Is it just me, or doesn't that come with a high risk of viruses? Not only do you have to download it, but you have a chance of getting a virus from each computer, as well as the host site(I could be wrong on that) Even with the latest anti-virus software, the chances are still there. Also, I got confused at the end, but isnt this illegal. Not that it matters, but with a chance for a virus, as well of getting arrested, it doesn't strike me as a good idea. After all, anti virus software comes out after the virus. Especially when going to an anime site.

     That's one of the more clever parts of bittorrent. A file has something called a checksum, and when you have a complete uninfected file, you can use a special program to produce a checksum. What a checksum does is that it makes it so that every bit (note: bit is a size of data) in the download fits a numerical equation involving the checksum. So in a nutshell, if one person has a virus, the bit will not match and bittorrent will destroy the data and discontinue accepting data from that person.
     And now about the legality of ALL P2P apps. First of all, it is not illegal to use any P2P application. By all standards their original purpose was fine: An application designed to share files (not copyrighted ones) while not forcing an enormous amount of strain on a single computer. What is illegal is downloading and uploading copyrighted files. The reason that I point this out is because people often pick up this perception that P2P apps are banned, but if that were true then they wouldn't exist. The reason napster was sued was because the people who created the application actually also hosted music files, and therefore were actually breaking the law. The only thing fasttrack networks and gnutella networks (note: kazaa's network and limewire's network) do is just host ip addresses and offer an application to utilize these networks. So technically it's the users of the networks breaking the law, not the makers of te network. And on top of all that, the RIAA was sued (by fasttrack networks) for using kazaa-lite (and therefore violating their terms of service) to track down people offering music! AND THEY LOST. So all they can do now is host fake files that have lots of schreeching and whatnot to dissuade you from trying to download music. They can NOT ACTUALLY CATCH YOU ANYMORE. I don't actually use kazaa simply because I think it's a load of crap that normally gives you viruses and corrupted music, but oh well. And this is yet another difference between other P2P apps and Bittorrent: other P2P apps don't use checksums, so the file could be completely fake, and the P2P app wouldn't know.
     And on top of all that, Bittorrent is actually 100% legal, no strings attached. The only thing that is illegal are tracker sites that offer copyrighted materials. If you go and check animesuki.com, you'll notice that they have a sign saying that since Naruto was licensed in the united states, they no longer offer it. All the anime offered on Animesuki is illegal to download if you live in Japan, because it is licensed there, but 100% legal in America, because it is not internationally copyrighted yet. See why I love bittorrent so much?! GAH! It's AMAZING!

     It may also be of interest for you to know that viruses don't really infect avi files. In fact, it's really quite impossible to get a virus unless you run an infected program (this is things that do NOT NEED ANOTHER APPLICATION TO RUN, EXEs. This does not include videos, text files, etc), open an infected word document or macro, or view an infected jpeg image. People have this misconception that viruses can seep through everything to get to your computer, when the truth is that once they are on your computer, they seep into everything. Not to say you shouldn't be cautious, but there's a difference between caution and paranoia.

makes sense. Interesting. I knew about the legality issues, but I thought anime was liscensed here, making it illegal. Although I didnt know about the RIAA court case.

     Brian, you can't just "license Anime." That's the equivelant of me saying: Hey! Let's license TV! The reason copying a lot of movies is legal in most third world countries is because most third world countries don't have that specific movie licensed. But for Anime specifically...
     Anime in Japan is a hit or miss type of thing. Hundreds of series are produced each year, and as you may have noticed, we only get a few series a year. The cost of buying an international copyright license often is more then the studios who produce the series can afford. If the series does well in Japan then American companies will invest to have it translated, put into more Americanized terms, and then have voice actors speak it. They also have to invest in matching the animation mouths to match at least somewhat more accurately english speech rather then Japanese. As you can imagine, this costs huge gobs of cash that not many companies are willing to dole out, and therefore they are cautious about investing and so the licenses for most anime series stay in Japan. Which is why it's legal to download many anime.