Let’s not turn this into what the Reddit subreddit of Piracy has turned into and that’s an endless sea of questions that are all the same - “Do I need a VPN?”.

And the loud and vocal answer to such a question is - yes. Yes you do need a VPN for pirating. Nobody gets a VPN for casual use and I’m under the impression that VPN services know a lot of people are going to be going to them for pirating and not just accessing content out of their country. And it’s for that reason, is why I’m skeptical on entrusting my activity with the bigger VPN names available.

I use ProtonVPN myself, by the way.

Pirating under your raw IP address, only will set you up to get pegged by your ISP whether it’s in a short time or a long time. I’ve only ever gotten one single ISP letter in my entire 26 years of pirating and it was simply because I downloaded without a VPN. Well I was also downloading off of someone else’s network to take the fall, but I was confronted about it either way.

And I’ve gotten away with so much pirating because of my careful cautiousness when it comes to pirating. That and this applies to the United States, but the statue of limitations is 3 years when it comes to copyright infringement. So, good fucking luck to any ISP or so that wishes to try and nail me for something I downloaded 10 years ago, but I digress.

But a large part of me avoiding so much does contribute to having a VPN. So, yes, VPN is required. Please don’t ask anybody in the pirating community 100 questions that are all just ways to ask whether or not you need a VPN. You do.

  • antipiratgruppen@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    3·
    7 days ago

    Do you know, is this another tax additional to “blankmedieafgiften” (“blank media tax” or “private copying levy”), or is it the same tax under a different name?

    • drkt@scribe.disroot.orgEnglish
      2·
      7 days ago

      Actually it might be blankmedieafgiften, that sounds far more correct. I was having trouble finding the exact term and ChatGPT was very confident (I know…) when I eventually gave up and asked it.

      • kungen@feddit.nuEnglish
        2·
        7 days ago

        Private copying levy. In Sweden, it’s called privatkopieringsersättning.

        • drkt@scribe.disroot.orgEnglish
          3·
          7 days ago

          That’s semantics. They’re charging it because they’re afraid you’re copying copy-protected materials, which is piracy. It’s a piracy tax.

          • kungen@feddit.nuEnglish
            3·
            7 days ago

            No, it’s ackshully a private copying levy. I get what you mean, but it’s a “good” thing, because otherwise 12 § upphovsrättslagen probably wouldn’t exist anymore:

            Var och en får för privat bruk framställa ett eller några få exemplar av offentliggjorda verk. Såvitt gäller litterära verk i skriftlig form får exemplarframställningen dock endast avse begränsade delar av verk eller sådana verk av begränsat omfång. Exemplaren får inte användas för andra ändamål än privat bruk.

            • drkt@scribe.disroot.orgEnglish
              2·
              7 days ago

              I don’t get it. You think laws will stop existing if we stop paying some fat cats for sitting on some copyrights?

              I also don’t care what I’m allowed to do, I don’t believe in copyrights, so you can’t really argue in favor of it to me.

              • kungen@feddit.nuEnglish
                1·
                7 days ago

                Think like this: for our sooo beloved politicians and legal systems, everything in life is seen as a transaction. Due to the fact that I’ve paid my “private copying tax” or whatever you want to call it, I therefore have the right to make private copies and share them with limited groups of people. If they want to restrict those rights that I have paid for, they would “need” to remove the tax – but they will never do that because it’s tons of free money.

                But if they did get rid of the tax, there’s no longer that “transaction”, and therefore there’s nothing hindering them from criminalizing private copying. Sweden is already USA’s lapdog in all other regards, so you can bet it’d be repealed quickly.

                I don’t support copyright laws either, nor follow them, but I can appreciate how it’s currently set up here, simply because it would otherwise become much much worse. At least here, normal people can do what they want without worrying about getting a legally binding order to pay 700€+ in damages like the Germans get.