Complicated ethics of seeding torrent files.

A lot of people say things like "Don't download if you're not going to seed, it's not all take and no give!" I understand this, and I try to seed a good file when I can. However, so far I've only been using shared internet connections, so when I use a lot of speed, others on my home network feel the drag. Who am I more obligated to, the people in my house who share in paying for service, or the multitudes of the internet?

I'm not justifying, I honestly want to hear various opinions.

 

I leave the computer on at night and seed when everyone is sleeping. I think that's the best option unless you have one of them old AOL pay by the minute connections.

 

I dont have a problem NOT seeding when I need the computer for something...but I will seed for awhile when I'm sleeping or something...and hey if my old man is up at 2:00 AM looking at porn or something then I say let his connection be slow

 

I generally set my upload rate around 5-10 KB/s during high-use times, and, like others, increase the upload speed to maximum while my wife and I are at work or asleep. Of course, it's just the two of us, so the "ethics" aren't quite as complicated, but as long as you're using a GOOD torrent client, decreasing the upload rate should allow you to seed around the clock (I noticed that Azureus tends to ignore bandwidth allocations, but uTorrent works well for me).

 

do the people paying for the network connection know that you are using theirs, or have you hijacked it?

if you are hijacking someone else's internet, then you have an entirely different ethical problem. i think you have a larger debt to those you steal internet from than you do those who share files across the internet. i would use the internet sparingly if you have hijacked it. if you are legitimately sharing an internet connection, then you should use the internet sparingly to be courteous but reasonable use is fine. you can set up torrent applications to seed at high speed between early hours like 1am to 6am and then also during daytime week day hours like 9am to 3pm or so.

 

By home network, I'm assuming he's referring to people who split the cost of internet with him. Therefore, the bandwidth belongs to all of them.

As others have stated, throttle your torrents. I use uTorrent; you can adjust your global upload rate or that of individual torrents. As for the responsibility question, I'd say it's first and foremost to the people who are actually paying for the net. Don't make it hard for people to surf normally; be courteous. Just seed at a lower speed.

 

Thanks for the allocation tip. I will do that next time I do a big download.

As far as the internet stealing goes...Huh? Where was that implied?

 

masterchef341 probably didnt understand your post and thought you where stealing internet from your neighbors it probably stems from the fact that "home network" can mean so many things (NOT)

 

Hmm yeah, I don't see where this implied stealing came from.

If someone had said: I took out the family's van to run some errands, does that mean you found some random "family" and took their car w/o their permission?

 

whenever i download, i set my upload rate to 40KB/s max. During the evening, i set it to max and as soon as the upload ratio hits 1:1 i terminate it.

 

I would see a lot more if I had a desktop rather than a laptop, I do not like leaving my laptop on all night and during the day I'm usually on it playing high band with games.