Short Bytes: BitTorrent is a very useful technology that is used to share legal as well as copyright-protected content illegally. So, if you are looking for some websites for legal torrents, you’re in good luck. Websites like Public Domain Torrents, Legit Torrents, Linux Tracker, etc. are known to provide good quality torrents. You can go ahead and check out these websites and torrent safely and legally.
If you choose to download free movies and games from torrent websites without infringing someone’s copyright, you are using the BitTorrent protocol in the best possible manner. But, on most of the popular torrent websites, there’s no particular way to differentiate between legally and illegally shared content.
To solve this problem, we’ve prepared a useful list of torrent websites that only host 100% free and legal torrents for downloading. You can use these services to torrent safely and legally to stay out of the trouble.
Before checking them out, in case, you are looking for some legal ways to download free games, software, apps, and movies, etc., for free, take a look at our popular lists:
- Websites For Free Movie Download, Legally
- Websites To Download Paid PC Games: Free & Legal
- Download Paid Android Apps For Free — 6 Legal Ways
- Websites To Download Paid Software For Free, Legally
13 Websites for Legal Torrent Downloading
1. Public Domain Torrents
Last year, when I was writing about the completely free and legal movie download websites, I came across Public Domain Torrents. At that time, I was surprised to find a website which was completely legal. Just like me, you’ll be surprised to find that it hosts many legal torrents. It hosts lots of Classic Movies and B-Movies which you can download for free. You can choose the category to narrow down your search or click on the top-seeded and newest added options. Many of the classic movies hosted here are difficult to find anywhere else. It goes without saying that all the content you’ll find here is freely available in public domain.
Why visit Public Domain Torrents — For classic movies torrents
2. Internet Archive
Just like Public Domain Torrents, the legit torrents at Internet Archive are another hidden gem. While the website isn’t easy to navigate, it does feature a large collection of films, texts, audio, etc. The movies on this free and legal torrents website are sorted in different categories like sci-fi, horror, comedy, film noir, etc. Apart from movies, there is also a section for television as well. The overall collection has about hundreds of movies that you can enjoy safely and legally.
Why visit Internet Archive — Huge library of film torrents, music, and books
3. Legit Torrents
As the name suggests, Legit Torrents can be used for 100% legal torrent downloading. As per the current count, the website hosts more than 3700 legal torrents that you can use for downloading purposes. The website is pretty neatly designed and the search option works well. The website’s home page displays recently uploaded torrents. While searching for a torrent, you can choose the category–shows, Linux distro, movies, music, games, anime, books, apps, etc. The Extra Stats section also features the top 10 most active torrents.
Why visit Legit Torrents — Good source of legal movies and software.
4. Vuze StudioHD Network
Apart from the torrent clients uTorrent, BitTorrent, and Transmission, Vuze is a great option. Moreover, it also turns as a great source of legal torrents for safe downloading. It hosts video content which is divided into many categories like comedy, TV and movies, music videos, news, TED Talks, etc. You can visit the online website or access the torrent directory from the Vuze client itself. The overall interface is pretty simple and straightforward.
Why visit Vuze Network — NASA, TED Talks, Tekzilla, and music videos.
5. Bitlove
Bitlove is another great way to find legal torrents. The website has a large directory which has more than 1850 audio torrents and more than 222 videos. The directory is pretty neatly organized in the alphabetical orders. One of the best features of Bitlove is that you can sort the content on the basis of languages. This is an important feature as the website is a great source of audio and video podcasts. You can also use this legal torrenting website to share your own podcast feed. The website also ensures data integrity using SHA1 hashes.
Why visit Bitlove — Awesome source of podcast torrents
6. Linux Tracker
If you love distro hopping, Linux Tracker is the go-to website for you. Solely dedicated to Linux distros and their legal torrenting, this website has been tracking Linux torrents from the past 12 years. The website homepage has different Linux torrents sorted according to date, seeders, leechers, etc. In a glance, you can see the upload date, and size of the image. If you’re having some spare bandwidth, you can also use Linux Tracker to help a fellow open source enthusiast by looking at the list of ‘seed wanted torrents.’ As I’m talking about Linux distro torrents, you can also keep checking Distrowatch for latest updates and their torrents.
Why visit Linux Tracker — Linux distro torrents
7. Jamendo
Jamendo calls itself the world’s largest digital service for free music and there a reason behind this claim. You can use this website to download music torrents safely and legally. It’s an online music community where independent artists share their work. It’s also great for the networking listeners and artists. The content uploaded on this website is under Creative Commons license. Talking about the website, after signing in, you’ll see a list of tracks sorted by popularity and trending nature. You can also search for relevant tracks, communities, and playlists. Another great feature of Jamendo is its Radio feature that allows you to listen to free and legal music from various genres.
Why visit Jamendo — For free music download and listening
8. Vodo
Vodo is a great option for indie lovers who wish to visit a legal torrent website, watch free movies, and download their torrents if they wish. It has 200+ independent movies that are being provided by the content creators. The site also allows you to support your favorite artists with the help of donations. Please note that donation is completely optional and you don’t need to make any payment to watch the free content. The interface of the website is very simple, and the featured content is listed on the website homepage. At the top, there’s a Free Movies option which lists all the available movies. You can search the movies and use the sorting options to find the required content easily.
Why visit Vodo — For independent and free movies torrents
9. Miro Guide
Before telling you about Miro’s torrent offering, let me tell you that it’s primarily an Internet TV player that comes with a built-in BitTorrent client for searching content and playing them. It’s an open source and independent platform. Its directory of legit content makes the task of legal torrent downloading safe and easy. The website’s interface is pretty simple; it gives you the option to choose video and audio torrents using the menu options at the top. By using the options in the right panel, you can select the torrents in different categories like Editor’s Picks, New, Top Rated. You can also sort the podcasts by language.
Why visit Miro Guide — TV shows and video podcast torrents
10. Game Updates
If you love gaming and you don’t wish to spend tons of money buying gaming titles for your PC or console, Game Updates can help you out. It’s a community for legal torrents for gaming that doesn’t ask you to signup for downloading content. However, if you wish to contribute your own free and legal games, you can register your account. Game Updates also claims to have seeders to keep the torrents up as long as they are needed. Talking about the home page of this legit torrenting website, at the top you’ll see a search box. Below that, you’ll find a list of popular torrents. You can sort the available torrents on the basis of size, downloads, date, etc.
Why visit Game Updates — If you love gaming and want free & legal downloads
11. Etree
Etree is a useful website for downloading live concert videos. It has a good collection of legal music torrents, which includes a fine mix of new and old. The user community of Etree shares the live concert recordings of the music artists that allow such free sharing. The website lists the music content in a simple manner; the list shows the name of the artist, show, the number of files, size, date, etc. The search option works fine and allows you to focus your search on a particular torrent.
Why visit Etree — For free and legal concert recordings
12. Academic Torrents
Academic Torrent is designed to store all the data used in research, including publications and datasets. With the help of BitTorrent technology, a group can seed their own peer-reviewed published articles using a torrent client like uTorrent or Vuze. The website of Academic Torrents is very simple and easy to use. The homepage asks you to view popular torrents or upload your own dataset. While searching the content on the website, you can narrow down the result in different categories like Papers, Datasets, Courses, and Collections.
Why visit Academic Torrents — A legal torrent source of academic papers and courses
13. TAS Videos
Unlike other torrent websites on this list that provide movies and games, TAS Videos is primarily created to serve the needs of gamers who wish to improve their gameplay. The website provides run through of classic and modern games, which allows a new user to become experts. The website homepage shows the latest publications. Using the search box given at the top right corner, you can download the torrents easily.
Why visit TAS Videos — For run through videos of games
Other free and legal torrent websites
Apart from the above-mentioned torrent websites for free and legal content, some other sites that need mention are Clear Bits, COTapers, SXSW Torrents, BitTorrent Now, etc.
BitTorrent Downloading FAQs
Is BitTorrent legal?
It’s an absurd question. Just like owning a knife and using it to cut fruits and vegetables doesn’t make you a criminal, using BitTorrent for downloading legal content is perfectly fine. It’s a useful and legitimate technology that is widely used by indie artists to promote their music and movies. Linux distro developers too freely share their releases using this technology.
How to does BitTorrent work?
BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer protocol that allows you to download and share data across the internet. They are simply files that have the information related to other files and folders. You can read more about the working of BitTorrent in detail here.
How to download torrents safely?
To download a content from a torrent website, you need a good torrent client like uTorrent, BitTorrent, Transmission, Vuze, etc. But, that’s not all. To ensure that your torrent downloading is safe and hidden, use of a VPN service to hide your IP address is recommended. You can also read this article to know how VPN is much better and secure as compared to a proxy.
Why do people download pirated content illegally?
With the rise of streaming services, one can assume that the use of torrent websites is declining. Many popular torrent websites have already become a victim of law enforcement agencies. But, people still end up pirating movies and games because they don’t want to pay for it. They don’t consider the risks involved big enough. Other people do the same due to the unavailability of some content in a region or lack of knowledge. You can read some more reasons here.
Are there some websites for free movies streaming?
Yes. Just like the websites mentioned above for downloading legal torrents, there are services that provide free movies without infringing any copyright. You can read our popular list of free movie streaming sites.
Do all torrent websites provide illegal content?
No. While the popular torrent websites (here’s fresh list for 2018) like the Pirate Bay offer a mix of legal and illegal torrents, there are some services that offer 100% free content without any copyright issue. In the list given above, I told you about such websites and their strengths.
I hope that you found our list of the best websites for legal torrent downloading helpful. So, go ahead, give them a try and share your experiences with us.
