Okay, you've chosen your BT client, your high-speed connection is rolling, and you're ready to download something. What shall it be, and where shall you get it?

BT sites are easy to find. I find ones by Googling "Bit Torrent (thing I want to download)". It's that easy.

Say, for instance, that Hillbilly Tim wants to find some monkey porn. He would want to search for  "bit torrent monkey porn." If he want to be more specific, he can type "bit torrent gibbon porn" to get just the naughty gibbons, and not those sick orangutan bastards. (BTW, I've known Hillbilly Tim since 1974, and I can assure you that he is in no way aroused by simians of any type. Keep him away from your parrots, though.)

So you can search for music, bootleg, books, comics, movies, whatever. There are several things to be aware of, however.

First and foremost, what is legal? There are sites that are very careful about what is allowed, and others that couldn't care less. Their attitude won't shield you, however. When it comes to music and video, follow this rule of thumb. If what you are about to download is available to buy anywhere in any way, it is illegal to download. That includes stores, record clubs, pay-per-views, and downloads for sale. That's why I stick to the unofficial recordings. There is no copyright being asserted on that material, and many bands do in fact support the trading of unofficial recordings. There is a vast trading community out there that can amaze you with the things that they are willing to share. Notice the words "trading" and "share". No selling.

With books it is the same, except in the case of comics, because those are back issues of periodicals. It's legal to sell your old comics at a profit, so it can't really be illegal to share them for free.

When you go to a site, ALWAYS read the FAQ and the rules. Different sites have different rules, and different things allowed. This is ESPECIALLY important if a friend has given you an invite to the site. Your behavior reflects on your friend.

Some BT sites are open, others require a membership. The latter usually has some sort of share ratio requirement. Remember from session 1 that you are uploading while you download, then just uploading. It is within the mores of BT that you should always endeavor to give back as much as you took. After all, you're getting something for free. The least you can do is pass it on. Since uploading is almost always slower than downloading, this means keeping the torrent open until your up/down ratio is at least 1. Some sites will enforce this by having minimum ratios. When you go below the minimum, you can ONLY upload until you get your numbers up.

All this said, I can lead you to some sites. Unfortunately my favorite is not accepting new members at this time. There are still a lot of good ones out there, though.

UNOFFICIAL RECORDINGS, AUDIO AND VIDEO

bt.etree                          Mostly jam bands. This is where it started for me!

Trader's Den                  A good variety.

Zomb                              I've gotten quite a bit with this one, as well. They do 
                                       cool things with your cursor!

Bootcity                           The name says it all.

Yeeshkul!                        This site focuses on Pink Floyd, loosely.

Genesis Movement         Focus on Genesis and its' members.

The Music Never Stopped Project    Grateful Dead, natch.

Long Live Rock               The Who and related artists.

COMICS, BOOKS, AND MUSIC

Oink                                 Lots of stuff, but be selective.

TorrentSpy                       A lot of everything.

Most of these sites are open and easy to sign up to. I have a few invites to Oink I can give out. You can find me on these sites under the name RioGrandeJoe.

If you're looking at the bootleg sites and plan to get into trading, note the different file formats. Many sites are picky about lossless ancestries, meaning that a recording is not and has never been in a "lossy" format like mp3. If you download any boots in mp3 or any other format that does not give lossless reproduction, be sure never to offer that for torrent or trade without telling people. It's another "mores" thing.

I would be happy to create a torrent at one of these sites for learning on, if readers would like. Some Pink Floyd, perhaps? DIscuss what you would like amongst yourselves.

I know this seems like a lot of info, and we're only half done, but it really is simplicity itself once you learn it and get into a groove.Go see what's out there. If you see a torrent you might want to get later, it is ALWAYS a good idea to bookmark it. They can slip away sometimes!

Next I'll cover exactly how to start a torrent and what all that crap on the BT client means.