EU is making a new law which makes your IP the same as (something similar to) your social security number and they say piracy is going to receive a huge blow. Obviously I have no intention of stopping but now I’ll have to start using a VPN, if I want to continue my way. However, I do not trust VPNs a lot and I do not like the idea of paying for them (I could just pay for the movie in the first place)

I looked into using Tor network to torrent but it seems like it’d be a hindrance to the network itself, which is going to be a huge inconvenience for other users. Additionally I know that even if I found a way to throttle my bandwidth to remove this problem, Tor isn’t exactly made for this sort of thing anyways.

Now, obviously it doesn’t have to be torrenting, but I would gladly hear any suggestions on how to avoid paying and getting movies and shows without being caught doing it. Truthfully I was only streaming from websites for many years, so I do not know a lot about torrenting vs direct downloading either. Thanks in advance for any responses.

  • lime!@feddit.nu
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    2 months ago

    EU is making a new law which makes your IP the same as (something similar to) your social security number

    no they’re not.

    the EU ruled that IP addresses are personally identifiable information (PII) for the purposes of GDPR compliance EIGHT YEARS AGO. this means that internet services cannot store your IP address without your consent and explicitly telling you why they need it, they have to delete it when they’re done with it, and if they are to be stored in any way for aggregate data then it needs to be anonymised so that it can no longer be associated with you.

    any change to associate IPs with you would break the GDPR.

  • ddh@lemmy.sdf.org
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    13 days ago

    You can try I2P. The selection is smaller and it’s slower, but it’s free and privacy-first.

      • Matt@lemmy.ml
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        13 days ago

        Set up a computer in some country that doesn’t give a shit about your activity on internet, install Tailscale on it and set it as exit node.

        • ddh@lemmy.sdf.org
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          13 days ago

          That’s like a VPN with extra steps. Though if someone you trust in that country already has an exit node you can connect through, then that does sound good.

  • Nuxleio@lemmy.ml
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    2 months ago

    You need to pay for a VPN. It’s like a condom for the internet. Frankly, stop trying to avoid something that you should already be using.

    Mullvad is a good start. Go purchase it.

  • drspod@lemmy.ml
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    2 months ago

    EU is making a new law which makes your IP the same as (something similar to) your social security number and they say piracy is going to receive a huge blow.

    Sounds like an April Fools joke.

      • black0ut@pawb.social
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        2 months ago

        I torrent without VPN in the EU. I’ve been doing so for years. Still no letters as of writing this comment.

        • Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          2 months ago

          It massively depends on the country - it’s probably fine in Southern and Eastern Europe but not for example in Germany were if I’m not mistaken copyright violation is even part of Criminal Law rather than Civil Law as in pretty much the rest of the World.

          Personally ever since I lived in the UK - which has the most insane levels of civil society surveillance in Europe, including of Internet usage - I got into the habit of doing pretty much everything behind a VPN, which also helps with peace of mind for the whole torreting thing no matter which country I’m living in at the moment, plus I pay 5 euros a month for the VPN which is less than a single streaming service, so in a way it pays itself (it’s funny how piracy compensates for the costs of protecting myself from dragnet surveillance).

            • Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              9 days ago

              I vaguelly remember reading that Germany made Copyright Violation even for personal use a Crime, rather than merelly a Civil Law affair like it is in most countries.

              Mind you, I might be wrong on the countries or on the details (i.e. maybe it’s only a Crime if it’s for profit).

              Edit: So I searched for it and from here I got that:

              Are there criminal copyright provisions? What are they?

              Copyright infringements under German law also constitute criminal acts, which are punishable by fines or up to three years’ imprisonment. If the infringement is done on a commercial basis, the maximum punishment is five years in prison.

              According to German copyright law, unlawful exploitation of copyrighted works, unlawful affixing of the designation of an author and the infringement of related rights are subject to imprisonment of not more than three years or a fine. In addition, any attempt shall be punishable.

              The unlawful exploitation of copyrighted works on a commercial scale is subject to imprisonment of not more than five years or a fine.

              The infringement of technological measures and rights management information is subject to imprisonment of not more than one year or a fine.

              As I said, in most countries copyright infringement is not a Crime, just a Civil Law matter (i.e. you can be sued by the owners of the Copyright for damage but you won’t be sued by the State to pay a fine or even be jailed for it). Frankly judging by what it says there German law is very draconian on this.

  • Banana_man@reddthat.comOP
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    2 months ago

    Update: Hilariously, while looking into finding english articles for said law in Greece, I stumbled upon one possible answer for my problem. The SSN that connects to the IP address has no way of pinpointing a perpetrator in a place with free WiFi like an internet Cafe. This method is not really safe, for the law has only passed recently but in extremely classic Greek government fashion, the law has many gray areas and potential loopholes! Tell me what you think about this idea.

    • MaggiWuerze@feddit.org
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      2 months ago

      How about you don’t go saturating some poor sods public WiFi that he is kind enough to provide to his customers? Cheapskate