How to Download Any Media You Want

I have grown incredibly frustrated with content providers stuck in the past, continuing to deliver content through old media methods like cable TV, movie rental stores, and music stores. Their refusal to embrace the internet has cost them millions of customers and dollars. With widespread broadband access the Web has become a viable method for delivering ANY media you want. For example, the site Stage 6 delivers HD-quality video via divx compresion, in manner similar to the low resolution YouTube. But where is the content? When on earth will companies like Time Warner and Sony wake up and start pay sites that allow users to legally access their libraries online?

To force their hand, I will show you how to access virtually any media you want for free. I have been using bit torrents for the past 2-3 years and they are continuing to grow in popularity. Most people who are not tech-savy don't know how to access this world of free media so I will show you the simple steps required. The way I look at it, media companies need to be forced to wake up and embrace the internet and it appears they will only do this if their revenue stream disappears. It happened with music (Napster led to I-tunes) so it will also happen with other forms of content. So without further delay, here is how to get any media you want for free:

1) Download a bit-torrent client program. I have found Utorrent to be the best program to use. There are other bit torrent programs you can use if you want. Follow the simple installation instructions.

2) Visit Utorrent's Beginners guide to BitTorrents to learn how bit torrents work, and how to set up your internet router for maximum download speed (port forwarding).

3) Visit any number of Torrent Tracker websites to find stuff to download. Some of the most popular ones are Mininova, Isohunt, and Torrentz.com. My personal favorite, as you might expect is Conspiracy Central which carries weird stuff from "The Unconventional Nature of Water to "Surplus: Terrorized Into Being Consumers." Plus, it removes items that content creators don't want distributed for free.

4) Click on the files you want (try and stick with torrents that have a large swarm of seeders), and then leave your computer on overnight. Depending on the size of the file and the swarm (# of people sharing) you may get the file sooner. I recently took several days getting a 9 GB collection of files. The beauty of torrents is that you can stop the program any time and come back to it later. As long as someone is seeding you are golden.

5) Don't download computer programs (e.g. filename.exe) unless you want a virus. I learned this the hard way.

My computer is slowing becoming my sole source of media. With Shaw cable charging an outrageous $500+ for an HDTV cable box, and with Over-the-Air HDTV not coming to Canada until at least 2011, I see no choice but to force idiotic media companies to embrace the internet.

Please note: File sharing is legal in Canada but may not be in your country. While this may change, I can only hope media companies wake up before it does. I would be happy to pay for content if I could get it easily over the internet.