this post was submitted on 27 Jul 2025
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Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ

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[–] Uiop@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 20 minutes ago
[–] cupcakezealot@piefed.blahaj.zone 40 points 2 hours ago (3 children)

the most important thing to have when pirating is common sense

the second most important thing to have is a vpn

[–] SweetCitrusBuzz@beehaw.org 2 points 9 minutes ago

the most important this to have when pirating is common sense

We disagree actually, it's to have well written tutorials and not to rely on the idea that people can just know things from nothing.

We get the frustration in this meme but honestly, we never liked this kind of attitude in tech spaces, it's exclusionary, gatekeepy and harms people. We understand not wanting to answer every single question but some well written tutorials etc to link to are better than having everyone starting in ignorance amd getting in trouble or being harmed for it.

Especially if said tutorials keep up to date and add more answers to people's questions over time.

After all, being helpful actually helps the pirate community in that more people seed, so helping others is actually win-win. There's really no downsides whereas expecting others to know everything or being rude stops this from happening and thus is a loss for all of us.

[–] abbadon420@sh.itjust.works 26 points 2 hours ago (3 children)

Still don't know why I'd need a vpn. My country doesn't go after individuals pirating (yet). That's the only reason, as far as I understand, to have a vpn for pirating. So until they start to take come after individuals, I'm gonna save my money.

You only need a VPN in very few countries, some where it is needed to avoid getting your internet connection cutoff from your ISP are the US, Germany, Greece, and a few other countries somewhere in Europe, the rest of the world doesn't care about people downloading movies online.

[–] BakedCatboy@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 hour ago

I think you've exactly described why some people need a VPN. My ISP does 3 strikes when they get complaints :/

[–] cmgvd3lw@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 hour ago (2 children)

Also VPN makes you rather anonymous. The sites won't track you and sometimes the trackers on public torrent files are notorious for tracking.

[–] Mordikan@kbin.earth 1 points 39 minutes ago (1 children)

That is not true, the sites do still track you. VPNs don't prevent tracking, they just make sure the tracking is done through a secure tunnel.

[–] unhrpetby@sh.itjust.works 1 points 23 minutes ago (1 children)

VPNs don't prevent tracking, they just make sure the tracking is done through a secure tunnel.

The extra hop adds a significant barrier for the website in knowing the actual source IP. The fake source IP is likely used by many other users, and the user you are trying to track can easily rotate VPN IPs.

Its one less identifier for them to use.

[–] Mordikan@kbin.earth 1 points 12 minutes ago

Adtech relies on the OpenRTB 2.5/2.6 spec for tracking, you would have removed 1 identifier out of a hundred (one that isn't really used anyway given SSAI is so popular). In addition to that, cookie expiry timers are typically set to 365 days meaning you're VPN would need to enabled at all times to not invalidate multi-hop. WebStorage API based trackers tend to be indefinite.

ORTB spec: https://www.iab.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/OpenRTB-API-Specification-Version-2-5-FINAL.pdf

[–] abbadon420@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 hour ago

That is a good point indeed, but also applies for regular internet use..

[–] LainTrain@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 2 hours ago

Common Sense™ 2015 still going strong

[–] teft@piefed.social 20 points 2 hours ago (3 children)

This seems like a meme about piracy for script kiddies. These issues don’t really exist for anyone who knows what they’re doing.

[–] SweetCitrusBuzz@beehaw.org 2 points 7 minutes ago

We all have to start somewhere, it's better to help than gatekeep.

[–] Blurntout@lemmy.ca 26 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

Hence the “starter pack” lol they do indeed not know what they are doing

I thought starter packs weren't supposed to be ironic, did I miss something?

[–] jbone@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 1 hour ago

It literally is a meme, an ironic one.

[–] AccountMaker@piefed.social 17 points 2 hours ago (4 children)

A serious question: what's wrong with pirate bay? I have been using it to download movies, shows and language learning content for over a decade, and I never had any problems.

[–] abbadon420@sh.itjust.works 17 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

Those aren't typically risky media. When you're downloading games though, you're downloading executable programs. You can do some serious damage if you execute the wrong things. You're not executing a mkv or a pdf, you're only reading it.

[–] BlueRingedOctopus@lemmy.dbzer0.com 32 points 2 hours ago (2 children)

You're not executing a mkv or a pdf

You're half wrong and half right, .mkv files are completely safe but the same can't be said about .pdf files, attackers can embed malicious code, such as JavaScript or hidden executables, within a PDF file.

People really underestimate the capabilities of this .pdf file format. I remember some time ago, someone managed to run doom inside a .pdf file.

[–] CameronDev@programming.dev 11 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

Theoretically, there could also be a MKV file that exploits a bug in the video player to get execution.

Far less likely, but definitely possible.

There's a difference between exploiting bugs that haven't even been found and spreading malware through a method that's known by pretty much everyone and is still used to spread malware today.

It's also theoretically possible that your system is already infected by some Advanced Persistent Threats but does that happen that often, No, and have people been infected by running random pdfs they found online, Yes.

[–] naevaTheRat@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

You can embed 3d models in PDF.

You shouldn't but you can!

[–] DosDude@retrolemmy.com 1 points 1 hour ago

Tell that to circuit board designers. It's horrible every time a 3d model of a circuit board is added. The component height gives no visual advantage, and it's slow as shit on corporate computers.

[–] darcmage@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 2 hours ago

Nothing is wrong with it. I imagine you'd be the type to survive in the wild west because you're equipped to do so while people around you die of dysentery.

it's just guilty of being around for so long so it's popular which attracts a lot of attention.

[–] BlueRingedOctopus@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

Don't download games and software from it and always check the file extensions and make sure they're not something like Movie.mp4.exe or Movie.mkv.exe, other than that you're good.