Ive thought about torrents but they require a paid vpn from what i know? I dont really want to pay, which is why im thinking about piracy because im not made of money and cant afford a vpn. Im just not sure if its possible to be safe and sail the seven seas all for free?

What would you advise i do? what did you do when starting out?

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[–] nullptr@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 day ago (2 children)

It depends where you are in the world. Some countries care more about copyright laws. Sometimes you can get away with torrenting with little to no consequences.

Otherwise, stick to direct download and streaming websites. There are a lot of great sites for movies and tv shows. They tend to come and go. Just remember to install an ad blocker. For games, you'll need to look at direct downloads. Some good links in other comments.

[–] Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca 1 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

Anecdotal; but I spent 5ish years pirating via torrents from my home in Canada. Never once used a VPN and received an emailed copyright notice forwarded through my ISP about once every 3-5 days.

They never went further than that. The ISP isn't permitted to give out my personal contact info short of a court order, and the copyright holder(s) can't be bothered to pursue it further to get that info.

As long as you never reply to the notice; all they have is an IP, a time stamp, and a copy of the letter they sent to the ISP. They don't know who I am to drag me to court; so first they'd have to sue the ISP for that info. Even then, tieing one specific individual to an entire IPs traffic is next to impossible. Was it the IPs subscriber? Another person in the household? A guest? Someone with unauthorised access? Too many variables/possibilities to prove 'beyond reasonable doubt' in a court of law.

Now a days however I use usenet. $12/year for an indexer, and ~$5/month for access to a usenet provider/server. Fast reliable downloads that always complete within 5min. No more waiting on slow or seedless torrents that potentially take days before giving up and trying another. This is all done though an ssl connection to a private server, so there's nothing to snoop/get reported for.

[–] ICastFist@programming.dev 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

This. I live in Brazil, I torrent often and have never received any letter from my ISP or anyone. Close to 20 years now surfing the p2p waves.

[–] MrsDoyle@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 day ago

I'm in the UK and have been torrenting for about that long too. I have had exactly one threatening email from my ISP, over a Hogwarts book from memory. I ignored it and exactly nothing happened. Somehow JK managed to survive, imagine that.