Despite years of litigation by copyright holders, BitTorrent clients are hugely popular. And because they act as part of a peer-to-peer system that lets multiple users work together, they remain the best way to distribute large files across the Internet. With the advent of media-portal style clients like Vuze 4.2, just about anyone can get started watching high-definition video using file sharing as the backbone.

The easiest way to find new content is to run a Google search and tack on the word "torrent" at the end. The problem is that when faced with a blank search box, it's all too tempting to think of things that would normally cost money. That means BitTorrent clients, as always, can be used for both legal and more nefarious purposes—even if the clients and protocol themselves are within the law.

Fortunately, there are plenty of legal sources for torrents. One is the aptly named, which has plenty of music, movies, and games. Other legal sites include, which offers a search box interface; for open-source software fans; and the newer, which is still in beta but currently offers torrent files across a broad range of categories such as video, TV, games, and software.

In addition, many people torrent legitimate copies of major artist releases. For example, Trent Reznor (of Nine Inch Nails) has made lossless-encoded copies of his free album, The Slip, available on BitTorrent sites. Those files take up hundreds of megabytes; the resulting crash of fans downloading them at the album's release would strain just about any regular Web server, but it's no problem for BitTorrent. In addition, BitTorrent also remains a great way to download open-source software, such as Linux distributions and the suite.

With that, here's our look at the three most popular BitTorrent client apps. BitTorrent's own mainline client, BitTorrent 6.2 is now a virtual clone of the lightweight, fast uTorrent 1.8.4—which is still available separately. Vuze 4.2 includes plenty of media features and offers a more integrated, if somewhat inconsistent torrent experience. If you have a PC, Mac, or Linux machine with a Web browser and a high-speed Internet connection, all you need is one of these free clients to get started.

Bittorrent 6.2 BitTorrent 6.2

BitTorrent 6.2 is a good default option as a mainline peer-to-peer client and performs admirably, but it's puzzling why BitTorrent incorporated the uTorrent code without actually combining the two clients together.

uTorrent 1.8.4 uTorrent 1.8.4

uTorrent is still the top choice for file sharing on peer-to-peer networks, with a tiny memory footprint and plenty of controls for managing bandwidth.

Vuze 4.2 Vuze 4.2

Vuze 4.2 overcomes the usual obscure torrent client interface and makes it more of a complete visual media experience; an expansive network makes it easy to find HD video content.