Do I really need a VPN for pirating?

OK, so, I have a couple of questions:

  • What's the worst that can happen if I don't use a VPN while pirating?
  • Are free tier VPNs (like Proton VPN) good enough?
  • I don't want to pay much or anything for a VPN, is a way I can get a good free one, or set one myself somehow (I have experience with selfhosting) ?
  • If not, which cheap one do you recommend?

EDIT: I pirate mostly movies, and rarely some TV series.

radiofreeval ,
@radiofreeval@hexbear.net avatar

Where do you live? If you are in the global South, nobody cares and you can pirate raw as much as you want. If you live in the anglosphere, you should probably get one. I'm the US your ISP might give you a warning or two but they will probably cut service. If you're in Germany don't let the VPN ever come down.

blindsight , (edited )

In Canada, I've never bothered with a VPN. Nobody in Canada has ever been successfully sued for torrent downloading of media, and BC courts have thrown out mass John Doe cases as a waste of the legal system's time.

Even if it does go to court, there's a principal in Canadian law that damages can be at most three times the value of the good (for punitive damages). For BluRay that's, what, $50? They don't want to go all the way to a judgement to set the legal precedent of a $150 judgement.

Even if courts go beyond treble damages, there's a maximum fine of $5000 for non-commercial infringement. Even that isn't with their legal costs to pursue.

So non-commercial piracy is de facto legal in Canada.

(IANAL, this is not legal advice.)

Coasting0942 ,
  • they sue you for a portion of your future savings, because you single-handedly responsible for their imaginary loss of profits, judge agrees.
  • free tier vpns are good enough. But the competition amongst “no log” vpns is pretty fierce. People say you can only trust 3 specific vpns who would rather shut down than spy for a government, but if you’re just downloading movies then you can expand your choices.
  • the point of the vpn is to hide your ip address. Self hosting in your home defeats purpose. The best free option is using I2P for torrenting.
  • Wait till December for all the Christmas discounts. An annual bundle works out to $2-4 a month.
VinesNFluff ,
@VinesNFluff@pawb.social avatar

Depends what country you're in

VitabytesDev OP ,

I decided to not use a VPN, because I live in Greece and read online that, although piracy is illegal, no action is being taken for pirates.

VinesNFluff ,
@VinesNFluff@pawb.social avatar

In my country it is decriminalised unless you're doing it at a very large scale and charging money, so I'm home free.

My ISP does block most torrent trackers -- But changing DNS providers is enough to get around that.

GameEnder ,

Look in a Debird service. And pay with crypto.Then you are completely anonymous. All torrenting is done far from you and sent back over https.

0x0 ,

Cryptocurrency is not necessarily anonymous. Buying bitcoin from a broker leaves a record connecting your payment method to your wallet. Even if you mine them yourself, doesn't your IP address show up on the public ledger? I guess if you somehow bought bitcoin in cash...

Is there a more private cryptocurrency I'm not considering?

ruplicant ,
@ruplicant@sh.itjust.works avatar

Monero

GameEnder , (edited )

I consider it more private than like a credit card at least your name's not attached to it.

And if you really want to you can just use a credit card at an on-ramp exchange, then take that and swap it for a different crypto on a exchange that doesn't require any registration. Then it becomes effectively completely anonymous.

Lawn_and_disorder , (edited )

Monero is the private one. But also if you transfer your broker gotten bitcoins to another bitcoin wallet there is no evidence that that belongs to you. You can have sent them to someone else.

IPs do not show in any ledgers

Internet without VPN is like sending all your things on postcards instead of in envelopes in the mail. Yea https and more mitigate a lot but still.

DarkThoughts ,

Depends highly on your country. Generally, for file sharing (peer 2 peer such as torrents), yes.
For regular downloads & streaming sites, not so much, just a fully subscribed adblocker and a bit of brain juice. Although there had been some cases of peer 2 peer streaming in the past, but I think that was via flash players. I don't know if that's still a thing anywhere and if it is, I think it would not make it into the megathread (I hope).

meowMix2525 ,

If you're just watching movies and tv I highly recommend just grabbing one of the streaming sites from the masterlist. Use a good ad blocker and you're golden.

kylian0087 ,

Free and much better look up I2P

buh , (edited )
@buh@hexbear.net avatar

The worst outcome of torrenting without a VPN depends on what country you live in. In the US, theoretically the worst thing that can happen is going to prison for many years and paying a huge fine, but as long as you’re not monetarily profiting somehow, realistically you’ll get multiple warnings to stop from your ISP and the government before it escalates to that point. The worst thing that can happen is your ISP cancels your service and blacklists you, which can be bad if they have a monopoly on internet service in your area.

CaptainBasculin ,

Depends on how hard your country cracks down on individual piracy. If you've heard a friend of yours in the same country being served a copyright notice for pirating; you absolutely need a VPN. If you've never heard of this and the idea sounds impossible, you typically won't need it.

If you will need a VPN; I would heavily recommend Proton VPN for convenience. If you want to selfhost you're going to need a server in a different country which will still cost you money. Assuming you'll pay for a typical sbc + gigabit internet + electricity costs + remote maintenance costs and you'll be looking at a way bigger cost than just 60 euros a year. That's how much ProtonVPN costs.

downpunxx ,
@downpunxx@fedia.io avatar

If you have many choices for your Internet Service Providers where you are, go ahead, and if they terminate your service, sign up for another one, if there isn't, a VPN is absolutely necessary if only to protect your access.

supervent ,

You could use i2p for torrent it is free and secure, but slow

mynamesnotrick , (edited )
@mynamesnotrick@lemmy.zip avatar

Torrents yes, always VPN. If you're doing the debrid route, not required but personally I still do.

I am a big fan of mullvad VPN as they take no info from you to create an account. Can pay with crypto. No name, email or anything tied to their service. Used proton, nord and pia in the past.

Rocketpoweredgorilla ,
@Rocketpoweredgorilla@lemmy.ca avatar

The free plan on Proton doesn't let you torrent.

CorrodedCranium ,
@CorrodedCranium@leminal.space avatar
  • Are free tier VPNs (like Proton VPN) good enough?

Other people have already answered this but keep in mind a lot of them are browser based. Even if you are using a web UI for your torrent client that's not going to protect you. I've seen a few people here make that mistake.

  • I don't want to pay much or anything for a VPN, is a way I can get a good free one, or set one myself somehow (I have experience with selfhosting) ?

Have you considered looking into direct downloads?

They are a bit more work but if you are motivated on going in without protection it's a safer alternative.

If it helps you rationalise the cost of a VPN you can always think about how much money you save compare to paying for subscription services.

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