I honestly don’t believe I will have any legal trouble because I don’t do anything like cp or worse, I just pirate media I like, not even porn. But across users of communities, or on public trackers, is IP exposure something to be concerned about?

      • naevaTheRat@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        8 months ago

        If you actually need privacy you should use something like tor, or a box which you have access to that can’t or wont be traced to you (e.g. you have access to someone else’s by covert means, you bought a server with cash in the mail, you bought a server in a nation that will never cooperate with the nation you’re antagonising) which you tunnel to and use as a proxy.

        A VPN is not necessarily very secure and doesn’t mitigate the most serious threats like phone home programs that will ID you over the clearnet later. Trusting a VPN is extremely dicey and should absolutely not be relied upon to keep you out of gaol. It’s better than nothing, but shouldn’t be over emphasised.

          • naevaTheRat@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            8 months ago

            Using a condom doesn’t require trusting a third party to keep you out of gaol, and has lots of regulatory industry around it guaranteeing quality.

            VPN companies are not ideological projects, they are businesses bound by the laws in the countries they operate in optimising for profit. They will abuse your trust if it makes them money or frees them from criminal liability.

            • BolexForSoup@kbin.social
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              8 months ago

              My dude you are over interpreting this. It was just a fun little joke. I have a lot more than a VPN guarding my system.

                • BolexForSoup@kbin.social
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                  8 months ago

                  If you use a reputable VPN like Proton or Mullvad to torrent the occasional movie/show and don’t torrent without it it’s incredibly unlikely you’ll get caught. Beyond that it’s completely about what you’re doing online and VPN’s are not magic bullets for all things. But for torrenting, it’s good enough 99.99999% of the time.

                  If you’re constantly torrenting hundreds of things a month, especially new releases, yeah you should do more. But that’s not some dude grabbing a 60 year old movie one time. For your example a VPN will get the job done and their ISP will be none the wiser.

                  If someone bases their entire piracy knowledge on my one liner that’s on them and I’d be shocked to see that on this instance. I’m all for making sure we acknowledge all experience levels but you’re taking that a little too far here. I made a condom joke dude.