I switched to windscribe last month because the proton CEO starting spewing politcal BS, and I wanted port forwarding that wasn’t locked behind a shitty GUI.

As far as I was concerned setup was super easy, the VPN speeds were great, and port forwarding worked really nicely. The whole price for a fixed server and port forward, + unlimited data was a bit much (at $95/year) but for the ease of use and speeds I was getting, I was happy to stick with them.

My setup is a always-on server with a 1gbps connection, where yes, I fucking seed my shit, all of it. I have about 30TB of linux ISOs and counting, and it’s rare that my combined upload speed is less than 1MBps, ever.

Which lead me to getting banned from windscribe with no notice or warning in the middle of last week. This lead to me having to spend tracker points to avoid HnR, and i’m also unable to grab any new ISOs until I find a new VPN provider that won’t ban me for actually using the service full time.

I did shoot them an email (after talking’ with their AI bot first), and they were actually helpful enough. The offered to restore support, so long as I promised to not torrent with them again (which, I honestly did promise not to. I’m not sticking with a VPN service that can’t handle me actually using it for what it’s advertised for) and they did unban the account. Whole email chain took about three days to get resolved.

My sticking point is that they still have instructions on setting up torrents on their own website, and that they specifically allow for unlimited data (with the plan i paid for) so long as it’s just one user. I did not break those rules. After clarifying that in the support email, they still said that I was using too much data (despite the unlimited data advertisement) and that torrenting was not allowed on their service.

TL:DR: Windscribe bans you if you use a lot of data, and support says torrents aren’t allowed, despite their website advertising such. Proof in the attached images.

If y’all have any other suggestions for a VPN that allow port forwarding i’d really appreciate it.

  • Arcane2077@sh.itjust.works
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    15 days ago

    Thanks for the warning!

    I’m not trying to convince you either way, but can you point to the ‘political BS’ Proton guy said that made you flip? I use Proton and also veer hard left wherever politics are concerned, and I personally think the whole thing is way overblown. I may have missed something though, happy to hear otherwise, because in my understanding all he did was soft-endorse someone who identifies as republican at the moment

    • Ilandar@lemm.ee
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      15 days ago

      Everyone bases their opinion off that one out-of-context tweet, but if you actually take the time to evaluate the context you’ll find it’s extremely unlikely that Andy Yen (Proton CEO) is a “Trump supporter”. At worst, he is a rationalist who wants to continue Proton’s work with the US administration regardless of who is president, rather than having a tantrum and trying to virtue signal boycott and achieve nothing for 4+ years. Unfortunately a lot of people on the left would rather circlejerk in their online cope chambers like Lemmy and Bluesky rather than actually engage with reality.

      • Daniel Quinn@lemmy.ca
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        15 days ago

        I was one of the people who based my opinion of Proton on that tweet and swore off them until someone else shared that link with me. It’s excellent, thorough, and makes a convincing case that Yang is actually left-leaning. I can only assume that you’re getting downvotes from people who haven’t read it.

        • Ilandar@lemm.ee
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          14 days ago

          I have scores disabled so I wasn’t aware that I was being mass downvoted, but I think it only further validates my point that Lemmy is full of left-wingers who have fled here so they can have an echo chamber safe space where their opinions and behaviours are never questioned. It’s quite sad how easily triggered people are, they have a complete existential crisis if you even try to point them in the direction of reality.

        • Evkob (they/them)@lemmy.ca
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          15 days ago

          I’ve seen that Medium article shared here before and find it very unconvincing. While I agree that framing the Proton CEO as an evil Nazi lapdog is a bit much, here’s a comment I saw on Lemmy another time this was discussed that explains why the article is flawed better than I could.

        • skisnow@lemmy.ca
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          14 days ago

          The downvotes are for the unnecessary holier-than-thou rant at the end attacking everyone using this very site.

    • troed@fedia.io
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      15 days ago

      Yeah I’m with you. I’m more pissed with Proton for disengaging via Mastodon than at the stupid CEO - but none if it is a good reason enough to opt for lesser services. Proton’s doing good stuff.

      • DaGeek247@fedia.ioOP
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        14 days ago

        The strong other half of my reasoning was port forwarding being locked to GUI. I use a lot of scripts to keep my server restart process simple.

        • Confused_Emus@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          14 days ago

          Wait, port forwarding on Proton is locked behind a GUI? That doesn’t seem right - I use proton with port forwarding for my torrent setup on my NAS and it connects to VPN just using environment variables from a docker compose file. No Proton software installed at all.

          Also fully possible I’ve misread something; apologies if so.

          • DaGeek247@fedia.ioOP
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            14 days ago

            I don’t know about ‘locked’ so much as ‘hard to get running with headless linux’. I looked into it two or three times and was stymied by the various ways it went wrong.

            In comparison, windscribe had me choose a port on their website, and then I used that in my docker run command and it just worked.

            • Confused_Emus@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              14 days ago

              That’s understandable. I do recall when setting up my stuff that Proton’s documentation left a lot to be desired. Thankfully I found the Dr Frankenstein guides that walked me through it. I don’t do much script writing of my own though, so that may not be helpful for everyone.

    • CountVon@sh.itjust.works
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      15 days ago

      Here’s the exact post that got the Proton CEO in trouble:

      Maybe Gail Slater really is a great pick for Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division. Frankly, I have no idea. But I won’t do business with any company that carries any water whatsoever for Trump.

      • Zagorath@aussie.zone
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        15 days ago

        He also went on Reddit and defended his statements by saying he wasn’t familiar with American politics and he’s sorry if he triggered people. So he’s claiming to be unaware of thing because he doesn’t engage in American politics, and at the exact same time, he’s using right-wing talking points like misusing the term “triggered” to mean “upset left-leaning people”. Something he could only have picked up if he’s lurking in right-wing spaces.

        • AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.works
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          15 days ago

          he’s using right-wing talking points like misusing the term “triggered” to mean “upset left-leaning people”.

          At this point you can pretty much pick up that term from anywhere. We might think it’s dumb, we might use it sarcastically, but it’s entered our lexicon.

  • HappyTimeHarry@lemm.ee
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    15 days ago

    It sounds like they banned you for excessive usage. They allow at least 1tb a month because ive used that amount regularly with them.

    It is a bit misleading for them to be calling it “unlimited” tho

    • Draconic NEO@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      15 days ago

      It’s not “a bit misleading” for them to call it unlimited and then ban people for using too much data, it’s extremely misleading, almost bordering on scammy. If I were OP I would’ve done a chargeback and switched VPNs instead of begging them for an unban. They deserve it for lying and trying to deceive customers. Vote with your wallet (and chargebacks) if you want companies to stop doing shitty shady like this.

      • Ulrich@feddit.org
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        13 days ago

        it’s extremely misleading, almost bordering on scammy

        It’s neither of those things either. “Misleading” indicates their representations were technically true, but it sounds like this is just a straight up lie.

      • DaGeek247@fedia.ioOP
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        14 days ago

        The unban was just to check if the refund process would go through. Since it didn’t then I did a chargeback.

        • Draconic NEO@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          14 days ago

          That makes sense, best to try and give them a chance before going the ugly route. I do try and point this out since there are a lot of people who believe you should never EVER do a chargeback since companies, especially the sleazy ones claim it’s not allowed or broadly illegal (likely because if people were more inclined to do it, they’d be in big trouble).

    • Bezier@suppo.fi
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      15 days ago

      It is a bit misleading

      If it’s limited, it isn’t unlimited. That looks like a lie to me, and not “a bit misleading”.

      • Christian@lemmy.ml
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        14 days ago

        Which is why they said the issue was torrenting and not using too much data. It’s an unlimited plan and they would never think to put a limit on data usage. They just object to torrenting and it’s pure coincidence that they only object to that when someone is using a lot of data.

    • fubbernuckin@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      15 days ago

      I don’t think this is misleading. Misleading is when you use technically true facts to draw someone towards an incorrect conclusion. Calling a plan unlimited then having a limit is more like fraudulent if you ask me.

      • rogue@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        15 days ago

        Buried deep in the terms of service where nobody will ever read will be a “reasonable use” clause. That’s the justification for why it wouldn’t count as a fraud.

        I do agree however that as a consumer we are constantly being defrauded by corporations free to do whatever they wish without repercussions.

      • HappyTimeHarry@lemm.ee
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        15 days ago

        I agree, but the 40gb limit on my phones “unlimited” plan seem to disagree with reality, as does the $30 per 500gb comcast would charge me if i use over 1.2tb…

        Not saying it isnt false advertising, but its how a lot of internet service providers choose to advertise things these days.

      • skoell13@feddit.org
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        15 days ago

        Didn’t the, do the same with the lifetime VPN for 10€/year and later stated the lifetime is meant to be Putin’s lifetime, i.e. when he dies the offer expires? Same with the 40gb/month for free which they randomly changed…

  • CountVon@sh.itjust.works
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    15 days ago

    I’d recommend AirVPN. Here’s why I’d recommend them, in their own words:

    No traffic limit. No time limit.

    No maximum speed limit, it depends only on the server load

    Every protocol is welcome, including p2p. Forwarded ports and DDNS to optimize your software.

      • ObtuseDoorFrame@lemm.ee
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        14 days ago

        It’s funny that you mentioned this, because the crappy website is one of the things that sold me on it. It reminds me of the old internet.

        It’s also surprisingly affordable, I got a 3 year subscription for something like $60. I was during a sale.

    • ArrogantAnalyst@infosec.pub
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      14 days ago

      Came to give AirVPN a shoutout too. Been with them since 7 years. Using both their client and native wireguard kernel module. Very happy.

      • CountVon@sh.itjust.works
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        15 days ago

        I switched to AirVPN about 6 months ago and I’ve been really happy with the service. Was previously using NordVPN, which was fine, but I was looking for a VPN provider that offered port forwarding and AirVPN does that. I don’t have hard stats on this, but I do feel that having access to port forwarding has improved my overall torrent speeds since switching.

      • CmdrShepard42@lemm.ee
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        14 days ago

        Same here. Switched from Mullvad to AirVPN once they dropped port forwarding. I have had several issues with the Eddie client, but wound up dropping it in favor of gluetun and Wiresock with Wireguard configs and have had zero issues.

    • rumba@lemmy.zip
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      14 days ago

      I suspect most CEOs are, The vast majority just have enough common sense not to ruin their relations with the 99 percenters.

  • Xanza@lemm.ee
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    15 days ago

    You’re going to be very hard pressed in finding a VPN that supports torrenting. People abuse it. That’s why mullvad pulled port forwarding support.

    Additionally people misinterpret what they can do even if their VPN does support torrenting. It’s still illegal to use their service to torrent anything other than legal torrents…

    There are no services available to you that allow you indiscriminately to torrent illegal content. They simply don’t exist. And even if you get lucky enough to find one they won’t exist for long. lol

    • CmdrShepard42@lemm.ee
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      14 days ago

      Mullvad didn’t remove port forwarding because people were torrenting too much they removed it because people were using it for real criminal activity like hacking and CP and they were getting heat for it.

      I have no idea why you’re mentioning legal versus illegal torrenting as laws differ everywhere, they’re not banning OP for illegal activity, they’re not scanning all your files to determine whether it’s legal IP or not, and they’re banning him for using too much bandwidth.

      • Xanza@lemm.ee
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        14 days ago

        Mullvad didn’t remove port forwarding because people were torrenting too much they removed it because people were using it for real criminal activity

        Regardless of your personal feelings on the matter, pirating IP is illegal. The statement you just made is unabashedly stupid beyond all measure. Everything you listed are crimes.

        I have no idea why you’re mentioning legal versus illegal torrenting as laws differ everywhere

        There are less than 5 countries on the planet where pirating IP isn’t illegal. This isn’t a “well, it’s illegal in Arizona, but not in Idaho!” type of deal. It’s essentially illegal in every sovereign country on the planet save for a few.

        This community is so incredibly naive and stupid sometimes. I swear to God.

        • Empricorn@feddit.nl
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          14 days ago

          Is there a “Confidently Incorrect” community here? Regardless, it always seems to be the most condescending people that make the most generalized and factually incorrect statements, then sneer at the person that was actually right… 🙄

        • CmdrShepard42@lemm.ee
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          14 days ago

          The statement you just made is unabashedly stupid beyond all measure

          It’s hilarious you keep making statements like this as every point you make has been shown to either be uninformed or completely false. I sense strong projection here…

          Everything you listed are crimes.

          Torrenting isn’t a crime and downloading others’ IP is also not a crime. Sharing others’ IP can be a crime in some jurisdictions. There is also a gap as wide as the Grand Canyon between sharing a Taylor Swift album and distributing child porn or hacking into government systems which is why I put a qualifier on my statement. I’m surprised a stable genius such as yourself couldn’t understand the difference. You’re basically claiming that speeding and murder are equivalent crimes here.

          It’s essentially illegal in every sovereign country on the planet save for a few.

          What exactly are you defining as illegal here and what’s the level of enforcement in all these locations? Weed is illegal everywhere in the US, and yet I have been able to drive down to a store and buy it for the past 10 years without issue. Once again you don’t seem to grasp what you’re discussing, and I notice that you conveniently left off the rest of that statement since you presumably can’t form a coherent rebuttal like we keep seeing in all of your other comments here. For someone who puts their intelligence in such high regard, your replies seem to be anything but.

          • Xanza@lemm.ee
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            14 days ago

            Sweetheart, if you’re going to participate in online communication you need to keep up. And you need to read the entire statement and not just cherry pick like what you’re doing now. Not once did I ever say torrenting is illegal. I said very specifically an exactly that torrenting IP is illegal.

            That’s not a contestable statement. It’s not an opinion. It’s a literal fact. There’s no politics here, where I say a statement that you disagree with and we agree to disagree. There’s no version of this where what I’ve said is wrong and you’re somehow correct. It’s a wholly truthful statement from start to finish… And you’re pretending like it’s not by cherry picking the very first part of it and convincing yourself that I’m saying that torrenting by itself is illegal and I think you know at least on some basic level of intelligence that that is not at all what I have said, and it’s concerning to me that maybe you don’t even understand that you’re doing it. It’s truly sad and pathetic thing to see…

    • albert180@piefed.social
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      15 days ago

      People abuse it

      My Man, unless you buy all the bullshit that YouTubers claim VPNs do, the only reason to get one is to torrent

      There are no services available to you that allow you indiscriminately to torrent illegal content. They simply don’t exist.

      Yes, most VPNs will allow you to do that just fine. And they exist for years.

      • Xanza@lemm.ee
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        14 days ago

        My Man, unless you buy all the bullshit that YouTubers claim VPNs do, the only reason to get one is to torrent

        This is one of the top 10 dumbest statements I’ve ever seen on the internet and shows a total and complete lack of understanding what a VPN is, and what it does.

        Yes, most VPNs will allow you to do that just fine.

        There are currently 2-3 countries where torrenting IP isn’t illegal. Unless you have a VPN in one of these countries, there are no conditions where its “allowed,” because it’s entirely illegal. Even if it’s not expressly outlined in a services TOS it’s still illegal, and therefore not allowed. Even if they expressly permit it, it’s still illegal, and therefore not allowed.

        I absolutely fucking beg you to use the brain you were given and stop embarrassing your parents who put time and energy into raising you.

        • albert180@piefed.social
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          14 days ago

          This is one of the top 10 dumbest statements I’ve ever seen on the internet and shows a total and complete lack of understanding what a VPN is, and what it does.

          Well then explain me why I would need a VPN in the year 2025 with encrypted connections and HSTS being the norm

          There are currently 2-3 countries where torrenting IP isn’t illegal. Unless you have a VPN in one of these countries, there are no conditions where its “allowed,” because it’s entirely illegal. Even if it’s not expressly outlined in a services TOS it’s still illegal, and therefore not allowed. Even if they expressly permit it, it’s still illegal, and therefore not allowed.

          It’s illegal, but in practice not enforceable if you hide between a VPN in another jurisdiction.
          So in practice you can do it and nobody gives a shit.

          • Xanza@lemm.ee
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            14 days ago

            Well then explain me why I would need a VPN in the year 2025 with encrypted connections and HSTS being the norm

            To connect to a network, which is private and virtual. As the name suggests, this is the reason for which VPNs were invented and are still used today. Using VPNs for “privacy” is how they’re popularized for anyone who doesn’t actually know what they are and how they’re used. Which clearly includes yourself. To believe that there’s no legitimate use for VPNs outside of their layman’s usage is so incredibly fucking insane.

            If you’re going to speak about something, do yourself a favor in the future and at least do a cursory Google search to find out what it is that you’re speaking about first so you don’t look like a total idiot. For fucks sake.

            • albert180@piefed.social
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              14 days ago

              So you’re moving Goalposts again?
              Nobody was talking about a VPN for accessing your private home or company network. Even you were talking about a commercial VPN Providers…

              You’re really insufferable

              • Xanza@lemm.ee
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                14 days ago

                Using a VPN for accessing your private, home or company network is the literal reason for which it was created and designed.

                It’s in the fucking name, virtual private network. I don’t have to mention it like it’s somehow tangential or some kind of secondary and unused function of the technology. It is it’s literal primary focus.

                I’m having a conversation with a literal child trying to explain to them the purpose of a network software that is self-evident in the fucking name of the software itself, and you have the balls to say that I’m insufferable? This community is fucking insufferable–filled to the brim with 12-year-olds that don’t know their ass from their elbow and assert with absolutisms without reading or understanding anything at all. It quite literally brings bile to the recesses of my mouth.

        • Saik0@lemmy.saik0.com
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          14 days ago

          There are currently 2-3 countries where torrenting IP isn’t illegal.

          Why are you moving goalposts? You stated originally:

          You’re going to be very hard pressed in finding a VPN that supports torrenting.

          MANY support it. Supporting something in of itself doesn’t speak to it’s legality.

          I know they’re not popular anymore, but PIA supports it, was taken to court over it, provided nothing (no log service, so couldn’t provide anything) and walked away clean. You don’t get that if what they were doing was illegal. And if they thought the risk actually mattered, they would have changed their policy to keep their company alive. But they didn’t. So they support it (about as much as anyone would care to support it) and have been tested by courts.

          The sad part is… if you had read the OP, you could have done 3 seconds of research and found https://windscribe.com/knowledge-base/articles/using-windscribe-with-torrent-clients/… Which is literally the VPN service being discussed EXPLICITLY talking about configuring torrent clients. Wouldn’t creating pages to support users who are looking for configuration for this “illegal” thing be direct evidence that you’re full of shit?

          I absolutely fucking beg you to stop embarrassing the dictionary by learning and using words correctly, and to stick to the topic that you literally brought up.

          • Xanza@lemm.ee
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            14 days ago

            Why are you moving goalposts?

            There are no goalposts. This isn’t my opinion. It’s an incontestable fact that stealing IP is illegal in 98% of every country on this planet. You can choose to live denial in some virtual fantasy where you pretend that this isn’t true, but you can’t change facts. Period.

            MANY support it.

            There is no VPN on this planet which “supports” theft of IP. There are providers which don’t actively seek to ban users for doing so. Which is absolutely not the same and you pretending that it is, is disgusting behavior. Truly infantile.

            • Saik0@lemmy.saik0.com
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              14 days ago

              There are no goalposts.

              Yes you did. You switched from “supporting” to “illegal”. Which are two separate and distinct conception. Murder is illegal… How many people around these parts support Luigi? See… two completely separate topics.

              This isn’t my opinion. It’s an incontestable fact that stealing IP is illegal in 98% of every country on this planet.

              Cool. Then next time don’t talk about “support” when you meant “legality”. And further please cite the 98% claim, as I will definitely contest it. And be careful to fall into the trap for countries that DO care about IP laws, but only within their country (China).

              There is no VPN on this planet which “supports” theft of IP.

              So you think they setup these torrent help pages and don’t expect people to use torrents in an illegal manner? Do you think that the Windscribe page wouldn’t come up in a lawsuit if they were dragged into one to put some onus on the provider themselves for supporting their users in the process of torrenting illegal content?

              You think these companies are just stupid? You think they don’t recognize that capturing this group of customers is valuable to them?

              Which is absolutely not the same and you pretending that it is, is disgusting behavior.

              I never weighed in on my thoughts on the matter at all. You have no idea if I support torrenting illegal content or not.

              Truly infantile.

              Says the person who’s failing to comprehend basic language and easy premises while claiming actual things that nobody else claimed.

              • Saik0@lemmy.saik0.com
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                14 days ago

                Now that I have a bit more time later in the day…

                https://privacysavvy.com/security/torrents/safest-countries-to-download-torrents-and-worsts/

                Switzerland Switzerland tops the list of the most torrent-friendly countries. Swiss law gives every citizen the right to download music, movies, books, and all types of copyrighted content as long as it’s for personal use.

                Spain Spain is almost as safe a country as Switzerland for torrenting and filesharing users. The legal precedent was set in 2006 when a judge ruled that downloading, keeping, and using copyrighted files was fine as long as no profiting was involved.

                Poland The legal status of file sharing is nowhere near as explicit in Poland as in the previous two countries. Instead, it’s more of a nobody’s land. No written law or official legal precedent refers to “personal use” as an acceptable instance of possession and use. However, there seems to be legal consent in legal opinions that point to the private use of copyrighted material as legal and acceptable.

                And this is just the EU… You think ANY African or South American government gives a flying fuck? (Really the best you’ll find is that it’s illegal on paper but there’s virtually/effectively 0 enforcement).

                You think most of Asia gives a flying fuck?

                China as mentioned before only cares if you’re stealing from within China. Russia is the same in that they don’t care about outside companies but only if you hurt another Russia/friendly company.

                To be frank, it’s only a handful of countries that actually care about international IP laws. You’re so far out in left field with your claims that it’s actually sad. It’s almost like you live in one particular country and assume the rest of the world is the exact same. When in reality the rest of the world really doesn’t care, like nearly at all.

    • maus@sh.itjust.works
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      13 days ago

      Every part of your comment is wrong or false. Air, O, Proton. There’s 3 that are “mainstream”.

      There’s multitudes of smaller providers that allow it.

      Mullvad removed it because of CP and extremist content being hosted behind mullvad. It had nothing to do with torrenting as they had no problem with it for the many years.

      Many countries don’t even acknowledge DMCA. Some have their own that have higher criteria for enforcement like the NL, others just don’t care. Hosted many things out of Vietnam, Kosovo, Hungary, etc.

      • Xanza@lemm.ee
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        13 days ago

        It’s evident to me that you’re either stupid, or lack the ability to read. You make up your mind on which is which.

        It’s not possible for a company, no matter where they are in the world to permit users to do things which are illegal. Period. Proton cannot allow their users to use their VPN to use the torrent network to download IP. As with any company anywhere in the world. To live in some state of reality to be unable to acknowledge this is the most insane shit I’ve ever seen in my life. You literally are living outside of reality here… The sheer level of stupidity here is fucking insane to me, so I’ll try one last time to put it into perspective for you;

        I’ve said “Murder is illegal, no matter where you are. You can’t just kill people” and you’ve said quite unironically “GLOCK allows their customers to kill people, they’ve made murder legal.”

        Do you genuinely not see how fucking idiotic and stupid you sound?

        Many countries don’t even acknowledge DMCA.

        This also has nothing to do with DMCA–which is a US law and cannot be enforced in other parts of the world. As I’ve said from the very beginning, theft of IP (torrent or otherwise) is individually illegal in all but less than 5 countries on this planet… It doesn’t matter how you do it, or where you do it. It’s always going to be illegal because all of the countries from which these VPN providers originate, it’s illegal in those countries.

        I’ve done my very best to explain this very simple concept to you–that you can’t break the law just because you’re behind a VPN and they don’t actively pursue you for every little infraction–but if you still don’t understand it after all this, then do us both a favor and just take a vow of silence for the rest of your pitiable life.

        I mean Jesus Christ.

    • stupid_asshole69 [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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      13 days ago

      Mullvad didn’t pull port forwarding because of people abusing torrenting. They pulled it because interpol resorted to telling everyone to block their servers after mullvad wouldn’t/couldn’t assist in its investigation into csam sharing across forwarded ports using stuff as simple as the windows file and printer sharing system.

      What caused them to pull port forwarding was the threat of being dropped from the routing table over stonewalling a police investigation into csam, not torrenting.

      This is well documented and reflects the experience of many mullvad users including myself over the time period that it occurred. Saying that the decision had anything to do with torrenting is just false.

  • SilentObserver@lemm.ee
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    15 days ago

    Odd. I’ve been torrenting with them for years at this rate. Even have my media server up 24/7 with qBittorrent running. I guess I’ll have to find an alternative in case this winds up happening to me.

    • AZERTY@feddit.nl
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      14 days ago

      Same I’ve been using them for years without issue. This guy must have been using MASSIVE amounts of data.

      • DaGeek247@fedia.ioOP
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        14 days ago

        About 8TiB upload and 2TiB download over the course of this whole mess. I don’t have exact numbers because WRT stopped counting for some reason, but I can infer based on January numbers.

      • iowagneiss@midwest.social
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        14 days ago

        Agreed, but that’s also weird. Suddenly they’re the arbiter of what rules are okay to break and what aren’t? Sounds like they’re just trying to keep costs/traffic down.

  • Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca
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    14 days ago

    Meh, switch to usenet. Download as much as you want, at max bandwidth 100% of the time, with 0 need for a vpn and no obligation to re-seed content for months on end.

    • spooky2092@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      14 days ago

      Do you have a guide or something to get started? I’ve considered doing this a couple of times, but haven’t had the bandwidth to dig in and figure it out.

      • VitoRobles@lemmy.today
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        14 days ago

        Good on you! Usenet has been around for DECADES.

        I don’t have a guide that’s modern. I’m just remembering how I used to connect in the 90s-2000s.

      • Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca
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        14 days ago

        In short, you need three things: (here’s what I’ve been using)

        An indexer: NZBgeek Just like a torrent indexer, but for .nzb files instead of .torrents

        A provider: Frugal Usenet Where you’re downloading data from.

        And a client: SabNZBD

        When it comes to which provider to choose; pretty much all of them provide similar retention and unlimited data cap, so you really just need to look for something nearby. Often people will recommend having 2 providers one covered by DMCA and one covered by NTD to make content more available; but I’ve not really noticed a need.

        Map of providers

        • d-RLY?@lemmy.ml
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          14 days ago

          Why would having a provider covered by the DMCA be a good thing (not offhand aware of NTD but I am guessing it is similar to the DMCA)? I have also been interested in trying Usenet, so thanks for sharing three examples of what to look for!

          • Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca
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            14 days ago

            NTD is the European version of DMCA essentially.

            It’s not a good thing; but usenet providers like any other internet service are generally subject to one or the other depending on their location, so it’s good to know which one covers the provider you use.

            With providers spread across the globe, mirroring each others data, and subject to different copyright notice/takedown laws; the whole system is quite robust against removals. While you can send notices to individual providers, It’s extremely difficult to coordinate a global takedown effort and truly remove content from usenet as a whole.

            That’s why multiple provider’s in different regions can be beneficial. Some people will buy ‘block’ accounts (a fixed amount of data to be used as needed, vs a monthly cap) for a provider in a separate region to fallback on when the data has been taken down from their local provider.

        • shawn1122@lemm.ee
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          14 days ago

          What does retention mean in this context? File retention? Is there any way to integrate with Kodi or other media server like debrid services?

  • kbal@fedia.io
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    14 days ago

    Them calling it “unlimited” when there’s a limit is wrong, but so is using all of the available upload bandwidth 100% of the time on a cheap home VPN service when you consider the current market prices for data transfer. Mine’s limited to 200Kbps. Seems fair for $7/month or whatever it is.

    • KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.comBanned
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      14 days ago

      Them calling it “unlimited” when there’s a limit is wrong, but so is using all of the available upload bandwidth 100% of the time on a cheap home VPN service when you consider the current market prices for data transfer. Mine’s limited to 2Mbps. Seems fair for $7/month or whatever it is.

      they shouldn’t make it unlimited them, skill issue on their part.

      If you’re selling me 1Gb networking speeds, with no bandwidth limit, it’s not my fault for using all of it lol. I’m just using what i pay for.

      • kbal@fedia.io
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        14 days ago

        That’s technically within your legal rights I guess, just like (depending what the fine print says) it’s within their rights to throttle all your traffic one way or another to a low speed including the stuff you actually need to go faster. The places that always have low speeds for everyone are like that because they’re designed to cater to people who don’t give a shit about what their fair share might be and just want to max out their connection. Those services are fine for torrenting, useless for everything else. Windscribe isn’t one of those but it could become one if enough of its users think like you and insist on it.

        Hopefully they’ll set a soft 2TB limit or something before they do that, though.

  • StinkySocialist@lemmy.ml
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    14 days ago

    I thought this was your Internet service provider. This is a VPN service? Holy shit what’s the point of a VPN with rules like this. Fuck em. I use proton and am looking to switch because the CEO is a right-winger but they don’t pull this shit.

    • ObtuseDoorFrame@lemm.ee
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      14 days ago

      AirVPN (Eddie) has port forwarding. The interface isn’t very appealing and their website is meh, but it works and I got a great deal on a 3 year subscription.

          • Trainguyrom@reddthat.com
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            13 days ago

            I’ve seen a grand total of one influencer make a good argument for a VPN and that was Alan Fisher saying “have you observed your work skirting regulations that they shouldn’t be? Are you potentially reviewing legal materials on your work’s WiFi that your place of work might prefer you didn’t know about? To help avoid retaliation, you might need a VPN such as one from today’s sponsor…”

            • Miaou@jlai.lu
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              13 days ago

              If your workplace lets you run a VPN on their device/network they’re probably not looking through your traffic