Biscuit Chucker,
I use Bit Torrent. It is great for catching TV shows we missed or for my wife and mother in law, shows like East Enders, which BBC America no longer carry.
I am in the World of WarCraft Beta. Blizzard North distributed the Beta via Bit Torrent. That says a lot for the technology.
SoftTop,
The way Bit Torrent works is, the faster you can upload, the more data is sent for you to download. (Your download speed is a function of your upload speed.) If you were to disable your upload, then Bit Torrent would not download anything to you.
Take Care,
Richard