many cases increasing download speed for clients. The trick it uses is that users downloading data do not all have to connect to the same server but also can connect to each other. Imagine five users from Australia are downloading the same file from a computer in Norway: Instead of sending the same data five times all the way around the globe, the data has to travel the full distance only once and then four more times across Australia.

Bittorrent, being just a tool, does not imply illegal use. Most GNU/Linux distributions offer Bittorrent downloads to save bandwidth and on the official Bittorrent.com site there is lots of100% legal content from the big boys (FOX, WB, Sega, etc). Bittorrent has many uses that have nothing to do with piracy whatsoever.