Sorry about the corny title, I just needed to grab at one persons attention.

After a long gap in my fan film collecting I'm finally back. Trouble is, it appears that direct downloads are gone, torrents are almost non-existent, not to mention never seeded. The only way to get "stuff" seems to be these newsgroups everyone keeps talking about.

I'm completely baffled by it all and wondered if some of you guys that use them could point me in the direction of what is needed, and recommend some programs/sites to look at.

I gather that none of this is available for free, is that right?

I have googled around for guides but it all seems very complex and my head is beginning to hurt :)