PocketGoblin

slrpnk .net got me for a second!

https://slrpnk.net/post/36019624

Keep in mind that each country has different piracy laws. Some don’t care much and fines won’t be pursued if you just ignore them, some poor countries don’t care at all, some don’t care about foreign content but take their own content and sports seriously, and some take all piracy seriously and hit you with tens of thousands of dollars of fines. I’d recommend looking into your local laws, and if you find out you’re in a danger zone, following the recommendations from your fellow countrypeople.

Even reputable no-logs VPNs aren’t foolproof, they can leak and the killswitch can fail. But Mullvad is currently the best, I heard their killswitch is better than Proton’s currently is.

Different methods carry different levels of risk. You’ll often hear that streaming from websites is safe since it’s not seeding (and exposing your IP address to the pool), but a lot of those sites do torrent from your browser these days (and can’t be bound to a VPN, I don’t think?). They’re also full of malware and malicious ads, so a good adblocker is necessary. The safest methods are private trackers (seeding but only to other private members) and debrid services (lowest risk but no seeding and they’re paid subscriptions. though there’s one that offers some seeding time at the highest subscription tiers). There’s also joining a trusted person’s private Jellyfin server (getting someone else to pirate for you).

Seeding is of course really important for preventing the entire system from collapsing and preventing niche or old media from being lost, so if you’re in a position to seed, you absolutely should. A good VPN bound to the torrent client (after enabling the killswitch and doing the leak tests) and the knowledge to ignore fines is enough for public trackers in many countries.

Note that even in countries where fines aren’t pursued if you just ignore them, (if they do somehow get sent due to a VPN accident or the government further eroding human rights) they’ll be sent out to your ISP and the person named on the internet bill. Your household may have their own thoughts about your viewing history, and some people are concerned about their government getting wind that they consume things like queer or non-English media.

Here’s the piracy community! You should do your research before getting started. https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/c/piracy

‘PDF’ is actually the one that always irritates me, haha. It just feels so ignorant and selfish to make people associate such a common word with such a triggering topic. Euphemisms can be so useful for affected people and help them to talk about topics they otherwise couldn’t, but it defeats the purpose when it’s a common word and the association becomes strong.

I understand the sentiment and I also find it grating when it feels like a decision motivated by things I don’t approve of, but words like ‘heck’ and ‘gosh’ are a very common part of language in their own right. People grow up listening to their families and communities using the words, and then continue to see it everywhere online, so it’s just like any other word for them. I also don’t think it’s necessarily self-censorship to purposely choose milder language with different connotations, we don’t always want the harshest words.

Not a huge fan of correlating mental health and capitalist greed, personally.