It was so easy when I was growing up. I would just type my search into LimeWire and if it turned out to be weird porn I would delete it. Then we had The Pirate Bay, and I could go through reviews to see whether something was a virus or not. Now all public sites I am aware of are riddled with viruses, and I am warned that attempting to download any of them will result in me receiving threatening letters from copyrights holders in the post.

Here is what I have discovered today, trying to pirate things again:

  • The safest thing you can do is direct download from file share websites, but nobody says where these websites are.
  • If you want to torrent files, you need to subscribe to an exclusive private tracker. To get access to a private tracker, you need to get lucky, or you need to go through a painstaking process of levelling up over months and months of seeding torrents from semi-private trackers until you get to an actual good one that may or may not have the content you are looking for.
  • If you don’t want to do this, you need to pay for a UseNet provider, then you need to register for a similarly exclusive UseNet index service, probably paid as well. There is no guarantee you will find what you are looking for on here either, and there is a chance that your download will fail.
  • Whether you are using torrents or UseNet, you need a service to help you find the content in the first place, for example Sonarr, Radarr or Lidarr. Something called Jackett also fits into this somehow and apparently links to whatever indexes you are using.
  • If you are torrenting, you then need a torrent client such as qBitTorrent to actually get the files.
  • If you are using UseNet, you need a UseNet downloader such as jdownloader.
  • Alternatively, for either option you can pay for a Debrid service such as Real-Debrid or Premiumize to download the files for you, if you send them the links. Besides protecting your privacy and your bandwidth, these services are also great for bypassing the limits on the elusive direct download sites nobody can tell me any more about.

I don’t really think of myself as a stupid person but this shit is so confusing. It is harder than paying for drugs on the dark web with illegal crypto currency. Am I nearly there? Is this everything? If I pay for a UseNet provider and somehow register for a UseNet index, is it as simple as connecting the two together to something such as Sonarr to find the content and jdownloader to get it?

I just wanna have my own home streaming service.

  • cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.de
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    9 months ago

    It’s better than having some streaming service delete your show while your in the middle of watching it. It’s also better than finding out you can only watch in SD because they don’t approve of your CPU, GPU, monitor, operating system or web browser after paying for a subscription.

  • Wrrzag@lemmy.ml
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    9 months ago
    • If you want to torrent files, you need to subscribe to an exclusive private tracker. To get access to a private tracker, you need to get lucky, or you need to go through a painstaking process of levelling up over months and months of seeding torrents from semi-private trackers until you get to an actual good one that may or may not have the content you are looking for.

    Uh, no. Tpb, rutracker, nyaa… Work well. If you want more curated stuff then yes, private trackers might be worth it, but you can still find a ton of things on public trackers.

    • Whether you are using torrents or UseNet, you need a service to help you find the content in the first place, for example Sonarr, Radarr or Lidarr. Something called Jackett also fits into this somehow and apparently links to whatever indexes you are using.

    No. You can just search in one of the trackers and add the torrent to your download client.

    • If you are torrenting, you then need a torrent client such as qBitTorrent to actually get the files.

    Yes, obviously. If you want to ddl you’ll likely need a web browser, too.

    I just wanna have my own home streaming service.

    If you don want to automate it then just search for stuff manually and move your downloaded media to your library folders like it has been done since forever.

    • neocamel@lemmy.studio
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      9 months ago

      My man might be wearing the ol rose-colored glasses when it comes to the Limewire “heyday” of piracy.

      I remember many times accidentally infecting my computer with a virus through that thing. That repair process was a HUGE pain in the ass.

      I was stoned one night looking for concert footage and instead I got a video of a woman getting her head blown off at close range. That shit FUCKED. ME. UP. for a hot minute.

      Todays situation is better in my opinion.

        • Scrollone@feddit.it
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          9 months ago

          I remember I was trying to find the video of an ad that was on TV (don’t ask me why, I’m probably autistic). YouTube didn’t exist yet. Instead, I downloaded a CSAM video - I was a child myself at the time, and that thing scared me and fucked me up.

          Today it would never happen by using a torrent tracker, even a public one probably

      • idkmybffjoeysteel [he/him]@hexbear.netOP
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        9 months ago

        Yeah no I agree using LimeWire as a kid was wild, it’s just I stopped pirating when OG TPB got taken down and never really figured out how to get back into it.

        • Solemn@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          9 months ago

          Honestly nothing has changed since the OG tpb days, you can even still use tpb. BitTorrent should be replaced with qBitTorrent or something I think, I haven’t exactly changed my client in years. You have more choices of VPNs now if you care about that I guess. Some of the other old good trackers are defunct, but I think Reddit still has an actively maintained wiki of good public trackers…

  • calzone_gigante@lemmy.eco.br
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    9 months ago

    P2p is the way the web naturally flowed, protocols like bittorrent wore able to distribute content better than giant streaming companies without relying on giant infrastructure.

    Now sharing is frowed upon, hosting your own server at home is frowed upon, the web used to be more made by users, now to do anything you need to go through a big company.

    The difficulties you face on piracy is just a reflection of how capitalism is fucking the web.

  • retrieval4558
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    9 months ago

    My two cents, piracy is not necessarily more complicated than it ever was at its simplest, but the potential for enhanced automation and security is MUCH higher than it used to be. That’s the complex part.

    I’m one of the lucky private tracker people. If I wasn’t in there, I’d go all in on Usenet.

  • GravitySpoiled@lemmy.ml
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    9 months ago

    The problem you describe is that there are a hundred working ways. Each path works but you have to find it and take it.

    Imo, you can reduce the list to:

    how to pirate movies as a beginner

    1. Setup vpn
    2. Install qbittorrent
    3. Visit a tracker like 1337x.to
    4. Download and enjoy

    How to pirate movies as a pro

    1. Read about torrents
    2. Setup vpn
    3. Setup docker
    4. Setup prowlarr
    5. Setup gluetun
    6. setup qbittorrent
    7. Find a tracker, any tracker, and add it to prowlarr
    8. Search for something on prowlarr and be happy
    9. Add another tracker
    10. Setup radarr
    11. Setup jellyfin
    12. Setup nginx proxy manager traefik
    • Zozano@lemy.lol
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      9 months ago

      What are gluetun and npm used for? I did a quick search but I don’t really understand the purpose.

      • GravitySpoiled@lemmy.ml
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        9 months ago

        Gluetun ensures that the containers are properly connected to the vpn and that port forwarding is enabled which can be a pain in the ass.

        Npm = nginxproxymanager, it forwards external requests to the right port where the containers are such that you can reach your jellyfin instance on your selfhosted/rented server

        • xenspidey@lemmy.zip
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          9 months ago

          Yeah, npm might not be a great abbreviation for that. npm = node package manager, which is big in node.js and javascript.

            • Zozano@lemy.lol
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              9 months ago

              What do you mean properly?

              My home server isn’t remotely accessible if that’s what you’re asking.

              But there are no DNS leaks and all my containers work fine.

              (Forgive my ineptitude, I’m still new to advanced networking and home servers in general)

              I see the difference is Gluetun is used to route some traffic through the VPN. I don’t have a need for that, so I use the script to route all my traffic through the VPN.

                • Zozano@lemy.lol
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                  9 months ago

                  Yeah I torrent, I haven’t manually configured any ports though. IP is hidden according to iknowwhatyoudownloaded

      • Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        9 months ago

        Torrent and Usenet are not exclusive.
        Upside of torrent: No upfront cash to use.
        No need to research backbones, pre paid accounts etc.

        • quirzle@kbin.social
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          9 months ago

          I never said they’re exclusive; I use both in my workflow. The comment to which I replied made it seem like private trackers were the end-all though, which I took issue with.

          I also think your upsides are a bit misleading. I wouldn’t use torrents without a VPN (upfront cash), and the effort to learn how usenet works isn’t any more daunting than the effort needed to get into good private trackers and keep up the ratios (e.g., tracking time/ratio based on tracker, working with hardlinks, etc.).

          • Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            9 months ago

            You can torrent effectively free. Never said that you should do it.
            Usenet usage is paid from the 1st step.

      • CronyAkatsuki@lemmy.cronyakatsuki.xyz
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        9 months ago

        I moved to usenet, seted up a few good indexers and providers and the experience is 1000x better and easier than trying to get into any kind of private trackers.

        • GravitySpoiled@lemmy.ml
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          You have to fill out an application form to get into a private tracker. Literally just a couple of sentences about your torrent experience, why you want to join, etc. You can copy paste that paragraph and send it to 10 trackers.

          What did you write that you were not accepted?

          • CronyAkatsuki@lemmy.cronyakatsuki.xyz
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            9 months ago

            I didn’t bother applying, mostly because I don’t look for contant stream of media, and the fact I would then need to managage my seed ratio.

            Not interested in all that, plus I’m very limited on storage, and not can’t upgrade it cause it’s too expensive here either way.

            Usenet is just better for my usecase.

            • GravitySpoiled@lemmy.ml
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              9 months ago

              It’s not difficult to get into one.

              And Seed ratio is only a problem for newbies without history.

              Sounds like prejudices, tbo.

              • CronyAkatsuki@lemmy.cronyakatsuki.xyz
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                9 months ago

                i don’t have history either man. Every private tracker I tried applying to wanted atleast proof of good seed ration from 2 other private trackers also. Which I don’t have I never tou hed private trackers before.

                And either way I don’t have disk space to keep torrent’s around to build up the ratio. ( I have 100gb free for movies/tv shows ).

    • dysprosium@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      9 months ago

      docker

      what benefit does a docker deliver? Isn’t that just a way to isolate things as if it were running inside a mini-computer?

      • quirzle@kbin.social
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        9 months ago

        Pretty much. You can download images with everything bundled and ready to go (e.g., deploy a new container image instead of upgrading your Radarr version in place) and keep them separate (e.g., Torrent container goes through vpn but your media server doesn’t, Radarr upgrade going south won’t affect your Sonarr install, etc.)

      • GravitySpoiled@lemmy.ml
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        9 months ago

        You can use a compose file and have the same setting on any device. Similar to nix. It’s like a recipe for an app. Instead of installing nextcloud step by step, you can just use docker. Same here.

    • Scrollone@feddit.it
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      9 months ago

      You may skip step 1 (getting a VPN) if you live in a country that doesn’t give a shit about piracy. Do your own research

        • Vendetta9076@sh.itjust.works
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          9 months ago

          In my experience its more flexible and super easy to set up. Sure, Nginx Proxy Manager is brain dead easy, but its pretty clunky if you want subdomains and the like. Traefik just works. I can route my local services and my external services through the same instance and it just goes. Its awesome.

          • GravitySpoiled@lemmy.ml
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            9 months ago

            Same for nginx proxy manager. I just read upon the differences and traefik is aware of containers and shall be easier to update. I may switch to it. Thx for bringing this up.

            Nginx proxy manager is super easy (for me) but traefik might be the better recommendation. Both work.

        • Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          9 months ago

          You can set rules through docker compose.
          e.g.: traefik.http.routers.traefik-public.rule: 'Host(dashboard.${DOMAIN_EXTERNAL})'
          This makes it easy to setup again elsewhere without having to setup everything manually because it’s (if setup correctly) ✨automagically✨

  • Gooey0210@sh.itjust.works
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    9 months ago

    Really can’t get the point of the post

    I’m enjoying rutracker + tpb. Very easy, very fast, always find what I want

  • anarchoilluminati [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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    9 months ago

    Maybe I’ve unknowingly downloaded a bunch of viruses but I just tied qbitTorrent to my vpn and downloaded tons of movies from 1337x, torrentgalaxy, or ocassionally from PirateBay if I found a good one. I’ve been fine, but maybe I’m actually not. Who knows?

    Either way, no letters or Summons so I’m doing all right.

    • projectilecomet@lemmy.zip
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      9 months ago

      Yeah torrenting isn’t really all that hard tbh. Near enough same method as me, always been okay thus far

  • qwerty@discuss.tchncs.de
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    9 months ago

    1337x.to, qbittorrent, vpn if your isp cares. Dodi, fitgirl, johncena141 for games. For audio, video, books, just don’t be dumb and open bee_movie.mp4.exe and you’ll be fine.

  • Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    9 months ago

    The safest thing you can do is direct download from file share websites, but nobody says where these websites are.

    Until some legal entity decides to raid the servers. Pray they do not keep logs of IPs. Though usually this may be (to some extent) a gray zone in some countries.

    If you want to torrent files, you need to subscribe to an exclusive private tracker

    I download anime almost exclusively from nyaa. SubsPlease, Erai-Raws and many others are borderline there within 2h from release.
    Private trackers allow for even higher quality by applying a ruleset like only remuxes and maybe they only allow a certain bitrate to have it classify as a remux on their community.

    . To get access to a private tracker, you need to get lucky, or you need to go through a painstaking process of levelling up over months and months of seeding torrents from semi-private trackers until you get to an actual good one that may or may not have the content you are looking for.

    No need to level up. Some more exclusive trackers may (or may not) open their doors during an open signup. But this is like any exclusive club. Either you stay a “pleb” in the open field or work for acess to the hifher club. Don’t imagine for a second you could just enter the exclusive area in a high roller casino without a few hundred 10k chips. :p

    If you don’t want to do this, you need to pay for a UseNet provider, then you need to register for a similarly exclusive UseNet index service, probably paid as well. There is no guarantee you will find what you are looking for on here either, and there is a chance that your download will fail.

    Usenet was always paid in the recent years.
    Paying an indexing service is not mandatory. I am signed up to 4 services in the free tier just fine.
    That you will not find stuff there is just as likely there, in P2Pworld as in the open web DDL or the privately shared lists world.

    Whether you are using torrents or UseNet, you need a service to help you find the content in the first place, for example Sonarr, Radarr or Lidarr. Something called Jackett also fits into this somehow and apparently links to whatever indexes you are using.

    What?
    You can search the sites just fine on their own search engine. The *arrs and jacket/prowlarr are just unifying the searching into one engine and the *arrs parse and categorize your searches to help you find the stuff you want.
    As I said: You can either search TPB manually just fine, oooooor you plonk it into prowlarr and have it synced to your *arrs.

    • If you are torrenting, you then need a torrent client such as qBitTorrent to actually get the files.
    • If you are using UseNet, you need a UseNet downloader such as jdownloader.

    To browse the web, you need a web browser?
    To use a computer you need a storage drive?
    To use anything you need electricity.
    So what’s your point??

    Alternatively, for either option you can pay for a Debrid service such as Real-Debrid or Premiumize to download the files for you, if you send them the links. Besides protecting your privacy and your bandwidth, these services are also great for bypassing the limits on the elusive direct download sites nobody can tell me any more about.

    Any user logged to an exclusive community and uploading to something like those services are borderline stupid. lmao!
    And they probably risk their account from being banned pretty quickly for breaking seeding rules They may function like a remote qbittorrent with a nice streaming interface. You basically pay someone to give you a pretty interface. Same as a seedbox, but you have no power over what you can/can not do :p

    but this shit is so confusing. It is harder than paying for drugs on the dark web with illegal crypto currency.

    Absolutely not. You just may be having issues understanding the material. Nothing wrong with that though.
    I am still having problems understanding some concepts of for example VLANs, (v)SANs and software defined storage.

    I just wanna have my own home streaming service.

    Easy:

    • Download and install Jellyfin (or Plex if you want to get shafted. Just donate the same amount to the Jellyfin team).
    • Organizing: Download and install sonarr (tv)/radarr (movies)
    • Torrent: Either wait for access to TL during an upcoming holiday like easter and monitor communication channels or watch opensignup websites.
    • Usenet: Sub to a few closed communities. Same as the torrent way.
    • Downloading: For torrent: qbit, for usenet: sabnzbd.
    • Indexing: Prowlarr as the all-in-one solutiom.
    • Download: Either search prowlarr through it’s own interface or through sonarr/radarr ooooor just download all yourself from some DDL page or rip from other (pirate) streaming sites via plugins and organize it via the *arrs.
    • idkmybffjoeysteel [he/him]@hexbear.netOP
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      9 months ago

      What? You can search the sites just fine on their own search engine. The *arrs and jacket/prowlarr are just unifying the searching into one engine and the *arrs parse and categorize your searches to help you find the stuff you want.

      I’ve been trying to understand this stuff without seeing any of it possum-party

      Thanks for the help, this answers pretty much everything I was confused about

    • quirzle@kbin.social
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      9 months ago

      Until some legal entity decides to raid the servers. Pray they do not keep logs of IPs. Though usually this may be (to some extent) a gray zone in some countries.

      Can you give an example? I don’t think accessing a file somebody makes available has ever been an issue with copyright prosecution. They go after uploaders and hosts.

      Even if they did, an IP in a server log isn’t definitive proof of an individual accessing something. However, I’m less confident of worldwide legal systems understanding that. Still, I’d be curious if there’s a single example of somebody being charged over accessing publicly accessible copyrighted files on the web.

  • fine_sandy_bottom@discuss.tchncs.de
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    9 months ago

    Oh man.

    Stremio + torrentio plugin + real debrid subscription.

    I used Usenet and then torrents for 20 years or so but this stremio stack allowed me to get rid of all that *arr crap, also VPN, and private trackers et cetera. Not to mention a hot, power hungry home server.

    Others will be along to disagree with me any moment, but for me this stack is infinitely better.

    Downloading and storing stuff doesn’t make any sense in the era of unlimited data.

    • Assian_Candor [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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      Someone has to seed though. I don’t know much about seedboxes but it seems like a seed box + plex combo is a solid way to go.

      The home server route is way more complicated than rd+stremio for sure, but is still necessary in some contexts. I keep one just for kids content bc there’s no way to separate it out using stremio that I’ve found so far. It’s a bit of a pain to set up but with docker it’s not so bad. Stremio + rd for everything else.

      Anything is better than watching fucking ads

        • JamesConeZone [they/them]@hexbear.net
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          9 months ago

          Docker silos your apps into VMs called containers so if it malfunctions, the entire server doesn’t need to reboot only the docker container. You can also wall off select containers’ network access through VPNs and allow others through. Seems to work a bit better than split tunneling for me

  • RGB@group.lt
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    9 months ago

    It is a very difficult topic - I use slsk private trackers and now try to revive airdc++ my data set is around 60TB - it is pain in ass to manage -HDD’s fail, you need to salvage the data, also buy a new bigger ones, ssd’s also fail. Internet connection is limited, and the MASSIVE amount of data being produced these dayz… I also run I2P and IPFS nodes, TOR snowflake. And it is massive pain that alphatracker is down… also the rarbg loss. Please keep calm, everything will be fine, I have to mention that I live in a grey country - no need for vpn - that really helps.

  • rambos@lemm.ee
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    9 months ago

    We still have torrents, only thing thats new is option to set up *arr stack for next level torrenting. Piratebay is still working, torrents and/or usenet are way better with speeds we have today… I never liked LimeWire. Just use VPN my dude

  • gila@lemm.ee
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    9 months ago

    Feels like you’re describing growing out of p2p

    I used to download stuff from XDCC bots on IRC. That was even weirder than Usenet, you’d send the bot a specific chat command for it to serve you a file.

    I feel like ‘my own home streaming service’ is effectively what I have in comparison to those days.