Let’s not turn this into what the Reddit subreddit of Piracy has turned into and that’s an endless sea of questions that are all the same - “Do I need a VPN?”.

And the loud and vocal answer to such a question is - yes. Yes you do need a VPN for pirating. Nobody gets a VPN for casual use and I’m under the impression that VPN services know a lot of people are going to be going to them for pirating and not just accessing content out of their country. And it’s for that reason, is why I’m skeptical on entrusting my activity with the bigger VPN names available.

I use ProtonVPN myself, by the way.

Pirating under your raw IP address, only will set you up to get pegged by your ISP whether it’s in a short time or a long time. I’ve only ever gotten one single ISP letter in my entire 26 years of pirating and it was simply because I downloaded without a VPN. Well I was also downloading off of someone else’s network to take the fall, but I was confronted about it either way.

And I’ve gotten away with so much pirating because of my careful cautiousness when it comes to pirating. That and this applies to the United States, but the statue of limitations is 3 years when it comes to copyright infringement. So, good fucking luck to any ISP or so that wishes to try and nail me for something I downloaded 10 years ago, but I digress.

But a large part of me avoiding so much does contribute to having a VPN. So, yes, VPN is required. Please don’t ask anybody in the pirating community 100 questions that are all just ways to ask whether or not you need a VPN. You do.

  • Melatonin@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    81·
    2 days ago

    Summation of arguments below: if you know a lot, then you know if you know if you need a VPN or not.

    If you don’t know if you need one, just get one.

    • GHiLA@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      5·
      2 days ago

      I’m just lazy.

      I can’t be bothered to wonder whether or not your specific flavor of piracy is tracking me or not, and I don’t really care to know.

      VPN and just don’t worry about it.

      If I hear my provider turned to shit, I move providers. Mullvad rn.

      • CmdrShepard42@lemm.eeEnglish
        2·
        2 days ago

        Mullvad isn’t good for torrenting anymore since they don’t have port forwarding but that probably doesn’t apply if you’re using Usenet, streaming, or some other form.

        • GHiLA@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          1·
          2 days ago

          …I never used port forwarding with them and it just kinda works?

          I pirate almost exclusively over Qbittorrent.

          there’s just gotta be a leak somewhere, that ain’t normal…

          If Mullvad is off, and I download a Pixar film, I will get a letter. I have.

          If it isn’t, I won’t. I don’t.

          shrug port forward or no port forward, the data still flows and my ISP can’t see it.

          • CmdrShepard42@lemm.eeEnglish
            1·
            2 days ago

            Without it, you won’t be able to connect to other peers unless they have port forwarding active. If enough people torrent without port forwarding, the whole system breaks down.

          • CmdrShepard42@lemm.eeEnglish
            2·
            23 hours ago

            It does work without port forwarding but only because the person on the other end has port forwarding active. You can’t connect to anyone that doesn’t have it set up.