Best Torrents: The Top 20 Torrent Download Sites of 2012

Disclaimer and legal warning for new torrent users: About.com does not condone illegal sharing of copyrighted material. While P2P file sharing technology is completely legal, many of the files traded through P2P are indeed copyrighted. Uploading these copyrighted files puts you at risk of a civil lawsuit in the USA, Canada, Australia, and the UK. While these lawsuits are often class-action suits, filed against groups of users who blatantly copy and distribute copyrighted materials, some lawsuits are harshly targeted at making examples of individual downloaders. These P2P civil lawsuits are very real, and whether or not they are successful, they are extreme financial and emotional burdens on the defendant.

ISP warning: your ISP may choose to release logs of your downloading/uploading activity to potential copyright plaintiffs. The more megabytes you download, the more you risk being sued by copyright protection groups.

1. Torlock Torlock is special. These folks actually pay their users commission for uncovering fake torrents and reporting it to their community. In a world of phony files, this is a tremendous service. If you are a regular downloader, and are tired of wasted downloads and fraudulent files, give Torlock a try.
   
2. Isohunt.com Isohunt is a longtime site that has earned both the respect of P2P users everywhere...and the negative attention of the recording industry. While being sued by the CRIA, the Isohunt team continues to provide solid service. The Isohunt community monitors itself for fake files. When choosing your torrents, read the user comments, and only trust those files that have earned multiple green positive replies at Isohunt. Avoid any torrents that have red font numbers and negative comments, and you should be have good experiences at Isohunt. NOTE: adult advertising has become very prevalent at Isohunt, but if you can put up with the skimpily-clad girls, this site continues to be one of the true standout torrent services.
3. Torrents.to This site has a Tonga country domain name, but certainly offers plentiful metasearching of movies and music in English and Spanish. There are some popup advertisements that are annoying, but perhaps you might like the framed interface for searching other torrent sites.
   
4. VCDQ.com: VCDQ.com isn't technically a torrent search site; rather, VCDQ specializes in verifying torrents. VCDQ employs a committee of serious users to confirm that torrents do indeed exist for thousands of titles, especially brand new movie releases. Use VCDQ to confirm that a title is available, then copy the torrent name to paste into a search engine like Isohunt.com. Definitely give VCDQ.com a try; this is a great resource for avoiding fake torrent files.
   
5. Fenopy has some compelling features. Fenopy is fully integrated with IMDB and Last.fm radio, so it offers engaging information for discovering movies and music. A graphics gallery of large and motivating thumbnails adorns the home page, and the fake finder feature is also very useful for avoiding bad files. Definitely give Fenopy a try.
6. Kick Ass Torrents.com This site is a newer favorite with a growing community.  The interface is a distinctive earth color, and the search results display in a useful format of columns, including torrent health.  The best part of Kick Ass Torrents is their comment and feedback system... the user community watches the quality of torrents, and offers their recommendations and warnings. Kick Ass Torrents could become a very big player in the P2P world of 2010.  Check these folks out, and let's see if they grow in user size.
    
7. Flixflux: a UK torrent site that is very popular with European downloaders. The advertising is not suitable for young people, and the sponsored links get mixed in with the torrent results. But many UK readers highly recommend this site for movies and music.
   
8. Demonoid.me Demonoid is a longtime semi-private community, and members are held liable for any leeching that their invited friends do in this community. If you are lucky enough to get a Demonoid membership, invite your friends carefully, lest you lose your own membership. This site is one of the pillars of P2P culture, and is home to thousands of serious P2P users.
   
9. TorrentZap: TorrentZap is not as large of a catalog as other torrent search engines. And, as with all sites, you need to endure advertising to keep it a no-cost service. But the interface is clean, bright, and easy to navigate. Try this site out, skip past the 'external search results' to find the real torrents at TorrentZap, and let us know what you think.
   
 
10. Torrentcafe.com This site is relatively new, and needs to grow its user base some more. But Torrentcafe comes highly recommended by several About.com readers, so please give it a try and let us know how you like it.
    
11. LinuxTracker.org (For legal linux torrents and virtual machines.)
    
12. Torrent Root: as another metasearch engine, Torrent Root will scan through other search engines on your behalf, and display the results in a slick tabbed interface.
    
13. Torrent Tree
    This search site is written in Ajax code language. Like any metasearch engine, Torrent Tree pulls its results from many other search engines. But Torrent Tree pulls *more* search results than any other current metasearcher. Definitely give this site a try.
    
14. CinemaTorrents: this site offers something really unique: IMDB ratings and vote information right on the search page. You can see public opinions on the movie itself before you download.
    
 
15. BitSnoop.com This site was recommended by reader Melody, who speaks very highly about its navigability, reliability, and clean design.  Using a growing community of users to help police the content, BitSnoop offers minimal advertising and reassuring tagging of good torrents.  Look for the green 'verified' tags, and you're bound to find good downloads here.  Definitely try BitSnoop.com, and let us know what you think of this newer site.
     
16. Torrentbit.nl This Netherlands site offers a simple interface and large index of torrents. It also offers a broad selection of European language movies and music.
    
   
17. Plentyoftorrents: this is a kind of launchpad search engine that offers choices where you want to search.  Multiple users have recommended Plentyoftorrents this summer; let us know what you think of this site.
     
18. Nowtorrents.com Now Torrents (allegedly) offers a special service: it filters out fake/dead torrents. It also offers date-range searching, so you can search for specific years of content (e.g. Flight of the Conchords, 2008).
    
19. Scrapetorrent.com is another torrent meta-search engine that is gaining popularity. The site can be slow to load, but the interface is pleasing, and advertising is kept to a minimum at Scrapetorrent.
    
 
20. Blues Brothers: Blues Brothers is a private site with a strong community and file-sharing ethic. As a private site, you can expect the leeching (selfish) users to be reduced. The BB community also strives to police itself by carefully watching each member's upload ratio... if you abuse your ratio, you are blocked from downloading until you donate. This policy may seem a bit harsh, but members seem to really appreciate it.

Articles Links : http://netforbeginners.about.com/od/peersharing/a/torrent_search.htm