Like that infamous “ET” torrent in 1982 where it involved a “pirate” sneaking a huge JVC camcorder (with a VHS reel) recording the entire movie in theaters, given this was before DVD’s existed (don’t even ask about pirate bay, those weren’t available yet). The same applies to “torrented” music, one would have a spare tape cassette recording the song played via the radio, that’s how they torrented content back then if they can’t afford an official copy.
Only millennials or Gen X who were kids back then would’ve encountered or witnessed VHS or Cassette “torrents” from either friends or family and often or not, piracy in the pre internet days was rife even before torrent sites were a thing. There are VHS “torrents” of TV shows or series (placing a camcorder which faces the TV screen with a spare reel recording the entire show (ads included), then used to fast forward upon replay.
a lot of people made copies of LPs and tapes, or recorded off the radio… and those often got passed around at school. someone having two VCRs to make copies of movies wasn’t nearly as common. we lived in small towns or out in the boonies, so there weren’t any ‘retailers’ selling bootlegs or copies either.
i do remember downloading a few of those old cam releases back in the stone age of the internets (slow dialup). super low res and quality, often unstable video and/or audience noises. but hey, it was ‘good enuf’.