Preface.
To put it simply this is a comprehensive guide for piracy. I wanted to create this guide in order to spread awareness about torrenting and provide links to reliable sources. DISCLAIMER: I will not be covering direct to download websites. Although they don't require a VPN, it takes forever to download anything and even the popular ones are quite sketchy. If you wish to go further down this facinating rabbit hole of possibly incriminating material, check out cs.rin.ru, a popular piracy forum as well as r/Piracy and r/Torrenting on reddit.
Ethics of piracy.
There is no glory in piracy. Unequivocally, the piracy of content created by indie devs and legitimate companies should be condemed. People do their job in order to get paid and with no pay there is no reason for them to create. However, there are some instances that perhaps justify piracy.
- “Accessibility of abandonware” Some software is simply impossible to obtain through reasonable means. This is most prevalent in emulation community where it's impossible to play certain games that were produced on now obsolete consoles that released in a limited amounts.
- "Monopolistic/anti-consumer practices" Although the devs behind their software deserve reconition and compensation for their work, big tech companies like Adobe, Nintendo, Apple, and Microsoft make their software prohibitively expensive or needlessly limited. As consumers we are obligated to demonstrate this disatisfaction in order for any change to occur.
Terminology.
- P2P- A peer to peer network is an IT infrastructure that allows two or more computer systems to connect and share resources without requiring a separate server or server software.
- Torrent sites- A website created to host .torrent files.
- Crack- Code to close-source applications/games that have been revealed.
- Repackers- Groups or individuals who take cracked games and compress them for easy distribution.
Torrenting Basics.
To get started I've listed the necessary software you will need to get started and what they do. (Numbered descriptions correspond to the respective links below.)
1. Torrent client- Here I have selected two solid p2p (peer to peer) programs that don't have any adware BS. These programs are called torrent clients and allow you to download large files from the internet useing a file extention called ".torrent".
Each ".torrent" file is like a receipt to the file you want (Game, Movie, App, etc). Every time you tell your torrent client to download a file it looks for all the other computers that are uploading that file and requests them.
The torrent client speeds up this process by having multiple users upload fragments of the file to your computer at once. It then pieces the small bits of data into a usable file.
People who re-upload the files that they download are called "seeders", we like seeders because they keep the torrent alive and fast. (Your torrent client will do this by default so long as you don't move the location of the downloaded files.)
Conversely, leeches are those who download without re-uploading by deleting them after use. This results in dead torrents that have to be reseeded.
If you want to know more about torrenting take a look at this video.
2. VPNs- Whenever you are downloading or re-uploading (seeding) a file your ip address is visable. This information at best will result in nothing, usually it results in your ISP throttling your internet speed, and at worst results in serious legal repercussions (depending on country).
Sadly, you will have to pay money to get one that supports p2p networks ("free" VPNs aren't exactly reliable). Keep in mind to NEVER pirate something that costs less than the tools and hardware required to torrent (obviously).
3. Antivirus/protection- In all honestly I HATE antiviruses, they make your system slower, steal your data, and are borderline adware. To get around using an antivirus while staying protected I use two tools, VirusTotal and UblockOrigin.
VirusTotal is a drag and drop website that scans files for viruses with EVERY antivirus on the market (files are data capped at 650MB). In addition, UblockOrigin is a browser extention that blocks malicous websites and ads.
I highly suggest configuring your UblockOrigin's filter list to suit your needs. (Use megathread previously mentioned.)
4. 7-zip- File archivers are not my personal subject of expertise but basically they allow you to unzip any compressed files you download. Windows has one built in but 7-zip supports more formats and is free.
- qbittorrent or Transmission
- ProtonVPN or MullvadVPN or iVPN
- VirusTotal and UblockOrigin
- 7-zip
Sources and sites.
This section is going to be a bit more subjective because everyone has a different opinion on where to source your torrents and why. I prefer these ones because they are relatively easy to navigate and provide a good variety of torrents. If you want to do a little exploration of your own you can take a look here on cs.rin.ru for more links.