How do I torrent safely in the US if I can't afford a VPN? (lemmy.dbzer0.com)

submitted 1 month ago by ScratchySoft@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com

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Before I say anything further, yes I know how much the recommended VPNs cost. I can read. Please do not interrogate me about it.

I've been wanting to get into torrenting for a while, particularly contributing to private trackers related to music (and to a lesser extent retro games, though I don't have much original stuff to put there as it's harder to find rare games than rare music). FMHY recommends RiseUp if I must get a free VPN while I'm working on my financial situation, though I'm not sure whether it's been tested in court. What are my options, if any?

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[-] sefra1@lemmy.zip 8 points 1 month ago

I don't usually recommend this, but since you are in a situation where you really can't afford a VPN or a seedbox and live in a country where torrenting is prosecuted then I think that grants a free pass to abuse the tor network a bit and torrent over tor.

There are some guides online on now to route the traffic, note that it's very easy to leak traffic if you don't know what you're doing. Look for a good guide . I'm guessing the safest way to do it is by using Whonix.

If going that route avoid downloading big torrents if you can find smaller ones or try to search for direct downloads first.

And also, I don't usually say this, but, avoid seeding. Yes leeching is bad, but saturating tor is probably worse I think.

[-] black0ut@pawb.social 2 points 1 month ago

Torrenting on TOR is actively discouraged for a reason. It will also be slow and exit nodes are probably in many blacklists, so you won't get good seeds.

If you want to torrent over a shadownet, use I2P. It allows torrenting (the Java I2P client even includes torrent software). It also has its own internal trackers. And due to the way it works, you can tunnel traffic for others without risk of getting flagged for something illegal or other people's torrents (which happens with many other TOR alternatives that allow torrenting).