I can (and do) use the EC2 instance for other things. It often pulls quadruple duty. The available bandwidth also allows me crank up rtorrent to aggressively se

I can (and do) use the EC2 instance for other things. It often pulls quadruple duty. The available bandwidth also allows me crank up rtorrent to aggressively seek other peers, such that a typical 45 minute episode takes about 15 minutes to download in 1080p. I then feed the https URL to VLC and watch the file. Torrenting directly here always takes longer. I've never tried a VPN, but it wouldn't make the bits travel any faster. Additionally, in my household everything with a CPU and a network interface ends up getting cannibalized for some project or another. There must be a name for this phenomenon.