I disagree. A trade is a trade with two parties exchanging stuff, usually on a 1:1 basis, but 2:1 trades are trades too.

Torrenting however is not trading shows, it is sharing them. When you seed a show, you do so because you want to share the fun with others, with no direct expectations involved. You don't seed a torrent expecting every single user that downloads your show to seed exactly / at least one other show. Of course you hope so, but it's not an obligation as with a trade.

The live music trading trackers only work if the majority of people are into the sharing philosophy, i.e. giving without expecting anything (directly) in return. You just gotta have faith that in the end you'll end up with the shows you're interested in because you know that other people also share what they have without any expectations.

So IMHO torrents are not only different from snail mail trades in a technical sense, but also in the way sharing via BT depends much more on having faith in others and a sense of responsibility.