T-minus 14 hours and counting: seven reasons why Torrents are buzzing with illegal Leopard seeds

Always clued-in David Kravets of Wired.com THREAT LEVEL blog has been noticing detection of BitTorrents that seem to be carrying illegal files of Apple's new (as in being released in 14 hours from time of this post) Leopard operating system.

Not only is this practice illegal, but it is as dumb as rox.

Eric Garland of Big Champagne predicts the same for Leopard.

Playing purloined music and movies is one thing, but relying on an unauthorized system to run one's computer operation is another, he said.

"If you're going to use a system to run your life, you're less likely to take chances with an illegitimate copy. It's the lunatic core of people who are excited about it and want to play with it first," said Eric Garland, CEO of Internet analysis firm BigChampagne.

Yup, Eric has it right. "Lunatic core."

Why then?

Here are seven possible reasons, some of which can be overlapping:

1. You've got some of your own content and can't wait to work with it on Leopard.

2. To game the system. You're a rebel.

3. To not have to pay for Leopard.

4. To stick it to Steve, he who you feel may have Jobbed you about how much you paid for the iPhone.

5. To use it as an eval copy before you do the right thing and buy the official, full version.

6. To be first on your block with Leopard. Ah, the jealousy your fellow Macs will feel, and the ego-boost you will get from that.

7. You are more of a passive user, but you await everything Apple releases with impatience. You had to have it early. Patience is not one of your virtues.

Maybe some of you readers have more reasons to add?