Nice try, cop.
this post was submitted on 02 May 2025
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Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ
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Start by checking the Megathread and other resources in the sidebar.
These resources are really all you need, but they're all individually quite focused so for a new person it can be hard to see the forest.
An overview:
For movies, streaming sites are fine.
To start torrenting safely:
- get a paid vpn (i use mullvad)
- download qbittorrent or the like
- find a public tracker from the megathead, general ones are easy/convenient for starting imo
- virus scan/use common sense/be careful
I'm checking out the free version of Proton VPN now after paying for PIN for a while. Haven't used it to torrent or anything yet. Just trying to run most the time now for increased security in this new era. Are unpaid versions less secure? I'm not so much worried about the price. Just checking out something different.
The free version of proton VPN does not allow torrenting
Technically you can torrent with it, but the free tier does not include port forwarding, so you will not be able to seed very effectively.
Edit: disregard, I was remembering incorrectly.
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haha, I guess I don't have wonder about crossing that bridge. Thanks.
As a general rule, if you're getting a service for free, you're the product.
I don't know much about the downsides of free in the context of VPNs, as I didn't really get in to the technical ins and outs. But when we're talking security and privacy I think the cost of supporting something good and sustainable is well worth it.
I've heard port forwarding is helpful for speed, and that might be a paid only thing, but to be honest I'm consistently surprised by how fast things go for me just using mullvad.
Another thing you may wish to consider: the Proton CEO has praised Trump which is a huge red flag to me in the privacy space.
All good points. Thank you.
At least Proton isn't a scammy company compared to most other free VPNs. And they still allow port forwarding on paid plans, so they are quite a good choice for torrenting. I think Proton and Mullvad are probably the most recommended options around here.
Yes. I hadn't looked at any of this stuff in a long time. Mullvad is something I'm definitely going to check out as I'm seeing it recommended in a lot of comments. Thank you.
I thought Mullvad didn’t port forward any more so torrents didn’t work with it?
It works for me... I think it's something like it goes faster with port forwarding but to be honest I don't know the details.
VPN (always) and QBittorent. After starting your VPN, go into the Preferences > advanced settings> Optional IP to bind to > pull down the menu and find your current VPN's IP address and select it. Protected, even if your VPN goes down. You can add torrent search engines to QBittorent under the Search feature.
I do similar except I limit qBittorrent to only use the vpn interface so has a built-in kill switch
ipleak.net to confirm your VPN is not leaking your IP too. Add the magnet/torrent link option and keep that page open. Your client will connect and will show what ip address is being exposed to peers.
Also a good page to test your VPN in general.
If you're using windows, make sure you set it to show file extensions. Watch out for files with a double extension such as "mkv.exe". That's guaranteed to be malware. Don't open any link, bat or com files either.
There are two schools of thought, and one of them is insanely wrong.
The current preferred method (by youngins) for pirating is by using a VPN provider to "hide" your torrent traffic, which is generally valid, but it's not a silver bullet and it's a wrong way to think.
The other is to use a seedbox, which is a remote server hosted in a country that doesn't recognize piracy as a crime to begin with...
The choice is clear. Especially when you consider to get a good private VPN you'll have to pay $5-10/mo. You may as well pay $5-10/mo to commit a crime where no one thinks its a crime, then you never have to worry about it. Using a VPN you can still get caught, it's just exceptionally rare because conditions have to line up perfectly. But what if your VPN is down, and you accidentally begin a download? You willing to get a $100,000 fine for that?
Just use a damn seedbox.
Just wanted to point out that if your client is configured properly it won't have any connections while the VPN is down.
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Question out of curiosity, do you then keep stuff on the seedbox only or do you download to your local hard drive in your country? Because that download would still be illegal or wouldn't it? Just if we are talking about legality of things, everything else set aside.
Downloading copyrighted material isnt a crime; redistribuiting it is. (Seeding, in the case of torrents)
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Simple: https://fmhy.pages.dev/videopiracyguide#streaming-sites
More complex: Mullvad VPN, QBitTorrent, 1337x.to
AND use at least an adblocker, and even more important, something like noscript where you can see what the website is trying to load onto you. Ublock origin lets through an ungodly amount of crap on those streaming sites.
get a decent VPN
VPN to a nice safe country like Switzerland.
Look into selfhosting the Servarr stack along side QBitTorrent, pick a media player such as Plex or Jellyfin. Easy free streaming.
I don't really understand why everyone's telling you about torrents when you don't need them to watch movies. Like, it's nice if you want Blu Ray quality or have bad internet or something, but you don't need to download stuff unless you really want to. I just use uBlock Origin with Firefox and one of a few streaming sites. You can find a list here: https://wiki.dbzer0.com/piracy/megathread/movies-and-tv/ (Scroll down to streaming and try one out.) It works on mobile, too.
Sometimes you'll have to check multiple sites to find older, more obscure things, but for the most part they only really differ in their UI. Some anime sites even have options to skip the intro/outro and autoplay the next episode.
Step 1: download the free ProtonVPN app; https://protonvpn.com/download
Step 2: download the free qbittorrent app; https://www.qbittorrent.org/
Step 3: download vlc media player; https://www.videolan.org/vlc/
Step 4: install and connect ProtonVPN to a free server.
Step 5: Pick a public torrent website from the wiki and look for a movie you want to watch.
Step 6: copy the magnet link the website lists and add it to bittorrent. Wait for it to connect and download.
Step 7: enable showing extensions if you use windows; https://www.howtogeek.com/205086/beginner-how-to-make-windows-show-file-extensions/
Step 8: make sure that all your downloaded files only ever play in vlc, and that they arent .exe files.
Step 9: leave qbittorrent running (and seeding!) On your computer after your movies are downloaded.
Proton VPN doesn’t allow P2P file downloading (torrents) on its free version.
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I would recommend Mullvad over Proton. Proton's CEO is problematic and a bit of a wild card. They also have proven that they care more about money than privacy. They want to be a Google ecosystem and constantly push more product on you. Someone else mentioned this and it's a good thing to live by: if a company's service is free, you are the product. When it comes to being an application that has full control and insight into your network traffic, no thanks.
Mullvad is disgustingly cheap, costing only $5/month. I've been using Mullvad for 15 years now, and it's always been $5/month. You get DAITA plus a whole host of other necessary sailing accoutrements. They have one of the best track records in terms of not shoving marketing bullshit down your throat and being true to what their website and documentation says. The only limitation in terms of network usage is that you can only have 5 devices tied to a single account. It's mega easy to remove a device to free up a slot, though.
Proton’s CEO is problematic and a bit of a wild card.
Could you say a bit more about this? I'm a Proton user, and this is the first I've heard of this.
EDIT: Oh my goodness. https://archive.ph/LlbSj He might as well have given Trump a BJ.
MORE: https://archive.ph/quYyb
https://www.reddit.com/r/ProtonMail/comments/1i2nz9v/on_politics_and_proton_a_message_from_andy/
Yup, looks like you beat me to it. As you can see, problematic.
Besides, their entire ecosystem at Proton is proprietary and closed-off, just like Google and everybody else that wants to harvest your life. That should be red flag number one, besides the CEO bits.
For newbies qbitrorrent's search is more than adequate enough to replace steps 5-7. But this is a great guide!
Yes, the search is great for starting out! But i think you need to add the python-search plugins first, right? Not that its hard to do but it is something that needs to be done first
Use a VPN. Here's a free one: https://riseup.net/en/vpn
Go to a torrent site, such as https://1337x.to/
Search the movie you want, find a torrent that suits you.
Download and watch.
Here's a free streaming site: https://hydrahd.sh/
Personally, i would never get a free one. But mullvad have gained my trust. Especially as they have been raided, proved that what the LE wanted did not exist, and therefore by law they had to turn around and leave ^^
I'd agree, but RiseUp is one of few good things online that's free and not sucking your data off the bone. They're a group of anarchists who provide free online services (mainly email, newsletters, a vpn) for free for activists.
And the FBI has raided them once and found nothing.
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What do you have in terms of hardware?
What’s your experience?
I am happy to guide you through the steps needed.
Depends where you live and how enforced anti piracy laws are. I have downloaded stuff for 15 or so years through 3 or 4 different ISPs from static IP and have never had any issues.
Only thing that you could somehow call a protection is I do not use ISP owned DNS server.
I live in Italy and I'm in your same situation. Never bothered with VPNs and whatnot.
Been torrenting (and eMuling) for 20+ years, never received any letters.
Of course it depends on the country you live in
No one, in this entire thread, has thought of telling OP to sort by seeders. Are you all stupid? That's the most important thing
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