Whenever we think of downloading pirated movies, shows, web series, or mod apps, just one name comes to mind: Torrent. It's free, and most of us have used it at some point in our lives, and many of us are still doing it now.

Torrents, for those unfamiliar, are powerful file distribution networks that make piracy impossible to prevent. In actuality, torrent files are not downloaded from a central server; rather, they are downloaded from the PCs and mobile devices of the thousands of users who have already downloaded the files on their devices. This means that any website associated with Torrent does not hold the material, and if the government shuts down those websites, the website owners can just purchase a new domain and use it to submit Torrent links.

Torrenting is prohibited in many countries, as most of you are aware. Have you ever wondered who started such a massive piracy network and where that person is now? So, in this post, I'll address all of your torrent-related questions. Torrents are a boon to hundreds of thousands of people in today's society since they allow them   to feast on exclusive and premium content for free.

However, this falls under the definition of piracy, which is a criminal violation. Despite this, people still use torrents. 

Bram Cohen is the one who introduced people to Torrent. When and why did Bram create Torrent, though? The story begins on, October 12, 1975. Bram was born into a prosperous household; his father was a computer scientist, and his mother was a teacher. He had always been different from other kids, and he was fascinated by science and technology. He began studying computer programming at the age of five. He graduated from New York's Stuyvesant High School and was accepted to the University of Buffalo for further education, but he quit his studies to pursue career opportunities.

Bram worked for a variety of companies throughout this time. He was a brilliant student from the start, yet he never secured a position in a top tech company. Working in small businesses has benefited Bram. Because, for whatever reason. As a result, he learned about several previously unknown topics in the computing industry. Torrent was largely inspired by his previous position in Mojonation, which proved to be his greatest source of inspiration. Mojonation aimed to create a decentralized file sharing and distribution system. The primary idea was that instead of using a central server, files might be split up and saved on separate computers.

When a person tries to download a file, he will need the help of all other computers, and a hacker will not be able to break into any machine and grab the entire file.

Bram was inspired by this notion to create a file-sharing protocol. Bram thought this strategy was ideal for file sharing and chose to use it to bring his file-sharing protocol to life. Bram resigned from his job and spent a year implementing the protocol, which he named BitTorrent after. Bram created the first BitTorrent client using Python and released the first version on July 2, 2001.

To engage with people, he began pushing a tech conference called CodeCon, which he co-founded with his friend Len Sassaman. CodeCon was a well-known tech conference in the 2000s, with attendees including Sergey Brin and Elon Musk. To attract a huge number of people, he attempted a new strategy and offered people the opportunity to download adult movies for free. It succeeded, and Bit Torrent user traffic climbed with each passing day. But he didn't want to be an adult film distributor, so after building up a large user base, Bram stopped seeding these films. However, many users learned to seed and exchange files at this time.

There were no cloud storage platforms back then, and the storage and bandwidth requirements made it prohibitively expensive for website owners to host larger files.  This difficulty was remedied with the introduction of torrents, which allowed multiple users to host the file at the same time instead of just one.

Torrent became the most popular method of downloading and sharing large movies. When people started sharing copyrighted content on BitTorrent, it became the main focus of the prosecutors' against piracy, and Bram cleared it before he built BitTorrent. His main goal was to give people a place where they could exchange big files easily and without having to send money, not for piracy. If users are doing this for reasons such as piracy, Bram claims it is not his fault.

Even though prosecutors were attempting to bring charges against BitTorrent, Bram was aware of the situation and had preparations to avoid it. He never engaged in piracy and never forced anybody else to do so. Prosecutors were unable to construct a case against Bram Cohen in this instance, and when asked how to curb piracy, he stated that if copy-righted work is made affordable and easily accessible, piracy will cease to exist.

Although copyright holders could not directly ban Torrent, prosecutors began taking action against piracy links in 2007.

In 2007, Bram Cohen struck an agreement with seven American studios in which Bram committed to erase all piracy links on Torrent. However, as Bram began deleting links, new Torrent websites such as The Pirate Bay and RARBG arose, and their strategy to eradicate piracy failed. When prosecutors were unable to obtain information from Bram and Bit Torrent, they began targeting file seeders and hosts using IP addresses, allowing them to track every seeder and take legal action against them.

However, as services such as Netflix, Hotstar, and Amazon Prime Video began offering copyright content at low prices, the use of pirated websites has reduced.

When someone is found guilty of piracy, their life is usually turned upside down. However, the person who built the world's greatest piracy network was never convicted. He's moved on from torrent and now runs the chia network, a cryptocurrency firm.