With the resurgence of pirating, do you think there will be a “response” from the powers that be?
In general, what would that look like?
Specifically, do you think VPN companies based in the US or friendly countries will start to feel legal or corporate pressure to stop letting people use their services to download copyrighted material?
I just feel like these things always ebb and flow.
No company, especially VPN companies, will encourage you to break the law or violate copyright.
We have to support companies like Mullvad who operate on the premis that privacy is a human right, if it’s just a business equation then they will fold when it’s inconvenient
Plus, if the VPN is setup right, they can’t know exactly what you are downloading or what you are accessing.
Yes and no. The movie/game companies can still easily trace torrents back to the VPN server. So the VPN provider is under constant pressure to crack down on piracy.
And some have begun to give in. Lots of VPNs have dropped support for port forwarding, because it’s commonly used by Plex/Jellyfin servers.
Actually, no. Even if they trace it back to the provider, if said provider is running little to zero logs and proper encryption, there is no way for the provider to know who is doing the downloading of anything.
It’s also not the movie/game companies doing anything. There are companies that monitor p2p for specific files for TV shows, movies, games, etc and then automatically send a boilerplate cease and desist to whoever owns any ip addresses for said files. Some isps like Google fiber (at one point) just ignored these requests and didn’t pass it on to the end user. Every other isp including VPSs, seedboxes, etc will autoforward the dmca notice and if you rack up enough they will fire you as a customer.
I suggest you and others here check out proton, they have a ton of servers including ones that support p2p. They don’t and can’t tell who is transferring what. If you do a ton of downloading of pirated content, I’d also suggest setting up even a basic seedbox. The one I am currently using takes crypto and doesn’t need any info aside from an email address. They will forward dmca notices and the auto delete the offending content after about 12 hours but if you restart the torrent you can download it again if needed and you can then let it seed for as long as you want.
If they keep tracing it back to the provider it doesn’t matter. Eventually rightsholders will squak enough at politicians and pay them big money to pass legislation banning VPNs or some stupid shit like that. If enough countries do it, VPN providers will have major operating challenges.
That’s not how that works. Torrent has been around for decades and none of that actually happens. None of that will ever happen and couldn’t actually be enforced even if it did.
I’m not sure some of you here actually understand how this tech or the world at large actually functions. Plenty of files are shared p2p that aren’t under copyright and it would be damn near impossible to limit people’s ability to connect p2p with others without fundamentally changing how the entire internet is connected and functions.
I’d suggest you look up concepts like zero knowledge encryption. I’d also suggest you look at VPN providers that claim to not keep any logs at all along with proper encryption. I’d also suggest that you look into the number of jurisdictions around the world who don’t give a flying fuck about the dmca.
Yes they will, and anyone confident in saying no doesn’t understand that laws will be changed if they need to. If VPN usage is significant enough of a factor in piracy or any other illegal activity laws will be changed to find providers responsible. They could mandate data be logged. There’s so many other more nefarious things that these VPNs could be sheltering more important that governments would like to be able to have information on that I just can’t see them shrugging their shoulders and ignoring it. That time will come.
Go for it. I have a Digital Ocean droplet in Amsterdam. Took an evening to spin up, and I can do it again. $6/mo.
You are aware that there are 1,000 uses for a VPN other than pirating? I work for a software dev, we’re dependent on half a dozen for secure access. Hell, even the accounting guy needs a VPN to upload to the bank.
The powers that be depend on VPNs to do business. Mandate logging? OK. We’ll roll our own. This is old, proven and simple tech.
Digital Ocean collects this data already. Some of these Vpn providers claim to collect nothing, sometimes not even payment information. If you’re doing something illegal on that Digital Ocean droplet and law enforcement tracks it down to that IP, Digital Ocean will comply with any lawful order for the data they have on you.
You could theoretically set up a logless VPN server where everything resides in RAM… Unless DO can export RAM at an exact moment in time or catch you in the act and take a snapshot of the RAM at that moment.
They could theoretically sniff your outgoing connections though, but that’s difficult to trace with DNS-over-HTTPS.
They know which IP address belongs to which customer at the time and anybody can download a torrent of some copyrighted content and see which IP addresses are down or uploading it at any given moment. No need to inspect RAM, no need for DO to monitor traffic. They (the copyright holders) will send a cease and desist through DO already, and could change to send a lawsuit instead.
For torrents, that is correct. For everything else, it’s less concerning.
I’ve gotten letters from my ISP before about it lol
This is about VPN proxies, not VPN technology itself.
that server is directly tied to you. this won’t make a difference at all.
This is an excellent answer, and the most realistic one I’ve seen so far.
None of the big VPN companies officially endorse use if their services for piracy or any illegal activities for that matter.
But to crack down on it they would have to keep logs on your activity and with that most of their legitimate use cases wouldn’t be valid anymore either.
No person can make a locked door 100% secure. It either is a locked door waiting to be unlocked, or its a welded shut wall which defeats the whole point of a door.
Privacy is a tradeoff with illegal activity. While unfortunate, a person cannot have full privacy ona VPN without giving criminals that same privacy. Some may consider this assisting criminals, some may not. But you can’t have full privacy and be able to catch criminals too, you have to pick one or the other.
I’ve been sailing the high seas for years and never used a VPN.
Where do you live ? certainly not in Germany/Switzerland
Not who you were talking to, but I’m in Canada and don’t use one.
Unless if you’re in much, much deeper than simple downloading movies/albums/tv shows, we have a max financial payout for copyright infringement lawsuits which is $5,000 CAD. Makes it not worth it for companies to care as they’ll pay more in legal fees and lawyers than they will actually win. ISP’s still have to legally pass on the notices of infringement but they just go right in ye ol’ spam folder for eventual deletion as they have for the last 20 some odd years.
Perks of living in a third world country
I think it’s very likely this happens more in the future, but likewise VPN providers sell you anonymity. So if they can’t operate without disclosing, they will lose their customers. I’m positive no matter what, VPN companies will find a way to avoid these situations such as operating from countries with less regulations etc.
VPN providers sell you anonymity. So if they can’t operate without disclosing, they will lose their customers. I’m positive no matter what, VPN companies will find a way to avoid these situations . . .
That assumes the full integrity and commitment to transparency of the VPN provider. It also assumes that a specific VPN is an independent operator, and not doing business with or for a specific government. It also assumes that the VPN hardware is based in a country that can and will shield it from international law enforcement and civil lawsuits.
That’s a lot of assumption. Maybe those things are reliable today, but they may not be forever.
I’m not saying don’t trust them, I think they’re in the business because they believe in privacy, but anyone depending on VPNs to do what they do anonymously online should always have their eyes open and ears to the ground on this. Never underestimate the fact that most people can be brought, companies can be sued out of existence, and even “democratic” governments can make an individual’s life absolute hell when they feel like it.
I’m old enough to remember the hell that Phil Zimmerman went through just for creating PGP in to 90s, ditto Penet around the same time.
And while Zimmerman was in the US, Penet was in Finland, which many people thought made it safe, possibly including Julf himself. It did not. Finland did not attack Julf or Penet; instead, organizations from around the globe that were threatened by the existence of an anonymous remailer mounted multiple simultaneous legal charges against Julf and Penet to the point he had to shut it down, and there were many points between start and finish where users had no idea what had been exposed to interested governments and what had not.
I said all that to say this. If your online safety from legal issues depends on a VPN, then never assume. Learn, keep on learning, and be ready to shut down and split at a moment’s notice.
I mean I’m still out here rawdogging usenet without a vpn. I keep waiting for the great crackdown on usenet but it never comes… Surely that comes before any VPN crackdown.
Some might but if they do, others will take their place.
