I just want to torrent a little HQ music with metadata man.

I used to pay for streaming music but due to current affairs and financial instability… I wont pay for that shit anymore.

I was thinking doing the whole shenanigans with an old laptop, a fresh VPN account, scanning with clamav, moving everything to my cloud drive etc.

But is it even worth the extra steps if I won’t get in any trouble for raw dogging the torrents from my main workstation and my everyday VPN account?

I did some research and found many people recommend some level of opsec. Does it matter?

I’m not US based but I am close with many people that is, both professionally and personally.

  • url@feddit.fr
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    2 hours ago

    I’m torrenting for years now with my home ip. My gov dont give a shit .

  • Agent641@lemmy.world
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    4 hours ago

    Even considering this amounts to premeditation. Asking your cohorts on Lemmy just escalated it to conspiracy.

    The predator drone is enroute to your home as we speak.

  • BassTurd@lemmy.world
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    4 hours ago

    I have qbittorrent and PIA VPN. I need to switch VPN providers but that’s a separate topic. Qbt is on a kill switch so if the VPN goes down, no torrents flow. I’ve never received a letter when running VPN but have a few times in the past when not.

    I have a Plex library over 40TB in size, and the vast majority has been torrents. I love in the US for geographical context. If you also are in the States, a simple VPN will be enough.

  • communism@lemmy.ml
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    4 hours ago

    Depends on the country. Also “can” is different to “will”. In most countries it is unlikely anything will happen if you use a good VPN.

  • daannii@lemmy.world
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    5 hours ago

    I’ve had Xfinity /Comcast for like 15 years.

    I pirate stuff all the time on bit torrent.

    Every now and then I get a letter, text, or email saying something like “We have a report you illegally shared a file. Please don’t. No actual consequences will happen”.

    It’s always been some popular TV show. Always. Like game of thrones episodes. Westworld (back in the day). Maybe rick and morty. ? I can’t recall for sure. I do know it’s been TV shows only. And popular ones.

    I’ve probably gotten about a dozen in the 15 years.

    Nothing ever done.

  • mech@feddit.org
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    5 hours ago

    I got in trouble in Germany, for torrenting a single movie.
    I accidentally allegedly let the torrent run until it uploaded the whole movie again.
    Got a letter from a law firm specializing in file sharing offenses who demanded 1200€ in damages and fees.
    I had to apply for financial legal aid from the government, so I could consult with a lawyer myself and write some specific legalese letters to deny the other law firm’s claims on time, and force them to actually take me to court to pursue them.
    Then wait, hoping they won’t, until the statute of limitations had passed.
    The whole process cost me 60€ and took 3 years.
    The movie was Hurt Locker. It wasn’t even good (allegedly).

    • NotSteve_@piefed.ca
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      2 hours ago

      Wow in Canada you’ll maybe get a letter from your ISP telling you that they got a complaint and that they’re legally obligated to tell you to stop but that’s as far as it’ll go. If you keep torrenting without a VPN, you’ll just receive the same letter again but they don’t actually care

      • mech@feddit.org
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        26 minutes ago

        I don’t know if it’s still this strict in Germany today.
        But I’ve got to say, it was an effective deterrent.
        I haven’t torrented anything since then. Instead, I just download my movies directly now.

  • Encom@lemmy.world
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    6 hours ago

    This is not legal advice, and I cannot speak if this applies to the country you live in. Most of the time, you will only receive a notice in the mail if you are uploading content, not downloading. Look into a program called Soulseek, it’s essentially what replaced Limewire, and it gives you the option to search for files without sharing anything back. You will likely run into issues grabbing full albums as leeching (not sharing files while downloading) is frowned upon

    • moonshadow@slrpnk.net
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      5 hours ago

      Posting to frown on this, do the kids these days not have any concept or reciprocity? In what sick mentality is not having to give back a selling point?

      • Encom@lemmy.world
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        5 hours ago

        I never said I agreed with leeching, but if you’ve ever used soulseek you would know its a rampant issue on the platform

        • moonshadow@slrpnk.net
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          5 hours ago

          I use it enough to resent you recommending it on the basis that seeding isn’t mandatory. This is why we can’t have nice things

  • wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    7 hours ago

    A VPN should have you covered.

    Beyond that you can check the fmhy guides or the piracy megathread (on [email protected]) for some tips and sources. There are options for direct download, which is generally safe from legal issues (for downloaders, not for the uploader) even without VPN.

    • Valmond@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      8 hours ago

      In france you get an angry letter the first time you get caught seeding. Ask me how I know lol.

      Get a vpn, I guess even a free one might be better than no one, for downloading some songs. Can be wrong though.

    • Blizzard@lemmy.zip
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      9 hours ago

      Downloading without sharing is illegal in some countries??? That’s ridiculous. If you visit a site that has an image, it gets downloaded to your disk in order for the browser to display it. Same for audio/video files if you play them on a website. People break law in the UK, France, Germany, US etc. for watching YouTube or visiting basically any website?

      • MurrayL@lemmy.world
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        8 hours ago

        I’d think it’s obvious that downloading isn’t illegal in every case, otherwise you’d never be able to watch/listen to any media online.

        A differentiation is necessarily made between authorised and unauthorised downloads, such that buying and downloading an album on iTunes is legal while torrenting that same album is not.

        Music on YouTube is authorised via licensing. That’s why videos get routinely flagged for using copyrighted music without permission (and sometimes even with permission due to overzealous or malicious DMCA claims, but that’s a separate argument).

      • PonyOfWar@pawb.social
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        9 hours ago

        That’s actually a legal gray area in Germany. It’s unclear whether the browser cache legally counts as downloading. In any case, it’s not enforced. It’s only torrenting/uploading that gets people into trouble.

  • Zeusz13@lemmy.world
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    8 hours ago

    Highly depends on where you are. I live in Hungary, here downloading is legal, uploading is not, making torrent use illegal. However in practice nobody gives a fuck about it, especially on a user level.

  • Obama's Wrath@lemmy.ml
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    9 hours ago

    Yes, this shit is way more automated than ten years ago. Consider the legal frustrations of IP holders and how relentless they are despite lack of success. This means in order to show that they are trying to fix the impossible problem, they will go after you within 30min for a single download. Use a VPN!

    No offense but it is unlikely your musical taste isn’t under the umbrella of protection