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Do I really need a VPN for pirating? (feddit.nl)

submitted 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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OK, so, I have a couple of questions:

What's the worst that can happen if I don't use a VPN while pirating?
Are free tier VPNs (like Proton VPN) good enough?
I don't want to pay much or anything for a VPN, is a way I can get a good free one, or set one myself somehow (I have experience with selfhosting) ?
If not, which cheap one do you recommend?

EDIT: I pirate mostly movies, and rarely some TV series.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

In Canada, I've never bothered with a VPN. Nobody in Canada has ever been successfully sued for torrent downloading of media, and BC courts have thrown out mass John Doe cases as a waste of the legal system's time.

Even if it does go to court, there's a principal in Canadian law that damages can be at most three times the value of the good (for punitive damages). For BluRay that's, what, $50? They don't want to go all the way to a judgement to set the legal precedent of a $150 judgement.

Even if courts go beyond treble damages, there's a maximum fine of $5000 for non-commercial infringement. Even that isn't with their legal costs to pursue.

So non-commercial piracy is de facto legal in Canada.

(IANAL, this is not legal advice.)