I really recommend Usenet.
Unlike torrents you download direct from a server rather than other people, its a lot lot faster. You also don't have to upload/share... which is arguably better in the terms of legality, because they tend to target the distributors more than the receivers.
If you use NZB files then its no more complex than torrents. Usenet generally works better with networks etc than torrents... I didn't need to set up port forwarding and all that rubbish for usenet.
You just find what you need, download the NZB, open it with the program and away you go.
The only downside is having access to a Usenet server. There are hundreds of providers, and all of different qualities. Usually you will buy say an account that allows you for example 50 gigs a month, or you can get someone places that just allow you to purchase 50 gigs to use for whenever you want. Personally I have an unlimited account, I pay £7 ($14) from newsdemon (there was a promo on, i probably still have the coupon code if anyone wants it).
There's a lot of things to look at with a usenet provider.
There's retention, which is basically how long a file is actually kept on the servers. And completion, now much % of the entire usenet content is kept on that particular server. Usually you'd want like 99.99% completion. Retention depends on what you're downloading.
Your ISP might have its own Usenet server, which is great because access is free and coming straight from your ISP usually means awesome speed. The downside is that a lot of ISP's don't carry the more questionable groups and retention can be like a few days at most. It's always worth checking out your ISP's service.
What a few people do is buy the say 50gig blocks that don't expire. Then use the free ISP service for everything available on the ISP's service. And only dip into the premium service if there's a problem file.
The thing to bare in mind with usenet is that often things get uploaded to two groups or more. So say something of interest to tempers isn't in the group dedicated to those things, it might be in the general group that is just loads of random stuff. (which is the case 99% of the time). And the general group of random stuff is often carried.
I have a usenet PDF guide that I wrote somewhere. I should find it lol.
-Little
