Let's talk about torrent safety

[Daedae]

So guys, listen. We will start the class right now.


Joke aside. Some days ago I downloaded a game and three addons (Custom Maid 3D 2 and the two + packs as well as the visual pack to be exact) as a torrent from this side. Because I don't know sh** about stuff like this I didn't use anything more than utorrent. That means no vpn and stuff like that because I don't even know what that is. The problem now is: I'm getting more and more paranoid by the day because of this.

Is anyone here who is familiar with downloads and torrents? What exactly are my chances that - some day from now - I will get a nice little letter in my mail which will screw me over royaly because I got...what's the term? Caught. Yea. That one.

 

[El Psy Kongroo]

Hmm, this is an interesting topic. I'm also interested in others experience with it. I used torrents for years now and I never had any problems, and I've never even heard of someone getting fined or worse because of it. Maybe I just didn't pay attention to it or they don't really care in my country... VPN is in short protecting your activity from your ISP provider, but I also never used it. And I don't think that using something for free is really going to help you.

 

[corocoro]

You should always use a VPN to stay safe when torrenting. Especially if you're from a country known for having an active DMCA shakedown industry.
Of course, the danger is a lot higher when you download Western games, movies, and music since the evil letters mostly originate from U.S. companies.

 

[Daedae]

As I said: Since I usually never use torrents I didn't know how important VPN is. But that's the toll when you are to lazy to get your facts straight.

I also don't know anyone who got fined using torrents bzw fear knows no limits. Especially when it is too late. It would be interesting to know if germany has an active DMCA shakedown industry. Especially when it comes to objects that are not sold inside the countries borders. Like with CM3D2. Finding information about that is not really easy if you ask me. Either that or I'm not good at finding such information on the internet.

 

[Mixxie]

Well me and my brother have torrented for like 5-6~ years (many many movies, games, anime and a lot music) and nothing ever happened to us and we are still torrenting (maybe because In Sweden our ISP's dosen't need to hand out information about their customers so i heard) You don't need to be so paranoid :p. But if you want to be on the safe side don't use a free VPN and pay for one

 

[El Psy Kongroo]

I think that chances of getting fined are slim, as Corocoro stated it depends more on what kind of stuff you're downloading/seeding but no one really knows what you shouldn't ...of course its always better to be safe. But as I said, I wouldn't really trust in free services.

 

[corocoro]

It would be interesting to know if germany has an active DMCA shakedown industry.

Yes.

Especially when it comes to objects that are not sold inside the countries borders.

No. Eroge pretty much never suffer from shakedowns outside Japan.

 

[Infamous]

i once got a warning letter from EA for downloading a game i never even finish downloading it largely depends on what your downloading. some companies just find it too much of a bother to investigate

 

[Ignis]

some companies just find it too much of a bother to investigate

Some don't even investigate; they outsource to other companies the monitoring of torrent traffic and the checking of whether a piece of transfer they suspect actually represents something the media companies own the copyrights to. That's arguably a bigger problem. You can find plenty of stories on sites like TorrentFreak about DMCA notices targetting home users downloading things that are not what they're accused of downloading. A friend of mine (living in the US) once got sent a notice for downloading some latest Hollywood blockbuster when he was actually downloading some anime.

The quality of the outfits that do such monitoring varies greatly. There are the big names, like MarkMonitor and Remove Your Media, and then there are the fly-by-night operations run by people who barely know coding, barely know English, barely know anything about copyright (much less copyright laws), and worst, barely care about barely knowing anything. They're a dime a dozen, staffed by such people as college students or otherwise people with unverifiable backgrounds, who paid a web designer a couple hundred bucks to make a decent site and sell their 'services' to media companies. And media companies do use them as they're cheap.

These amateurs then fire notices to various sites or ISPs like a kitten who considers the hand-crank of a nearby Gatling gun as her toy. They don't care about getting things wrong often or even the majority of the time. The media companies that hire them hardly care, either. They do a lot of damage since many hosts have a zero-tolerance policy of taking down stuff without checking, and in the case of ISPs, there are policies such as "six strikes" (US) or "three strikes" (France, Australia) whereby an ISP will either disconnect or penalise you after you've received a certain amount of "strikes".

Depending on the jurisdiction, you may be able to ignore the warning letters (as the onus will then be on the DMCA notice filer to take you to court), or you may be able to contest it. But be careful with the latter. In the US, for example, filing what's called a "counternotice" necessarily requires you to agree to provide your name, address and other details (something the DMCA notice filer doesn't know yet, mind you), as well as being taken to court.

TL;DR: Get a VPN. If you can't afford one, make use of such tools as BTGuard and troll the internet for more guides on how to keep yourself safe. And know the law of your land. Throw away that thought which says only lawyers have to be familiar with laws.

/lecture, but you said "class", so...

 

[Infamous]

thank you [MENTION=2]Ignis[/MENTION]; that's a useful writing you put. so in your opinion, what are some good VPN services? and have you ever received a warning?

 

[Ignis]

thank you [MENTION=2]Ignis[/MENTION]; that's a useful writing you put. so in your opinion, what are some good VPN services? and have you ever received a warning?

You're welcome, the pleasure's mine.

My experience with third-party VPN providers is limited, to be honest. TorrentFreak does annual VPN reviews, see here for last year's review: https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-anonymous-review-160220/

Among these, Private Internet Access is perhaps the most popular (and it's a solid service), though those averse to using a US-based VPN may want something based in another country. Last I checked, IPredator was good; they had a solid setup and understood security well. It was also founded by one of the Pirate Bay guys. IVPN is a member of the EFF, so when it comes to such issues as privacy, you can be assured they're on the 'right' side. Finally, I've also heard good things about Mullvad. A friend's been a happy user for a while.

Additionally, there are some services best avoided, such as HideMyAss ( https://invisibler.com/lulzsec-and-hidemyass/ ), but that's the only name I can think of off the top of my head right now.

Bottom line, it depends on what you need. Some people use VPN services to circumvent geoblocking imposed by the likes of Netflix and Hulu. Those people only need to care about masking their public-facing IP addresses. Some people use them to secure their connections from anti-piracy threat letters. Those people need to care about masking their IP addresses, securing (i.e. encrypting) their connections, and using VPN providers that can be trusted (I won't say "that won't log"; you have no way to verify). Some people use them to defeat government spying. Those people need to care about all the aforementioned plus choosing providers not located in countries allied with their own in surveillance matters (see: "Five Eyes").

And so on, and so forth.

 

[AzureCrystal]

First question is, does your country care? If no, it doesn't matter. Here in America, we can get an unlimited number, and it never means shit. Nobody has been sued for ages.

However, I remember reading that France and some other places will eventually ban your connection if you get too many complaints.

Let's say you're in a country where it matters, and have an ISP that will potentially ban you.

Most takedowns are for major studio movies, music, and AAA video games. Don't torrent those on a public tracker, and your odds of getting a DMCA strike are virtually nill.

 

[hbjay]

This is safety when you have virtual machine (VirtualBox etc.)

 

[KamenStalker]

When you download a torrent, I'm pretty sure your IP adress is public for everyone who have the torrent loaded too, so everyone can see it basically, so, obviously you can be easily traced too. Even so, it was pretty much safe 10 years ago :/... Nowadays though, using a VPN is almost mandatory if you download a very popular torrent.

Then, as you probably figured out, I'm pretty sure downloading anime related stuff especially in here is not risky at all, but again not a long time ago japanese governement wanted to close nyaatorrent. So I'm guessing it might be monitored as well to some extent.

What I like to do to feel safer regarding that subject is to keep an eye to the most popular warez/download websites in my country, I either avoid using them or I try to be super carefull when I do. (Alexa can give you the top 500 most visited websites in your country for example, otherwise, google...)

Spoiler: ALEXA

alexa)

If you need a VPN, PIA (Private Internet Access) seems pretty legit to me. It's 40USD a year only, might be more expensive than what you would expect but it's worth it, if you ask me.

 

[marcoxD95]

Well. I use mostly Nyaa or RuTracker for torrents. For years now basically. Or other Russian Torrent sites. Never had any problems.
But I doubt that anybody cares about such Torrents in my country since I am living in Europe. Torrent sites like RuTracker are not even in English. Also it needs a registration.
I try to avoid public torrent sites like Kickass, Piratebay though.

P.S. That must not mean that its safe but as I said, I downloaded over many years, probably several Terabytes and no problems at all.
I usually download movies, hentais or underground music. I never really download US Charts or whatever.
However, many of the things I download I also buy or I delete them at least after I have used them.

Wanted to get a VPN at some point. No idea which. Any experiences with good prices and good value?

 

[pumasrevenge]

I'm also using torrents for years now (without VPN) and I never had any problems.

First thing you should know about is the law in your country. In my country, Austria, for example it was not illegal to download or stream a file, regardless of the source, since it was allowed to make private copies. So you never had any problems if you didn't upload the torrent. But a year ago (or maybe even longer) the ISP in Austria even blocked the access to piratebay, isohunt and a few other torrent sites as well as some streaming sites (because the film and music industry wasn't happy at all with the law). And with that the law was changed as well - what's new? It's illegal to download from obiviously illegal sources, that's all. But yeah, overall nothing changed, since I never heard that someone got to court because of downloading.

The next would be that it's not easy for the prosecutor to get your adress, name and so on. Also depending on the law it's not allowed for the ISP to give out information without judicial order - and even if your ISP should give out the information illegal, in most cases you will be acquitted, because evidence which you obtained illegally is not considered in court. Illegally obtained evidence only is considered in really "big" crimes, like murder, but not if it's about some trifle.