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.

  • yeehaw@lemmy.caEnglish
    72·
    9 hours ago

    VPNs are not required. Instead of egressing on your ISPs network, you’re egressing on someone else’s network. It’s kinda like paying for a second ISP so you can egress your ISP to go encrypted to your other ISP. What does it accomplish other than putting you in another law jurisdiction?

    Even purevpn who said “no logs” handed over data.

    "In 2017, PureVPN, which advertised a no-logs policy, supplied connection logs to the FBI during a cyberstalking investigation. These logs enabled the identification of a suspect by linking activities to originating IP addresses. "

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PureVPN

    "In 2016, IPVanish, another provider asserting a no-logs policy, furnished user data to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security during a child abuse investigation. The information shared included the user’s real IP address and connection timestamps. "

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPVanish

    You pay them, and for what? To just take their word for it? Sorry but it’s impossible to run a reliable network without some level of logging.

    Not to mention that there have been documented instances Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), have been misused, leading to concerns about domestic surveillance.

    This section allows the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) to collect communications from non-U.S. citizens located outside the United States, even when those communications are routed through U.S.-based companies, such as cloud providers, internet service providers (ISPs), and tech companies.

    At that point do you think you’ll get some form of compensation from the VPN provider?

    • PotatoesFall@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
      1·
      4 hours ago

      I work for a VPN company. There may be many shitty VPN companies that do keep logs, but not all of them.

      You just need to pick the right ones, ideally audited ones.

      Also, VPNs are absolutely required in some countries if you’re using public torrents. Even if they’re not required in your country right now, you’re still advertising that you’re doing illegal stuff if you don’t use one.