Piracy

On Reddit anytime I saw direct linked pirated media it was always just Base64 encoded. I’ve found direct links to entire Switch games just sitting in a random Reddit comment for weeks or months because it was in Base64, so that might be safe to use. I’m still a bit unfamiliar with Lemmy but to my knowledge the instances are hosted by regular people not corporations, so it would probably depend on the people running the instance, or the legality of piracy where they live / host the server. Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong like I said I’m still new

I like how some subreddits use base64 encoding to share linkz. I even use the chrome extension

Why not have a separate Lemmy instance specifically for links? It could be hosted from a piracy-friendly country to minimize legal problems, and if the instance was ever made to shut down it would only affect those communities.

I would say that's still a bad move. There is not "no risk", as it could still put the owners of the Lemmy instance in danger. So be respectful to those who are hosting this instance and don't link copyright infringement.