I don't live in the US, so my ISP doesn't really seem to care what I torrent, but the megathread vehemently recommends to always use one. Since VPNs aren't cheap and I'm on a strict budget (wouldn't pirate otherwise), is it really that dangerous to torrent without one?
Just an FYI: for the cost of a VPN, you can buy a Usenet subscription. Depending on your content, you'll get far better speeds, far more privacy, far more content, and far more availability.
I used to be all over usenet. Starting about 10-12 years ago most of the indexers turned to shit; either that or takedowns have eviscerated the back catalog of content from providers. I've yet to find a good tracker that can find anything (that's more than 12-24 hours old).
I use usenet, but I find that I have a lot of issues finding content in other language than English. Also, finding rarer content is harder too. So I also use torrents to complete what I can't find over usenet. To this day I would like to get content in French, but it's hard.
This means that I still need a torrenting setup with VPN.
Yeah this is my setup. Sure it does mean you have to pay for a couple of things, but I find its the best way. Plug a Usenet provider and a couple of indexers into the aars, set it as highest priority, then some decent torrent trackers as lower prio.
Usenet will handle grabbing the majority of your requests without having to worry about seeding, ratio and such and the torrent trackers act as a fallback and for stuff like season packs which don't tend to get uploaded to Usenet and anything older or rarer that might not be available on usenet. So far though I've found it's not too much that doesn't get grabbed by usenet, but the torrent trackers are a nice backup.
Yes but it's not quite as easy. For example, QxR generally releases everything on 1337. On Usenet you're going to get a mix of re-ups, remixes from various groups, new groups you haven't heard of, and they might be on various indexers. Generally speaking, I have no issues finding a good quality x265 rip, but I might have to try a couple if I haven't heard of the release team. For this reason I've configured preferences in Radarr and Sonarr which will preference QxR, for example. I also include public torrent trackers.
My recommendation is to subscribe to Eweka when it's on promotion. I pay around $3/month since I pay for a year up front, and it recurs for that price.
Secondly, pay for NZBGeek.
Between those two you're mostly set. If you really start using your subscriptions a lot, you can look into alternate backbones and indexers.
You can automate all of this with Radarr and Sonarr. They are my favourite pieces of software ever.
It really depends on how likely you are going to be caught and what the consequences are. Your ISP may not care but copyright holders generally band together and have legal set ups in most countries both trying to take down servers and end users, lobby for legal changes including trying to criminalise copy right infingement.
Generally a trustworthy VPN is a very good idea not just for torrenting but for maintaining privacy and security when you are doing other things such as banking, or even just browsing. A VPN is about protecting all your data and internet traffic, not just protecting you when torrenting.
In terms of Torrenting, a Proxy may be enough and a lot of the best VPN providers do provide Proxy servers (that anonymise the detail of your Torrenting use but the rest of your computer use would be on the open internet) in addition to full VPN connections that secure your whole PC for P2P and non-P2P uses.
If a VPN seems too expensive, then there are companies that also only provide Proxy connecftions. BTGuard.com is an example; the Proxy only option is 30% cheaper than the full VPN option.
EDIT: Note though, a VPN is about anonymity. You need to trust your VPN provider as you're passing your data through them, and it is not a substitue for secure practices on the internet. You still need to be secure on the internet including only downloadling from trustworthy locations, using antivirus and malware protection, not installing software from insecure places, using HTTPS and securing your internet browser, turning on tracking protection & ad blocking, and even considering using virtualisation to protect yourself even more.
Nope! The server provider will definitely be monitoring your activity and probably will report you for torrenting. VPNs shift trust, even self-hosted ones. Do you trust Amazon AWS or Google Cloud or whatever provider you're using? I certainly hope not.
For a private tracker no, for public trackers it depends on your country. Some countries the worst you might get is an email or letter in the mail, other countries you will be sued. I even use a VPN for private trackers, let alone public trackers.
I've been torrenting in the US for a decade and a half without a VPN, including as a kid on my parents network LOL, and only got warnings, maybe once every couple years. Tons of copyrighted materials. ATT then Charter, YMMV.
Like many have said it really comes down to where you live and what your country / local ISP do about it. Where I am it's not an issue. That being said I still got a subscription to Surfshark, they had a great discounted offer for 24 months I think it was like 50 something dollars for first 24 mos (2 yrs) a steal. So do as you see fit, better to be safe than sorry
American here, I've torrented movies and anime for a few years now and only got one warning (For downloading "The Big Short" of of Pirate bay). I have since stopped seeding on that site, though a seed on smaller ones. I have had no issues with lawyers since.
My country only sees an issue if I'm producing and sitributing pirated content and is really behind on digital laws, and mostly they dont give a fuck. In universities they encourage you to pirate books even show you how, especially with scientific papers and stuff, back when playstation games where only physical there where whole stores dedicated to selling pirated games. Latin america I guess. But on top of that VPNs are freaking expensive. Depends on your situation thou
yes. sorry. it's cheaper then buying countless games and software, whatever you use it for. think of it as getting a massive discount on things you'd have been forced to buy otherwise. overtime, you'd spend thousands of dollars in games, etc. VPN monthly cost is a small price to pay comparibly
Just addressing the cost: Obviously cheap is a relative term depending on many factors, so I’m not going to say it’s “cheap” but mullvad is $5 usd/month, which is the best deal I’m aware of, and the best VPN I’ve used.
You all seem to be starting from the basis that downloading a torrent is illegal. It is not, it is only distribution/upload that's an issue. If you behave as a leech and kill it after you're done the worst you're going to get is a complaining letter from your ISP.
I torrent without a VPN and haven't had a single email from my ISP, but I presume it's because I'm a business customer.
You should hedge this advise. It may not be illegal where you are, but it certainly is here in the U.SA. if you’re downloading “unsanctioned copyrighted material.”
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