BitTorrent, the cool new thing in intellectual property theft, appears to be suffering from an infestation of malware. According to a CNet News article, the anti-malware maker Sunbelt Software has discovered that music and video files retrieved through BitTorrent's decentralized file sharing system, were in fact infected with multiple types of malware.
In one case, an episode of the Fox TV show "Family Guy" was bundled with several pieces of known adware, according to Boyd. "Under that kind of load, a midrange PC can easily go under," Boyd said. Both spyware and adware are known to hurt PC performance because they use PC resources to run.
So if you're a BitTorrent user, be on the look-out. Personally, I think that if you get infected from willfully using a product like Kazaa, Morpheus, or now BitTorrent, it's really just a case of "lying with dogs, arising with fleas," and you're getting what you deserve. But your mileage may vary. :-P