There seems to be a sub-group of salty dogs that sail without protection. They are often US saying they get lots of letters from ISP but nothing comes of it, lately. I’m one to hedge on the side of caution and will be continuing to use VPN but just wondering how much this is just a loud minority and how much truth is to it?
Can you elaborate what you mean? If someone lives in an oppressive country e.g. China, with many blocked sites or censured internet, I understand. But if you don’t live in such a country what would be a usecase apart from piracy?
Well, one of the biggest reasons to have a VPN is just the privacy. Your ISP spies on you, and sells your browsing data to corporations like Amazon. A good VPN will also block ads, trackers, and malware, which helps keep you safe while browsing. You might also be on an ISP that throttles some types of traffic, such as streaming media.
A VPN, as long as it’s set up right, prevents anyone from seeing what you’re doing, even if they have access to your traffic. And if you’re in the US, there’s a strong argument that being free from casual intrusion into your internet habits by corporations and the government is a Constitutional right.
In a private tracker, I assume there are no narcs. If there was one they’d have to get a list of IP addresses for their intellectual property, then track down dozens of different ISPs to send them notices. If get a notice, I will delete the media, my account, etc. In court, the only proof they have is that my IP downloaded content. I will show them my public unprotected guest network, letting them know it was probably one of my neighbors. Unless they can find a copy, there’s not much more they can do. This is not legal advice. For actual legal advice see EFF.org.
Afaik in Germany you could be held responsible for not securing and taking measures for unprotected gust networks. That’s why usually those places have easy passwords like “Passwort123” or “WartezeitBeimTermin”. Just to fend of the rogue bypassers
It depends how paranoid you are. If it comes to piracy I say use VPN all the time. They less someone knows about you the better in the long run. VPN helps to encrypt your traffic so even ISP can’t see what you are doing. So I highly recommend using VPN to everyone. But the way you use it also very important. If you going to use a VPN don’t ever use your real info over VPN or use email that you use for your job/resume for example. Third-party VPN should only be used for piracy nothing else. And if you want to encrypt all your traffic for real info like shopping, I highly recommend bying a small server and hosting your own VPN for that. I’ve seen countless of times when people use VPN they still continue to use there real name/email/address and do shopping/banking while at same time doing piracy. So even if you use VPN be smart.
The problem with this question is that it’s a whole lot more nuanced than “Do I need it?”. In short the only time you could possible benefit from one is if you use torrents, and even then it’s really only public torrents. From there it depends on whether the swarm is monitored, and given how you simply can’t know that it’s safer to just assume that it is. But even if it is, will your ISP bother to forward the DMCA notices to you, and if they will, will they care if you take no action?
If you check enough boxes it’s likely worth it “just in case”, although at that point you might as well look into debrid services.
Instead of spending money on a vpn and it might not work with port forwarding and me having to make sure my uptime is working I decided to spent the cash on a seedbox instead.
Any issue? Open a ticket with support and be done. No need to make yourself crazy why something is not working as it did 2min ago.
Thank you for the link. I literally hadn’t seen anything of people being prosecuted since the mid-2010s so that was very informative. Outside of the NSFW category of torrents has any game or tv series led to indictments?
A VPN literally does not change anything that comes through to you from the internet. I mean, thats the whole point, isn’t it? So, actually using a VPN you are “rawdogging” the internet, not the other way round.
I only use a vpn on public trackers, on private trackers I don’t use a vpn.
But generally if you don’t live in a third world country you should almost always use a vpn.
I live in Germany and luckily my ISP doesn’t care about torrenting.
OP here living on the edge.
I usually only download through my seedbox located in NL.
Luckily a VPN connection is included with my seedbox and recently had a reason to use it for torrenting from a private page.
I’ve been torrenting for almost 20 years and no one cares here where I live. I got VPN few months ago anyway, paying 5€/mo and I sleep better. The problem is I had to change provider already (Mullvad -> AirVPN). Its not easy to find proper VPN with port forwarding and Im afraid there will be even less providers in the future. Maybe I’m wrong, but feels like I’ll have to ditch PF in near future.
Those letters are often void threats. ISPs are not really the right plaintiff to bring priacy cases to court. The only thing they can do is to terminate service but that is obviously not in their interest.
Just if you are already paying for a VPN and the download/upload speed is acceptable, there is no point in getting yourself in trouble no matter how small the odd is.
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I mean, a VPN protects you from a lot more than just copyright trolls. Even if you’re not sailing the high seas, it’s better to have one than not.
Can you elaborate what you mean? If someone lives in an oppressive country e.g. China, with many blocked sites or censured internet, I understand. But if you don’t live in such a country what would be a usecase apart from piracy?
Well, one of the biggest reasons to have a VPN is just the privacy. Your ISP spies on you, and sells your browsing data to corporations like Amazon. A good VPN will also block ads, trackers, and malware, which helps keep you safe while browsing. You might also be on an ISP that throttles some types of traffic, such as streaming media.
A VPN, as long as it’s set up right, prevents anyone from seeing what you’re doing, even if they have access to your traffic. And if you’re in the US, there’s a strong argument that being free from casual intrusion into your internet habits by corporations and the government is a Constitutional right.
In a private tracker, I assume there are no narcs. If there was one they’d have to get a list of IP addresses for their intellectual property, then track down dozens of different ISPs to send them notices. If get a notice, I will delete the media, my account, etc. In court, the only proof they have is that my IP downloaded content. I will show them my public unprotected guest network, letting them know it was probably one of my neighbors. Unless they can find a copy, there’s not much more they can do. This is not legal advice. For actual legal advice see EFF.org.
Afaik in Germany you could be held responsible for not securing and taking measures for unprotected gust networks. That’s why usually those places have easy passwords like “Passwort123” or “WartezeitBeimTermin”. Just to fend of the rogue bypassers
It’s a minority.
people fuck strangers without condoms
A VPN is not a condom … Literally doesn’t do shit against infections
VPN without a doubt.
A VPN subscription is super cheap and even if your risk without one is minor, I see little reason to not use one just in case.
It depends how paranoid you are. If it comes to piracy I say use VPN all the time. They less someone knows about you the better in the long run. VPN helps to encrypt your traffic so even ISP can’t see what you are doing. So I highly recommend using VPN to everyone. But the way you use it also very important. If you going to use a VPN don’t ever use your real info over VPN or use email that you use for your job/resume for example. Third-party VPN should only be used for piracy nothing else. And if you want to encrypt all your traffic for real info like shopping, I highly recommend bying a small server and hosting your own VPN for that. I’ve seen countless of times when people use VPN they still continue to use there real name/email/address and do shopping/banking while at same time doing piracy. So even if you use VPN be smart.
The problem with this question is that it’s a whole lot more nuanced than “Do I need it?”. In short the only time you could possible benefit from one is if you use torrents, and even then it’s really only public torrents. From there it depends on whether the swarm is monitored, and given how you simply can’t know that it’s safer to just assume that it is. But even if it is, will your ISP bother to forward the DMCA notices to you, and if they will, will they care if you take no action?
If you check enough boxes it’s likely worth it “just in case”, although at that point you might as well look into debrid services.
Instead of spending money on a vpn and it might not work with port forwarding and me having to make sure my uptime is working I decided to spent the cash on a seedbox instead.
Any issue? Open a ticket with support and be done. No need to make yourself crazy why something is not working as it did 2min ago.
BUT it’s more expensive than hosting a seedbox.
Plenty of people have unprotected sex. That doesn’t stop a portion from getting AIDs. I can give you plenty of stories of people downloading a hot (monitored) torrent and then paying thousands of dollars in legal fees after ignoring the notice.
Get a VPN, or a Debrid service if you are strapped for cash. Why roll the dice when you don’t have to?
Thank you for the link. I literally hadn’t seen anything of people being prosecuted since the mid-2010s so that was very informative. Outside of the NSFW category of torrents has any game or tv series led to indictments?
Have you ever read https://torrentfreak.com/ you’ll see people getting into trouble all the time.
HIV is the virus, AIDS only develops if it’s untreated.
Treatments are actually very good and widely available now, such that there will be practically no incidence of AIDS by 2023.
Why would you want to rawdog the internet?
A VPN literally does not change anything that comes through to you from the internet. I mean, thats the whole point, isn’t it? So, actually using a VPN you are “rawdogging” the internet, not the other way round.
I want to feel every 0 + 1, maybe even a 2.
I only use a vpn on public trackers, on private trackers I don’t use a vpn.
But generally if you don’t live in a third world country you should almost always use a vpn. I live in Germany and luckily my ISP doesn’t care about torrenting.
OP here living on the edge.
I usually only download through my seedbox located in NL.
Luckily a VPN connection is included with my seedbox and recently had a reason to use it for torrenting from a private page.
What ISP are you using?
My current ISP is VSE, Innogy highspeed, E.on Highspeed or whatever name they’ll be using next. They change their name every few months or so
Sadly they do CG-NAT which is a dealbreaker for me :/
They offer a dedicated IP for around 1 Euro per month. Recently I noticed they also enabled IPv6 natively
Still stuck with someone not willing to go >50mbit/s at home. I will try to keep them in mind once it comes to it ;)
Thank you!
I’ve been torrenting for almost 20 years and no one cares here where I live. I got VPN few months ago anyway, paying 5€/mo and I sleep better. The problem is I had to change provider already (Mullvad -> AirVPN). Its not easy to find proper VPN with port forwarding and Im afraid there will be even less providers in the future. Maybe I’m wrong, but feels like I’ll have to ditch PF in near future.
I thought Mullvad had portforwarding?
Yeah it had, but not anymore…
Those letters are often void threats. ISPs are not really the right plaintiff to bring priacy cases to court. The only thing they can do is to terminate service but that is obviously not in their interest.
Just if you are already paying for a VPN and the download/upload speed is acceptable, there is no point in getting yourself in trouble no matter how small the odd is.
I’d always use a VPN, you never know what could happen in the future. Better be safe than sorry!