# What are the legalities of **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 30, 2006, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-legalities-of/366621 "2006-07-30T22:44:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![diggleblop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ac91a4/32.png) [@diggleblop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/diggleblop)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2006, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-legalities-of/366621/1 "2006-07-30T22:44:07Z")
torrent trackers? Since they don’t host the files on their servers and only track the chunks of information, what are the legalities of such? Now I’m not asking how to set one up or links to such trackers, just links to laws regarding them. Out of curiousity. My apologies if it’s not allowed here. ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2006, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-legalities-of/366621/2 "2006-07-30T23:14:58Z")
You might find [this](http://isohunt.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=38933), [this](http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-6042739.html), [this](http://www.slyck.com/news.php?story=1106), [this](http://www.mpaa.org/press_releases/2006_02_23.pdf) (PDF WARNING!), and [these guys](http://www.eff.org/) interesting. The legality is a tough question. The MPAA is suing a number of torrent trackers for setting up websites for the express purpose of infringing on their copyrights. That’s not true, as the isohunt creator says–lots and lots and lots of torrents on the trackers don’t infringe on copyrights. You’d have to be born yesterday to think that the ones that do infringe on copyrights aren’t the main draw, though, so basically we’ll just have to wait and see what precedent gets set in the courts. For now, I wouldn’t call torrent trackers “illegal”, but anyone wishing to set one up would be well-advised to make sure they only track legal stuff, like _their own_ products (the Worms games are available through a torrent tracker run by the people who actually made the games, for example; nothin’ wrong with that) or non-copyrighted material–if only from a financial standpoint. ---
**Author:** ![SkipMagic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skipmagic/32/20706_2.png) [@SkipMagic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkipMagic)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2006, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-legalities-of/366621/3 "2006-07-31T03:35:22Z")
Off to GQ. ---
**Author:** ![diggleblop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ac91a4/32.png) [@diggleblop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/diggleblop)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2006, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-legalities-of/366621/4 "2006-07-31T04:41:12Z")
Thanks, fetus those are very informative links. I never knew about [eff.org](http://eff.org) before. Some great reading. But I wonder if there is any law written on torrent _trackers_ yet? I don’t think there is. Because as you well know from reading these threads you posted that trackers don’t actually host any files on the server, they just act as a middle man bringing file sharers together. And these sites getting sued are actually just search engines for trackers. Basically like google, but for trackers. I gave you a CD in real life and was like, “here take a listen” that’s kinda like file sharing and don’t think it’s illegal. I just think it’s a matter of time before precedent will be set on this issue in the Supreme Court. It needs to be done so all these people running these trackers can do so legally or not at all. No more wondering, ya know? ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2006, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-legalities-of/366621/5 "2006-07-31T07:13:34Z")
Nah. Now is _most definitely_ not the time to take this to the Supreme Court. Not that I can see it faring all that well in many lower courts, frankly, except maybe in New York or San Francisco.