I know this is a dumb question... But i cant really aford a vpn like at all, is it possible to torrent without using a vpn in the USA or will i get in some trouble and go to jail if i torrent without a vpn?

The reason i cant get a vpn is because im just broke and im young enough to live with family so i cant really get a job.

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[–] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 24 points 1 day ago (1 children)

If you are broke and cannot afford a VPN, I suggest you use I2P.

https://geti2p.net/en/

I2P is basically an internet protocol that treats all kinds of internet activity in the manner a torrent works.

Basically, you run a local node.

Traffic is routed around in a bunch of anonymized, encrypted chunks, from many different users, which are then bunched up together into packets and encrypted again.

As a client, you can only decrypt the parts of a packet that pertain to you...

But as a node, you help move packets along to every other person who is running a node, in a sort of meshnet like fashion.

The result is a free, but very slow, but also pretty well anonymized way of passing net traffic around...

...and it is also arguably more private/secure than a VPN, which can simply hand over its server logs if legally asked to...

...and it is also arguably more private/secure than TOR, which can have de-anonymization attacks run on it if enough onion nodes, or your entry/exit nodes, are either comprimised or just outright run as honey pots, which is a thing various law enforcement agencies do.

However, another downside to I2P is that it is... considerably more technically complex for most users to actually set up and use properly, than just a basic VPN for switching your geoip to watch Brazillian netflix or w/e.

But, it does allow torrenting and portforwarding, and is totally free.

Don't expect to be able to stream any media with it though, it is again very slow.

[–] florge@feddit.uk 1 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Couldn't you potentially have the same thing you describe for tor happening with i2p?

[–] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

In some sense yes, but:

If your TOR entry exit node is comprimised, you are basically fucked.

I've seen estimates that roughly 1/3 of them are comprimised, run by State actors of some kind.

People seem to forget that TOR was originally invented by the US Navy and used by them and the CIA and shit to move sensitive data around in the early 2000s, possibly late 90s.

Then they handed it off to the public.

Do you really think they do not know how to defeat it, when they really want to?

...

Also... I2P traffic is more anonymized/encrypted than TOR traffic is, in that each chunk in each packet is anonymized and encrypted... each packet is kind if a sausage of a bunch of people's data being moved around all at once, the whole point is you can't tell whose data ia whose.

IIRC, TOR packets do not work this way, they're specifically addressed to a single encrypted and anonymized person.

So, its easier to reverse engineer who is the actual person using the network.

Whereas with I2P, you're always routing for others as well as receiving your own data, albeit much, much more slowly.

[–] DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I don't think the cia/nsa or fsb is gonna involve themselves to investigate...

check notes

... people pirating movies and games...

They're more worried about dissidents.

[–] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I mean... the FBI and INTERPOL/EUROPOL routinely do things like infiltrate dark web black markets for physical things, services, hacked data, hacks themselves, that exist mainly or only on a .onion site, then honeypot the users for 6 to 12 months, then crackdown on as many as they can at the same time.

They also go after rom hosting sites, they go after the sites that host torrents and trackers...

Sure, call those 'Law Enforcement' agencies instead of 'Intelligence' agencies if you want to, fact of the matter is they often collaborate and share methods, practices and just direct intel.

Kinda like how US police have largely militarized after getting all the surplus guns from Iraq 2 and Afghanistan.

...

Have you never seen a website with a:

"THIS SITE HAS BEEN SEIZED AND SHUTDOWN"

Banner replacing the main site?

If not, you must not have been pirating anything for very long, or even just following that genre of news.

Happens all the time, and its often a big smorgasbord of collaborating LE/Intel agencies with their logos on the banner.

[–] Petter1@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 1 day ago

But tor is not built to torrent.