this post was submitted on 05 Jun 2023
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Piracy
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Thank you for resources?
Noob question: How would I go about vetting the links/downloads?
Also, how do I safely download from these sites? I've been using a VPN (mullvad) for a couple years now, but is that enough?
I'm pretty tech savvy but I have never needed to download, but I just don't want to install origin, Uplay, EA, or any other launcher to play a single player game and tbh I don't want to support those companies at all
I thought there was a mirror on lemmy for r/piracy's spectacular megathread but I don't see it. Rough guides from a semi-noob:
Direct download:
TOR with Ublock Origin add-on
After downloading your file, upload it to virustotal.com and scan it. If it passes you're probably pretty safe.
Torrent:
Find and your file magnet in TOR.
Turn on VPN.
Open qbittorrent with your connection bound to your VPN's network.
Paste your magnet link when it prompts you and download.
Once it's done downloading, upload it to virustotal to scan it.
Why could you not just find the magnet link with VPN on? Just trying to understand why that should be done via TOR
There's controversy over whether VPN + TOR is a good combo. Some say it's an added layer of anonymity, others say it could be decreasing anonymity because your VPN could be logging your traffic. Some also say the two don't mesh well. But honestly the juries out so everyone should probably come to their own conclusion
A VPN will get all the browsing data that could otherwise be collected by an ISP. I feel like the difference is a VPN is a self-selected group of people who are willing to pay for anonymity, which implies both juicier data and more likely to have money. I'd kinda rather not identify myself that way. Especially since it's legally established that you can't identify individuals by IP address (in the US).
TOR is its own debate. It's as secure as the node you're using, and my understanding was a significant proportion of them were controlled by US LEO which kinda compromised the point.
It's a bad idea since Tor already has bridges to bypass censorship and adding a VPN will make your connection slower
I’ve just always been of the mindset that pirating is so low on the feds radar that even if a VPN is tracking or even if they’re a honeypot it’s not like the government agencies are going to expose that by coming after some low level pirate. That said I’m not super active anymore and I always look for VPN’s who at least claim to not track.