It seems like this is a major topic of debate lately, so I'd like to make the official Torrent vs. Buy rant post.

With torrent hosting sites being pulled down left and right, some say it's for the best of the economy, while others stand for the internet freedom of sharing intellectual property.

How do you stand?

As a person who read the tags you've posted and hadn't found the word "buy" in them i'll just answer: "internet freedom" as i'm sure this is the answer you are seeking and that it will make you happy. 😊
expected replies:
1. haha exactly! I love torrent.

It looks like I actually forgot the tag, most likely because "buy" isn't the best term. If I could edit it to add "buy", I would. @achehab

@Tippy i was really hoping you loved torrent :p. Anyways, ethically i vote for "buying", but i will not lie and say I didn't use torrent before. Cheerz

I'm ask for sharing of informaion, research, and things people can genuinely benefit from, but as far as other stuff, meh... Torrents are a great way to share information in large volumes quickly, and I appreciate that.

Should say, "I'm all for..."

I really don't like the mindset that suggests that because it's encoded digitally, it should therefore be free to do whatever you want with it. As a programmer, you know how much work goes into a creation ... music, photography, cinema all take as much or more work to create.

I'm all for sharing of knowledge and information.

But don't be a fucking thief.

If the creator licensed it to be used openly, great. If not, respect it and do without or get it legitimately.

Most of the devs I know are self learnt. They used internet and torrent sources to study.
Imagine a course being available online for 100$ and on torrent sites its free.
For a college going student paying that much amount (mind you in India that's Rs 6000) just for a few weeks course is unreasonable.
But we certainly do need to learn.
Obviously if people like me had enough money, why won't we not respect developers' work.
But to become that much worth, we certainly need some help. Torrents has always been there for me, every site that gets pulled down hurts me a little.

Yup I am a torrent supporter but certainly not a thief. The only subscription I have is of laracasts, because now I can afford it, but back in college I would have easily chosen torrents.

Hope people understand!

I would have never gotten into IT without the Swedish cracking/demo scene on C64 and Amiga. Switching to PC at 18 years old or so I made a conscious choice to pay for my programs and games. But paying scarcity based prices for an endless resource quickly became frustrating. That turned me towards FOSS and now when I'm hired to do stuff I usually charge for my time and let the product be open.

Torrents aren't just for pirated stuff... They are used for speeding up massive downloads, like Kali Linux...