Torrents

[Carol]

Carol:
> > Can someone explain to me what a torrent site is and whether it's
> > legal (and free) to download episodes of a TV series from one?

Ali responded: 
> Torrent (short for BitTorrent) is a file distribution method more
than anything else.  <snip>
> 
> Torrents are technically legal (in so far as file sharing is also
technically legal).  The grey zone is, of course, the illegal content
being distributed (software, movies, etc) - legal content like Linux
ISO are free and clear and often distributed via bittorrent.  TV shows
(being copyrighted content and all) are illegal for download (and the
networks are generally fighting back by supplying content on their own
websites or via sites like Hulu and Fancast).  This does not,
however,> mean you won't find your favourite TV shows on torrent
sites.  :)
<snip>

Carol again:
Thanks, Ali and Cabal. Both of you are talking over my head in
explaining how torrents work. My main concern is viruses (I went to
one site and a porn image kept popping up despite my pop-up blocker.
Ungood!) and copyright violation.

The particular TV show I want to watch is "Wonderland" with Ted Levine
and Michelle Forbes, cuttently being shown on DirecTV, which I don't
have. It's not being shown on cable. (Two episodes were shown on ABC
in 2000 but then the miniseries was cancelled for reasons I won't go
into here. All eight episodes have been shown in Sweden, Switzerland,
and other European countries, but not in the U.S.) I did download
(perhaps stupidly) all the episodes, but they have German subtitles
and the video quality is poor (dark and grainy). I'd like to view
better-quality U.S. versions safely and legally. (Hulu doesn't have
the show; I checked.) Guess I'm out of luck.

Carol, who would welcome any suggestions other than switching to
DirecTV, which is out of the question at the moment