Suppose I want to torrent some movies / shows from pirate bay. Is having a VPN on my computer enough protection/privacy? Basically if I download over a VPN, is there any other way for ISPs or the gov to find out that I torrented something?
is there any other way for ISPs or the gov to find out that I torrented something
Yes, the only “other” way is when governments force the VPN to hand out your personal information.
If you’re looking for true anonymity, you’d use an anonymous network like i2p.
Is it all you need? Probably not. But there are diminishing returns for other things, IMO. A VPN is a cheap and easy way to somewhat hide yourself online. At least for the purposes of torrenting.
The issue is about low-hanging fruit.
100 people join a swarm over its lifetime. Of these:
-
50 are using a VPN with their actual IP obscured.
-
50 are not, and their IP address is easily displayed.
It might be possible to get information about who is using a particular VPN IP address when with a subpoena, but it is unlikely because:
-
Some regions either don’t cooperate or torrenting isn’t illegal or privacy issues override the IP concern.
-
VPNs may push back and make it difficult or expensive to get a court order.
-
Some countries are happy not to be embroiled in the IP messes of other countries.
-
Half-decent VPN providers don’t keep records around of who was using an IP address and when. This is where you have to take the word of the VPN provider; hence, reputation is everything. If you choose to use a VPN and this is important to you, you have to do independent research.
So, a rights-holder trying to get your IP address from a VPN providerc could happen, but doesn’t happen often.
This leaves the other 50 peers with their IP addresses exposed. Even this is an uphill battle, however many ISPs - at least in the US - will comply with a subpoena demanding the names of people to whom an IP address is assigned at any given time.
Copyright trolls will then typically attempt to extort a fine, which will be less than it will cost you to fight a legal defense in civil court, or, at least, substantially less than it could cost you if you lost (in the US, well into six digits.)
Periodically they will go to trial to make it clear they’re serious, to make an example out of someone.
A VPN isn’t bulletproof but those who don’t use one provide a fairly decent screen for those who do, by being the low-hanging fruit who the minions of IP holders will harass, threaten, and/or sue.
- Basically if I download over a VPN, is there any other way for ISPs or the gov to find out that I torrented something?
Governments will only care about this if you’re doing something which threatens the state itself. It is unlikely that governments are going to be deterred by VPNs if something involves terrorism or a security threat. They’re going to fight that battle and - depending on where you live - they might well win. I don’t know about all governments, but the US government is rarely - if ever - involved in enforcement of what are civil infractions between private parties, which copyright infringement is a class of.
The bulk of legal problems occur in civil (rather than criminal) court because someone is torrenting a movie, at least in the US.
They also seem to happen a lot with smaller film companies and smaller films, ostensibly because they see it as a revenue stream.
It is trivial for your ISP to find out you’re connected to a VPN, but as it is an encrypted tunnel:
-
They know the IP address of your VPN provider and, as such, know you’re using a VPN.
-
Traffic analysis can tell you’re torrenting something (timing, etc.). Whether ISPs bother with this I do not know.
-
But they don’t know what you’re torrenting, nor from whom.
Torrenting by itself isn’t illegal, as far as I know, anywhere. It’s a legitimate way of distributing large files. You could be torrenting a Linux distribution (for instance).
Best practice is not to torrent copyrighted material entirely.
Hi!
If you use the TOR browser you have a level of privacy as you search the we for torrents.
If you use blocklists in your torrent client you greatly reduce your visibility to known anti piracy legal trolls. This also makes your torrenting more efficient. I use this site for blocklists and the Tixati torrent client.
Finally, if you use a VPN you are switching away from trusting your ISP, and trusting a person of your choosing who is likely not in your same legal jurisdiction.
Those are three good steps for torrenting.
As others have noted, you need a VPN to hide from rights holders who join the swarm in order to log your IP and serve termination warnings to your ISP. (see rightscorp) A proper VPN set up to prevent DNS leaks is sufficient.
I’m legally obligated to discourage you from downloading any intellectual property you have not purchased rights to.
To the topic I think its the best thing you can do. Stick with a reputable VPN and keep your eyes on current events with VPNs and who gives up info to police\etc.
I personally setup an Ubuntu desktop on an old laptop to torrent and use PIA for Linux. I have the VPN set to auto start and kill all traffic if the VPN fails. This keeps it off any of my personal PC’s and I’m hoping because its linux virus issues are low. I turn it on…torrent, move to my Plex server and shutdown. PIA works great for me and I can DL a 4.5gb torrent in def less then 10min.
edit: I did some reading and it looks like news about all of them good\bad crap. I’ll keep using PIA and if I ever get an ISP letter, I’ll switch to something else.
Yes. Make sure it has a kill switch that shuts down your torrent client when the VPN disconnects. Also make sure you don’t steal movies ehmmm 
Read some stuff on VPN and various products. When you are searching for torrents always use firefox and use the below settings to make it fool proof. Never use chrome while a VPN is on. As javascripts ca n leak ur IP.
Well, I2P is definitely the best but of course you can only torrent whatever is on I2P rather than the clear web. So besides I2P a trustworthy no-log VPN purchased anonymously is best. Preferably outside of the 14 eyes.
VPN can help you with this, also they help sometimes government as well to track down the users… If you have technical skills, you can build your own VPN [tutorials available] – Many torrent users are doing this.
Depends where you are. In America you can use a reputable VPN and be 99% certain no one will ever bother you. There are tons of things you could do to make your security tighter. But it’s probably not worth the effort unless you intend to seed lots of content.
Long story short, you’re safe with a VPN.
Yes, but if you want to escape from state surveillance then you’ll need something like Tor.
Also, go ahead and rip off other peoples “intellectual property”. Anything “intellectual” should not be considered property; only physical objects should. Everyone should have a right to data or knowledge, and not try to profit off it
Copying is something humans have been doing for a millennia, that is, until we starting biasing society on an
obseletecapitalist16-th century censorship method
no, unless the VPN provider sells you out.
This post or comment has been overwritten by an automated script from /r/PowerDeleteSuite. Protect yourself.
I think the same that a VPN is the cheapest and easiest solution out there! Moreover, ensure the VPN you are using for torrenting has a Kill-Switch!
Very good, thank you for the detailed explanation.
To add to this, AFAIK most ISPs don’t really care whether you torrent or not - just whether you’re hurting the bandwidth. It’s the copyright holders that care.
I did some reading and it looks like news about all of them good\bad crap.
Did you read something negative about PIA? Because they claim they don’t save logs.
I like your idea of limiting your torrent downloads to a 2nd laptop, which you can very conceivably deny ownership of… I too have an old HP notebook with Linux Mint & PIA.
To the judge, how was I supposed to know that I could password protect my wireless router from ‘intruders’ ?