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?
It’s really that important in the USA? Asking from Europe, where Ivve never even heard of anyone getting fined.
You can afford AirVPN 💜
i2p.
Here’s a reliable, free VPN: https://riseup.net/en/vpn
Mullvad is €5 a month for total of €60 for a year.
Save up then torrent. If you live in the US you risk way more in fines than what €60 for a year of VPN would cost.
I would prioritize a VPN ahead of an ISP. Free Open/Public APs are not uncommon in my area.
Honest question, why would you need a VPN if you want to download from private trackers?
Usually, copyright owners target people on public trackers and on the DHT. Not a problem if you only get into private trackers.
Use torrent over ipfs. Qbittorrent can do it.
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Its being a while for me but windscribe and seedr had totally usable free tiers
I would suggest don’t.
For downloading, look at DDL sites.
For uploading, if you can’t do it safely, don’t. Stash it all, make backups, keep it until you can do it safely.
Find a friend in a less shit place you can proxy through.
RiseUp is slow and intended for activists and the politically vulnerable. It’s not for poor people who cannot afford a $5 a month VPN. You will be fucking over people with much more legitimate use cases than yours if you start using it for torrenting.
I see… Not sure what I’m supposed to do then.
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.
If you don’t have the money for a proper VPN provider, you definitely don’t have the money for a legal defense if it came to that. Save your money and only begin once you can afford reasonable protections.
