I don't know anything of this P2P stuff, other than I use Bit Torrent to get official Linux software versions. This thread tweaked my interest, so in the name of research I tried to get a random film (French Connection). OK, I know its breaking copyright law, but I wanted to test out the concept. I tried Bit Torrent and downloaded Limewire, searched on Mininova etc. for seeds, and pretty much gave up after a couple of days. I could have waited till lunchtime tomorrow, and gone down to the library, picked up a free DVD loan, and still beaten P2P.
The best download speed I could find was less than 25K on a 2M connection- about a 1.5 day download! Am I missing something, or is this typical? I was also less than impressed with the seedy smut and mal-ware 'push the fart button' type environment it's necessary to enter. Not for me!