Hello, i wanted to know to what extent do the ISPs or police pursue torrenting. In the 90’s it was acceptable and fairly wide-spread. I am unsure how it looks now.

  • black0ut@pawb.social
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    16 days ago

    VPNs are a barrier for torrenting. Some people don’t want to pay (or can’t even pay), and other people may find setting a VPN up difficult. This is not good advice.

    Force encryption for bittorrent and you’re already future proof.

    • jatone@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      16 days ago

      wat, there is no encryption in bittorrent that will protect you except for a vpn.

      no one follow this individuals advice for your own sake.

      • black0ut@pawb.social
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        16 days ago

        There is encryption that will save you unless ISPs use shadow peers, which they can’t use retroactively.

        Edit, cuz I think the scope of my original comment has been misunderstood, my bad:

        Of course, ISPs can still know you’re torrenting, and if they don’t like that, you will get letters. But they can’t know what you torrented.

        If you’re gonna torrent, get informed about the laws in your country and how ISPs enforce anti-piracy measures, and if you can freely torrent in your country, there’s no need to use a VPN. Encryption will save you from ISPs retroactively snooping on what you torrented.

        • jatone@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          16 days ago

          the peers approach is the problem, not the ISPs. ISPs can tell your torrenting just from the shape of the traffic.

          edit: generally, the claim that the builtin encryption protects the user is essentially misinformation and anyone who follows it is potentially in for a world of hurt.

    • bobs_monkey@lemm.ee
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      16 days ago

      Encryption won’t do anything is your real IP address is exposed. A VPN covers that. Most ISPs don’t care, they just have to forward those nasty letters and may shut off your internet if pressured. Rightsholders will attach to the swarm, note all the connected IPs, and then go after the ISPs to get to the users. You have to obfuscate your personal IP somehow.

      And sure I can see paying being an issue for some, but there really isn’t much other way. As for use, they’re no harder to set up that a torrent client.