YAY EVERYTHING~

Happeh New Yeer. :D

The following post has been written for convenience, so that the next time somebody asks me (or you) about how to get files online, I (or you) can just link them here.

How to Get
-- for Free --
Various Media Files
such as music, movies, TV shows, books, etc.
on the Internet
(for beginners)

The absolute most fantastic thing about the Internet, in my opinion, is how it is progressively making everything available to everyone. A large portion of that everything is also gratis, in some cases illegally, but in many cases entirely within the law and endorsed by the whatever-thing's creator or copyright holder.

Here is a short rundown of how to access such things. ^_^

Torrents
Little files (a few kb) tell a little program (just a couple of MB) that you install (for free, and without spyware/adware crap) where all the little pieces of a big file (whole movies, music anthologies, sometimes 10Gb or more) are, and you download that file from many sources all at once, giving you big content in just a little time. :D

You need that little program first. The best options are:
For Mac: Transmission
For PC: µTorrent

Then you just need to find the little files (called torrent files) that point to everything. You can search for them on any regular search engine: simply search for "nameofthingthatyouwant torrent download". Alternately, you can use a dedicated torrent finder. My favorite torrent finder is isoHunt.

Peer-to-Peer (P2P)
Napster was this. There are still dozens (maybe hundreds) of programs that do this. It is the simplest form of live file sharing: you install a program that gives you a search function, you input search terms for what you want, and the program searches the file collections of all the other users on its network to find the file for you. The file is only available while both you and the other person are simultaneously using the P2P program, and download speeds can be slow if the person who has that file has a slow connection.

For either Mac or PC, I suggest using Frostwire. A lot of people use an older program called Limewire, but it sucks. Don't use it; it has spyware and adware and it's slow as hell.

PowerGoogle
Learn your operators, or use a file hunting script. If you've never used any special marks to enhance and refine your Google search, you will be surprised at the difference they make. You can find anything on the open Internet if you explain it to the search engine correctly.

There are other ways, but these are the simplest ones I know. Have fun, and please note that I haven't told you to do anything illegal. >w<