Most discourse about this is from Americans. I've never used a VPN to torrent and it's never been a problem
Do you need a VPN for some jurisdictions? NO. Should you use one anyways for obscurity and privacy? YES. Also to prevent issues with laws in other countries, which is unlikely from the start, but is exactly the point. Most countries only will try and prosecute copyright in their own jurisdictions unless you're uploading and providing content. When a copyright troll firm resolves your IP (usually through torrent swarms) and hostname and it points to a VPN data center or server, they're not going ANY further and they're just going to move on to the next victim.
Can you recommend a decent VPN? Paid or free, I'm ignorant on the subject.
If you're using one for security, Mullvad or iVPN are the two that come to mind mostly.
If you're looking for one to torrent with there are quiet a few, but anything with port forwarding should do. Mullvad can be slower because of their extremely high level of security in general. Something like IPVanish, or NordVPN.
Also below, this is an incredibly great reference that's continuously updated.
Neither Mullvad nor iVPN are offering port forwarding so neither will be ideal for torrenting.
Mullvad does port forward
Not anymore. As of May 29th, "[n]ew port forwards will no longer be supported, and existing ports will be removed 2023-07-01"--meaning by now, no port forwarding is supported.
They ended it July 1st.
Can someone speak more to this distinction between VPN for torrenting vs security? Does one come at the expense of the other?
A VPN can offer some security for either. Any way, yiu depend on the provider to forward your traffic and not reveal who you are.
A good VPN for torrenting would be AirVPN, as they offer port forwarding.
Try to see if there are any cases of notices being sent or internet provider shutoffs. If nothing comes up and you are truly in a country that doesn’t care, I don’t see what you need to worry about.
In general, movie piracy is more targeted by rightsholders, so if OP is not interested in this category he's pretty safe in a country the doesn't care.
Depending on which country we're talking about... I disagree with most people here. If your country doesn't care, and because of that your ISP doesn't keep logs... What benefit would a VPN have? It'd just cost you money and make everything a bit slower. And there's another company messing with your data. IANAL, though.
I mean, probably not? If no one in your country has ever been charged or extradited over it then it's unlikely you will.
use the default tor option in qbittorrent, more than enough just to be extra safe
I thought you weren't supposed to torrent over tor or am I understanding something wrong here?
No, do not torrent over tor, that network is not suited for it.
To avoid legal consequences NO, To access blocked piracy sites YES.
A proxy would do nicely for that, no need for a VPN.
Back before I knew about Debrid services and was fooling around with kodi (5yrs ago roughly), every now and again the email I get from my ISP received “cease and desist” notices from HBO’s lawyers stateside. I have ignored them, realizing that the network’s costs to prosecute under Canadian law (where I am) would far outweigh any judgement our courts might be able to levy.
The laws are likely in place in your jurisdiction too, it’s just that the stick is usually considered threatening enough to most people that they just pay for the carrot rather than face the consequences.
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