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.
On behalf of whoever is paying for your internet connection, do not torment without a VPN.
If you ignore this advice, be aware that the aformentioned person will get a nastygram in the mail, complete with the exact title of the torment you downloaded. They have no qualms with outing your darkest perversions to the breadwinner(s) in your household.
In my experience the nastygram accused me of downloading a ton of different things but I there was only maybe one thing I actually did? They’re very bad at figuring out what you’re torrenting only that you are
Those letters originate from the rights holders, who have leechers in the swarm, verifying that you are actively uploading data to them. Your ISP doesnt care if you torrent, or who you torrent to. They wont originate a letter unless a rightsholder requires them to.
The rightsholder has your IP address, and the name of the file you sent them. Data for those files was sent to their leechers by your IP address, perhaps not by you, but by some machine operating on your network, or through it.
It is possible that the letter to your ISP included a list of both IP addresses belonging to several of their customers, and filenames sent from all of those customers. It is possible that the ISP sent out letters to each of the individual subscribers, and just attached the full list of files from the original complaint.
That’s essentially how I assumed they worked, and batching the complaints makes sense as to why they were accusing me of downloading random files.
Depends on jurisdiction and what you torrented. Is the US uniformally militant on torrents?
I mean I torrented without a VPN on comcast/xfinity and nothing happened besides a few emails, eventually they stopped even sending those emails. I mean I had my own unlimited mobile data plan, and everyone in my household is abusive to me so I just decided to test what happens, worse case scenario, their internet gets shut off and I’d just have to use my own mobile hotspot connection. (Don’t judge, I’m just very petty about being on the receiving end of abusive behavior and I would sabotage my own family for revenge) Welp, after like 6 months of downloads, nothing happened, I eventually stopped doing that and used a VPN because I wanted to watch some weird tv shows and movies that I didn’t want them know about.
But this is anecdotal, don’t test this at home.