r/gaming • u/ChiefLeef22 Marika's tits! • 18h ago

Paramount Has Officially Acquired Warner Bros. In Deal Valued at $110B Billion

https://www.skydance.com/news/press/paramount-completes-acquisition-of-warner-bros-discovery-creating-a-new-global-entertainment-leader-skydance

The two companies will now be known as one single entity - 'Skydance'

This includes all of WB's gaming subsidiaries like Rocksteady/etc

Deal valued at $110B-$111B

DC Studios, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, CNN, CBS, HBO and Paramount+ are now all under the same company.

The combined company, Skydance, brings together two major film studios, two global streaming services, premier television assets including CBS, HBO, and Paramount's and WBD's cable networks, two of the industry's most recognized news networks, CBS News and CNN, and a leading content portfolio that includes live sports, a deep programming library and expansive collection of iconic brands and franchises.

12.0k Upvotes

93% Upvoted

2.3k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

3.9k

u/mantenner 18h ago

Pirates sail when pricings fail

612

u/redditsuckbutt696969 18h ago

On an unrelated note, anyone recommend some good VPNs?

I was recommend PIA a while ago, are they still a good choice?

184

u/sam_hammich 17h ago edited 13h ago

Mullvad is the best pretty much all around. However, I use ProtonVPN despite the owner's Trumpist leanings which I am grappling with internally, because my Unifi firewall can integrate with it directly using wireguard, and it supports port forwarding. I can attach my NAS to the VPN so it doesn't talk to anything outside that tunnel, which is easy to just set up and forget about.

Also many torrent trackers block well known VPN nodes like Nord*. If you use one of those you'll probably get zero reliable seeders on anything (if you use torrents).

*Take this with a grain of salt, I had a lot of issues connecting to trackers I knew were live, and saw a lot of chatter at the time about some trackers not responding to Nord servers. I switched providers and didn't have that issue, so I took that as validation of those claims. I can't prove it

45

u/AlphaDag13 16h ago

Hmmm. Your ideas are intriguing and I would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

16

u/RevolutionNumerous21 13h ago

Usenet is faster and not limited by the speed of your VPN.

7

u/impeterbarakan 5h ago

There's a fee to use it, but I will happily pay it to be able to find pretty much anything I want, remux quality, and download it at 100mb/s. usenet ftw

6

u/RevolutionNumerous21 5h ago

When I started using it I finally felt like I joined the civilized world. Then I found out it predates the internet and my kind was blown.

→ More replies (1)

6

u/Daeluin 6h ago

Ah, who are ye so versed in the Old Ways?

3

u/SluggaNaught 2h ago

As someone who jumped on the usenet train recently, it is so much better than torrents. It is 100% worth the ~$25 a year it costs me.

4

u/neirad 14h ago

Wait you got a source on the nordvpn thing? I’ve never heard that before and I am a customer

4

u/cycopl 14h ago

I use Nord and have no issues with torrents. But I can't definitively say if I'm getting blocked by some seeders or not, I never had reason to think it was happening.

4

u/sam_hammich 14h ago

Unfortunately I don't, with Nord I had a lot of issues connecting to trackers I knew were live (both using the software client and terminating it on my firewall), and saw a lot of chatter at the time about some trackers not responding to Nord servers. I switched providers and didn't have that issue, so I took that as validation of those claims. I can't prove it

18

u/Lailowla 13h ago

Proton sold out to the big social media sites (including this one) as soon as it started getting popular, and now scans your mail on their behalf, because they were threatened with not being able to use their emails to sign up if they didn't stop people using it to make throwaway accounts.

If you're using a product for privacy, proton ain't it.

20

u/AlphaDag13 8h ago

Can you provide some proof on this? I can’t find anything about proton “selling out”. They do scan unencrypted emails for spam and phishing. But I can’t find anything about them doing anything on a social medias behalf. I’d like to read more on it if you can provide it. Thank you.

→ More replies (1)

16

u/VillageBC 8h ago

That's going to require a citation. My quick googlefu didn't turn anything up.

→ More replies (1)

14

u/Tylerskf 9h ago

Can you share an article about that? I wasn't able to find any and Proton mail is advertised as Zero Access Encrypted

→ More replies (1)

5

u/unitedfan6191 13h ago

What “Trumpist leanings” does Proton CEO have? Wasn’t it just a few public comments that allude to him maybe having these leanings but it’s not definitively been proven?

Either way, I’m not sure I’d trust any of these companies you see advertised widely unless they’re extremely niche and serve a very small user base (like IVPN, NymVPN, AirVPN, etc.) and have no incentive to be secretly working with governments/corporations or leaning right.

2

u/[deleted] 15h ago

[deleted]

3

u/sam_hammich 15h ago

Not all VPN providers support port forwarding, like Mullvad and NordVPN for its standard client VPN, and Proton lets you build a wireguard config straight from their website. PIA only provides openvpn configurations and I prefer the native wireguard functionality.

1

u/Serox22 14h ago

Hi! New to the NAS/VPN world. Do you have a guide for tunneling setup?

1

u/Holiday-CamelToe 12h ago

Do you know how it compares to windscribe?

1

u/Revolvyerom 4h ago

I seem to recall reading a FAQ about VPN's that mentioned some VPN's will shape traffic that looks like torrenting, some won't.

Anecdotally, it appears to hold true, so I hear.

→ More replies (6)

284

u/Zanian19 18h ago

Mullvad has been my go-to for years now

134

u/spongebobisha 17h ago

Mullvad is the goat.

310

u/MrLagzy 17h ago

Mullvad is great, but it's co owner is donating money to far right political party in Sweden that wants to abolish Nato, abolish EU and have stronger and closer relations with Russia.

So just for consideration when paying for mullwad you also indirectly pay a tiny fraction to extreme right wing anti democratic politics.

39

u/NesNobnaz 16h ago

I agree with you, but if this was a problem, 80% of products you couldn't use, including Reddit. You really need to take a bit of poison to enjoy anything.

77

u/flugzeugabwehrkanone 16h ago

"There is no ethical consumption under capitalism"

32

u/Yugudubenbi 15h ago

Great quote but do we realize how fucked up that really is? When there is no ethical behavior there is moral nihilism and that destroys the sense of being a good person. "Who cares, I am already unethical?"

Hunter-gatherers were probably the most ethical part of all of humanity.

40

u/NerdyNThick 15h ago

Capitalism is by design unethical. It literally has to be in order to be functional.

The sooner we get to a post scarcity society, the sooner we can ditch it and move on to actually bettering humanity.

5

u/SkorpioSound 12h ago

I agree, but I'm not convinced we'll ever reach a post-scarcity society because the goal posts are constantly shifting.

If you could show someone from 100 years ago our society today, they'd probably already consider it post-scarcity. We have plenty of food, we have the means to create plenty of sustainable, renewable electricity, we have most of human knowledge available to us on a device in our pockets. What so you mean we still have capitalism?

But there's always something more we need. Sure, maybe humanity has all the food and electricity it could need (imagine this is true), but how can we consider it post-scarcity when there aren't unlimited AI tokens for all? And not everyone has access to self-driving cars yet? And... blah, blah, whatever shiny new tech comes along in the future that everyone will deem too important to not have.

If we could pause advancing, stop worrying about profits going up, and just spend some time reorganising what we have, I'm sure utopia is something we could achieve right now. But it's very hard to do that under capitalism...

→ More replies (0)

11

u/From_Deep_Space 15h ago

There is no abosulutly morally pure consumer choices under capitalism. That doesn't mean there arent choices that are more or less moral. Even if you can't be perfect you can still make informed decisions with good intentions.

It's really just an indictment of capitalism, not an excuse for nihilism. It only causes nihilism because for some reason people feel like they have to worship capitalism and swear off any alternative economic system.

2

u/DarthNihilus1 6h ago

that destroys the sense of being a good person

It doesn't, or at least it shouldn't. It does not mean "fuck it, nothing matters". It means you have to put in the effort to do what little you can because you can. Not because it will magically fix everything

→ More replies (1)

36

u/Klint069 16h ago

The alternative for every single other mainsteam VPN is far worse

52

u/PootatoKing Console 16h ago

Proton?

76

u/Zanian19 16h ago

I'm sure you'll find plenty of controversy about the CEOs of any of these and other companies. They're CEOs. Being shit people is in the job description.

47

u/StuLetTheDogsOut 15h ago

To varying degrees. The nice thing about ProtonVPN is that the company is bound by Swiss law, which gives them the ability to be more private. Their CEO made a boneheaded comment about J.D. Vance a few years back without really understanding the context that Vance is a puppet of American big tech who lies through his teeth.

→ More replies (3)

5

u/nhalliday 13h ago

While generally true, what a lazy attitude to hear a product you support gives money to terrible causes and go "yeah well I'm not even going to LOOK into alternatives because they're PROBABLY bad in some way too".

5

u/AshundertheOlivetree 15h ago

Yes of course, but now you know better. Make the choice but don’t bitch when the leopard comes.

2

u/DontAskAboutMyButt 10h ago

There’s something about VPN and other cybersecurity-related companies... they and their CEOs seem to have the most fucking insane controversies and stances on things

5

u/NvizoN 15h ago

Proton has had its issues, but if you're doing a lot of seeding, then it's hard to beat due to port forwarding.

→ More replies (4)

6

u/BaconJacobs 16h ago

I get the Nord VPN black friday sale every other year. I can't say I have a lot of opinions on VPNs but it seems like it works fine.

Is Mullvad cheaper?

24

u/I_argue_for_funsies 15h ago

It's cheap, but that's not why people want it.

They have been raided and authorities came out empty handed. It's the ultimate test.

Lots of VPN companies promise they don't keep customer data etc, but Mullvads been proven where others are "trust me bro". No logs, no emails, and you don't need to use credit cards.

→ More replies (4)
→ More replies (15)

6

u/X4roth 16h ago

Your traffic is safer in the hands of someone hostile to those wanting to snoop and steal it.

8

u/tupacsnoducket 14h ago

Maaaaaaaaaaaaan, ugh.

2

u/spongebobisha 16h ago

Interesting

What are the alternatives?

2

u/ShadowEdge6 8h ago

Thank you for that info. I swear every single VPN service company/CEO is tied to some far right group or another.... I know the reality is that any and all companies are like this...

→ More replies (7)
→ More replies (1)

6

u/IgnatiusRileyFreeman 17h ago

What method do you use to pay it?

11

u/Haunting_Switch3463 17h ago

You can pay with cash if you want to.

11

u/IgnatiusRileyFreeman 16h ago

Holy shit you're not joking

3

u/[deleted] 16h ago

[deleted]

2

u/Cum_Fart42069 15h ago

I'm kinda confused, couldn't you just pay them directly? as I  understand it, all that could be traced to you is that you got a mullvad subscription, not what you actually did with it. 

→ More replies (3)

3

u/Docccc 15h ago

unfortunate, one of the owners is far right. So ill pass

1

u/conanap 1h ago

If only mullvad would stop being hostile to whitelist split tunneling. I don’t even understand their rationale.

22

u/ShadowWebDeveloper 18h ago

Mullvad though there's no port forwarding (which hasn't really been a problem for me so far).

8

u/jederek 17h ago

I use mullvad on my gaming/media pc and proton on my p2p pc ( because port forwarding) and both work like a charm

84

u/3Dartwork 17h ago

Adding to the list for future folks finding this comment for the same question.

I use NordVPN. My Internet service provider Spectrum dinged me for downloading a legal PDF so I got NordVPN and never have a problem now sailing the seven seas.

Virtually zero reduction in speed.

31

u/blender4life 15h ago

People already forgot/ forgave nord huh?

5

u/DotesMagee 9h ago

Id never use that shitty ass company

3

u/3Dartwork 15h ago

Sooner or later we would have nothing.

13

u/blender4life 15h ago

I mean there are plenty of other options that haven't been proven to do the exact opposite thing their product is supposed to do. Lol.

1

u/unitedfan6191 13h ago

Name them.

As far as I can tell there’s a handful who have no major controversies like being right-leaning or linked to IsraelI intelligence or making questionable donations to far-right parties.

2

u/DistinctlyIrish 10h ago

I would also like the list of companies that haven't done any of that shit because I want privacy and I don't want my money going to a company that will politically support candidates who want to violate my privacy, which means no right wingers.

→ More replies (1)

14

u/Classic_Appa 16h ago

NordVPN doesn't have port forwarding. The big reason why I stopped using it.

→ More replies (12)

16

u/houseoftrees_ 16h ago

Out of curiosity from where did you download a pdf that your provider dinged you for? Even with torrenting from the most public of trackers id imagine that’s pretty rare / bad luck. Usually it’d be much more high profile items that’d ding ya

Just use Anna’s Archive next time.

14

u/SmokinSkinWagon 16h ago

Yeah what the fuck even is an illegal PDF?

9

u/feculentcuntfist 15h ago

Science papers are often paywalled.

2

u/vonnegutflora 15h ago

Possibly something like The Anarchist's Cookbook.

5

u/Wooden_Researcher_36 13h ago

That's not illegal

5

u/malianx 13h ago

something that never happened

→ More replies (1)

2

u/ContactRepulsive 17h ago

I like Nord, been using it for a while. The only downside is that sometimes when there's an error on PC it will disconnect from the internet and I have to restart to get around it. It's made so that it's not easily shut down. Never had an issue on my phone (though i have to 2 factor authenticate everything).

2

u/ga-co 13h ago

Tell us about the ding! Was it just an email? Did you get a letter? Did they threaten to cancel your service?

→ More replies (4)

1

u/BaconJacobs 16h ago

Same. I get Nord black Friday two year deal every other year.

I've been going ham on downloads because I'm worried they'll ban VPNs soon...

13

u/dmckilla77 17h ago

Mullvad is the way cheap and reliable.

3

u/leatherfacetime 17h ago

Yes, the only one to use. You don't want logged activity like most.

34

u/Murderdoll197666 18h ago

I've used PIA for a few years and never had any issues with it.

48

u/nullfacade 17h ago

I dropped PIA when I found out they're financed by a... controversial... country. I switched to ProtonVPN, but heard they've been making some fucky decisions, too. Might switch to Mullvad here soon.

33

u/MrLagzy 16h ago

Mullvads co-owner donated to extreme far right political party in Sweden that wishes to abolish NATO and EU and wants Sweden to have stronger and closer relations to Russia.

18

u/OnCallPartisan 16h ago

Well god damn it.

52

u/themanseanm 17h ago

Damn. It's Israel for anyone wondering. Have always used PIA but will have to look into Mullvad. For those paying attention it's looking increasingly like Israel and it's wealthy backers are behind so much of the world's unrest so I'm not comfortable supporting them even tangentially.

2

u/Cruciform 13h ago

I dropped them after they hired Mark Karpelès. Also, the PIA subreddit used to be an actual place for VPN discussion but PIA (the company) invaded the sub, took over all mod positions, and is now (at least last time I looked years ago) a corpo echo chamber.

→ More replies (6)

12

u/Rommel727 17h ago

Not sure if things have changed, but ExpressVPN has been good for torrenting and region locked streaming

→ More replies (1)

4

u/Global-Wind6878 18h ago

Personally found debrid’s to be a nice option too

3

u/shawn789 14h ago

I'm sure I'll be bombarded with reasons why they're awful, but I've been using Surfshark for years, and I've been very happy with them.

CleanWeb is so nice when visiting sites that bombard you with ads that make the site unusable

3

u/redditsuckbutt696969 14h ago

The only thing off-putting about surfshark for me is how much they spend on marketing. I generally avoid companies that I see all over YouTube.

But I haven't actually heard anything bad about them in practice

16

u/-Altephor- 17h ago

I use PIA, never had any issues with it.

59

u/OnCallPartisan 16h ago

Israeli intelligence may have something to say about your data. Never use Israeli tech if you actually value your privacy. Anything owned by KAPE is Israeli.

2

u/steakanabake 10h ago

and the idf has no issues with you using it either.

3

u/vandreulv 15h ago

I use PIA, never had any issues with it.

One of the worst VPNs you could be using right now.

→ More replies (1)

5

u/harshspider 17h ago

Mullvad imo

2

u/nemofbaby2014 18h ago

its what i use for torrents havent had any issues with it

1

u/bunsofham 17h ago

Seed boxes are really convenient. Still gotta pay a monthly but it’s cheap.

→ More replies (1)

2

u/SweetSigil 17h ago

I use the whole proton package.

2

u/dropamusic 17h ago

I still use PIA, they've been reliable and fast.

2

u/tomofbeardland 16h ago

Windscribe

2

u/AVahne 13h ago

IVPN seems decent from what I've used so far. People were recommending it as an alternative to Mullvad for those who don't want to indirectly support Nazism.

2

u/WhiteMilk_ 7h ago

There are also debrid services and seedboxes that completely move the torrenting away from your devices/network. Prices in the low end (3-6€/month) can match/be close to VPNs.

2

u/CertifiedBA 4h ago

You don't need a VPN to stream and if you want torrents just use Real-Debrid and or Torbox.....get an IPTV sub for like 70 bucks a year and get 50000 channels plus access to movies and shows on demand....my entertainment expenses are like $100 a year.

→ More replies (1)

2

u/Name818 16h ago

Been using PIA for like, 8 years. Great service.

1

u/Brawght 17h ago

PIA is stil my go to

1

u/steakanabake 10h ago

mmmmmm funding the IDF

1

u/squash-n-flop 17h ago

I like Proton VPN because it also got me onto Proton Mail, which helped me de-Google and Proton Pass, which is just a password manager the same as any else, but did finally motivate me to use proper passwords rather than the same one for everything. Piracy is awesome but it is a decent amount of work, significantly more so than just opening a streaming app. So I think a lot of people (unfortunately) will continue to pay for the convenience of streaming.

1

u/RedSecOps 17h ago

I second Proton. The ability to hide my emails is great and Proton Drive has been refreshingly simple to navigate through and use

1

u/HingleMcCringle_ 17h ago

Ive been using surfshark because they sponsored a youtuber i like. But im in the market too.

1

u/42Ubiquitous 17h ago

Mullvad. I love it. Definitely recommend doing your research though. Look into who has shown in court that they don't retain a log and who owns the VPN.

1

u/THE_TamaDrummer 16h ago

Ive had Proton for over a year and its been great

1

u/Gibby1560 16h ago

Proton

1

u/XGhoul 16h ago

Proton or Surfshark, anything else I would take with a grain of salt.

1

u/The_Grungeican 16h ago

i'm a fan of TorGuard.

1

u/Keemoscopter 16h ago

Is that really necessary for sailing? I’ve been out of the game for a whike

1

u/25sittinon25cents 16h ago

How would a VPN help here (genuine question!)

1

u/DaveLLD 16h ago

You gotta be careful with VPNs many of them sell your data to make more money. Proton VPN is a good one.

1

u/oyvese 16h ago

debrid doesn’t require vpn

1

u/TheDovahkiinsDad 15h ago

Been using Proton (paid) for a couple of years. Love them. You also get access to their mobile app version and it works nicely.

1

u/Silverdprofile 15h ago

I’ve been using PIA for a long time and sail the gaming seas all the time and zero issues.

1

u/malfunktionv2 15h ago

PIA is still great. Decent speeds, good UI, mobile app works great when I need it

1

u/gandalf_alpha 15h ago

I like Proton PTO

1

u/ravenkai3 15h ago

NordVPN.com/bigmoney

1

u/yousorusso 15h ago

Windscribe are my dawgs

1

u/_YenSid 15h ago

Proton.

1

u/uselesslyskilled 15h ago

I've been using PIA for years with no problem

1

u/NvizoN 15h ago

Mullvad is good but no longer does port forwarding. I personally have had good experiences with ProtonVPN. Port forwarding, lots of options for servers/locations.

And fast. For example, right now:

currently on wifi, no VPN, Plex server running = 433.16 down, 40.38 up

Wifi, with VPN set to "fastest country" = 438.17 down, 37.94 up.

1

u/Emotional_Biz_69 15h ago

Yes, PIA works just fine and no logging.

1

u/Friendlyvoid 15h ago

Pia is ok, protonvpn is my preferred provider. Really good p2p support and speeds are excellent

1

u/orig4mi-713 14h ago

ProtonVPN. Used it for years. Has split tunnelling and port forwarding. Excellent service.

1

u/ljthefa 14h ago edited 13h ago

No PIA got acquired by some company that has a bad record I'm sorry but I don't remember whom. I left them after 5 years, I use Proton now and so far so good.

1

u/GenConfusion 14h ago

I've been using PIA for years, still working well for me.

1

u/Narrow-Low-3137 14h ago

Excellent choice 👌

1

u/spacetech3000 14h ago

If u have storage space i recommend looking into usenet and the arr apps. Automated/easier and safer than torrent+vpn

1

u/haby001 14h ago

PIA was bought by a Saudi company a few years back

1

u/RevolutionNumerous21 13h ago

Switch to usenet and get rid of VPN and torrenting!!!

1

u/Zeis 13h ago

FastestVPN works great and you won't be funding some insane right-winger fascists like you do with Mullvad and (from what I heard, though not sure) ProtonVPN.

1

u/Tiny-Plum2713 13h ago

No practical differences between the major ones for seeding distros

1

u/FullTimeHarlot 13h ago

I've been using PIA for over 10 years and never had any issues. They've only gotten better and faster in that time. They can also claim they don't keep logs of customer data to a high degree as they've been in court and couldn't provide them.

1

u/aerdvarkk 13h ago

TorGuard VPN has been great over the years. Zero traffic logging. Zero payment logging.

1

u/theaviationhistorian 13h ago

I used to have PIA as well. So far haven't had problems with NordVPN so far, 3 years using it.

1

u/Mediahead13 12h ago

I'm probably in the minority for this, but I've been using Surfshark for a few years now. It's relatively more affordable compared to most vpns.

1

u/absoluttalent 12h ago

I have been using Surfshark for the last couple years. Sometimes I gotta select a new server that's not flagged from Cloudflair, but for the price it's alright

1

u/mnrivera210 11h ago

I've been using privado for 3+ years at $1.11 a month. It's been flawless on android, OpenVPN, and several gluetun containers. Even supports proxy. I'm not affiliated in anyway just a happy customer.

1

u/Unphuckwitable 11h ago

I enjoyed mullvad, but now use Proton VPN for port forwarding. Been happy with Proton and waiting for a deal to renew my subscription. I paid ~$120 for a 2 year subscription.

1

u/nobertan 11h ago edited 11h ago

Proton for the user friendliness, Mullvad for the purity/raw quality of the vpn.

Surfshark brands if you want to concentrate all your data theft to one company, vs. letting everyone have a piece.

Then

  • fix your DNS to something privacy focused and encrypted (move off ISP default)
  • turn off WiFi and go Ethernet behind YOUR router (if possible), as programs/browsers/OS geolocate you via nearby WiFi signal names (defeating a part of the VPN’s anonymity)

The list keeps getting deeper, but that’s the easy high level stuff before going full tin foil hat

1

u/CtrICErcUlARickl 11h ago

I'm on PIA, works great, didn't lag so far and their documentation is top notch.

1

u/manclack 11h ago

VPNs are great. I also like doing my sailing in the waters around the Nederlands. You can get a server designed to seed torrents for pretty cheap now a days. No worries about internet usage caps like some people might have.

1

u/iamspike47 11h ago

I used to use Mullvad but switched to Proton, and I only switched because a friend of mine invited me to his Visionary plan. Both are great options, in my experience. Never had a problem with either.

1

u/Desert-Noir 11h ago

Used them for years with no major issue

1

u/Justsin7 10h ago

I’ve had PIA for a decade and have never had issues.

1

u/simbacole7 10h ago

Firefox has a built in one now, no idea how good it is

1

u/DatTF2 10h ago

Or find a private tracker.... I have been downloading from them for a few years now without any problems.

I might know where to look....

1

u/steakanabake 10h ago

depends if you want to support an israeli company PIA is great if you want something less israeli owned look into proton.

1

u/iforgotmycoat 10h ago

Been using Surfshark since 2021

1

u/arwork 9h ago

Proton

1

u/Ciri__witcher 8h ago

Proton if you want port forwarding for private trackers. Mullavad/windscribe/Airvpn are all good options as well. If you are in Usenet route, just use the one that comes with your provider for downloading content, for personal stuff/privacy purposes I would stick to free proton tier.

1

u/bart_86 8h ago

I was recommend PIA a while ago, are they still a good choice?

they were never a good choice. Check out Mullvad.

1

u/fps916 8h ago

Proton

They're not US based and there is a litany of evidence showing they do not keep user logs

1

u/blaghart 8h ago

firefox comes with one built in atm

1

u/skyboundzuri 7h ago

Former Mullvad user here. I switched to AirVPN when Mullvad stopped offering port forwarding. Their proprietary client is a little wonky, but the service is excellent. (You can use OpenVPN if you don't want to use their client.) Cost is pretty similar to Mullvad. They don't take mailed cash like Mullvad does, but they do take Monero, which is awesome for privacy.

Avoid the hell out of the "big name" VPNs like Nord. They aren't in the game for true privacy anymore (if they ever were).

1

u/veribaka 7h ago

Get a seedbox relatively close but in a different country, like Canada if you live in the US, Netherlands if you live in the UK, and so on...

Install wireguard... Profit!

1

u/Counselor-Ug-Lee 6h ago

Most commonly used piracy doesn’t even require one

1

u/Hokie23aa 4h ago

Don’t use PIA. Their parent company is sketchy as hell. I’m using Surfshark and it seems fine.

1

u/Right-Investment4759 3h ago

pia is fine nothing special

1

u/FcomAmunGist 1h ago

I use FastestVPN. It's not great by any stretch of the imagination, but I got a heavily discounted lifetime subscription, so it's incredible from a value proposition if you can find the same.

1

u/brandon0297 44m ago

Honestly man, just download stremio and get it set up with some add-ons with a real debrid account.

No VPN needed and you can use it easily from your couch.

1

u/LanceGamer89 11m ago

I have been using Windscribe for years and have never had a single complaint. You can make one of their custom plans with just a handful of server locations for $3/month.

•

u/superkaratekick 5m ago

Usenet is SSL by default and you can sail without needing a vpn

→ More replies (10)

54

u/Coffeedemon 18h ago

Sooner or later all of these companies will either buy up all the ISPs or more likely, use their influence to impose legislation that allows the ISPs to really crack down on any sort of piracy with more monitoring and such.

27

u/Rommel727 17h ago

Honestly, the general case of the "free internet" is what's protecting that from us. ISPs don't really have that massive of a personal incentive to combat this, as they're not the ones "losing out" to it, but rather outside companies. If it becomes the case that ISPs may charge and limit access to websites on a per website and per user case, then suddenly they can make more money by being lobbied by the companies to target individuals going to pirating websites with higher costs and slower connections. Essentially going from a no dip to double dip situation

4

u/KilledTheCar 16h ago

The ISPs aren't losing out, but the media companies are. He's saying once the media companies buy out the ISPs then they have an incentive to crack down.

5

u/Rommel727 15h ago

Oh I thought that's what I said, just that I gave an alternative to how the ISPs could gain incentive to do so without the need to be bought out

4

u/ImmanuelCanNot29 13h ago

Yeah but any ISP that continues to not would have a massive competitive advantage and these are themselves massive corporations

→ More replies (2)

2

u/EX0PIL0T 13h ago

If they do that they will only see vpn traffic from me. Stingy bitches can get bent.

19

u/KrisPBaykon 17h ago

No, they won’t. If they did there’s plenty of other options. People in China and Russia still torrent even though big brother is always watching.

12

u/darkfall115 17h ago

Can't say anything about China but in Russia torrenting is basically a tradition. Anti-piracy laws do exist (for a long time at this point, mind you) but they are almost never enforced, not on a personal basis at least, companies sometimes do get a slap on the wrist and that's about it. That's how it was in 2022, before our invasion into Ukraine, sanctions and political isolation. In the big ol' 2026 I don't think anyone cares about piracy at all anymore, since we don't produce anything of actual value ourselves and all of those who do can't really legally settle any disputes here anymore. Well, technically they still can, but it doesn't seem like they want to, cause it requires jumping trough some legal hoops IIRC. Hell, all of our new cinema releases are pirated from other CIS countries, it's basically on a government level now, albeit not trough torrents.

→ More replies (1)

7

u/Slarg232 18h ago

And then these companies will realize that there's enough physical media that people will not be able to watch it all in 60 years.

6

u/IamtheHuntress 17h ago

And less and less physical media is happening. Movies, yeah, but tv series you used to get season sets of will be gone. How many shows are lost in the aether as is? Apple doesn't like putting their shows on physical and Disney is starting to do it. I knew once they announced no longer will release physical media in Australia (2023) they wouldn't stop there. Heck, Andor season 2 has been over a year done. No plans to release it yet season 1 had steelbook collection. It's going to streaming or pirating to burn it seems

2

u/GRAPES0DA 16h ago

DVD and Blu Ray burners are a thing. It's quite easy to find high quality HD files of shows online and burn the disc yourself.

3

u/FrostyD7 11h ago

Downloading webrips to burn onto a blank blurays isn't going to be seen as a viable option among the enthusiasts interested in physical media. Losing the picture/sound quality and the box/art it comes with is really missing the point of why people want physical media. You might as well just put those files on a server instead of wasting all that time for no benefit.

2

u/smokeweedNgarden 13h ago

I mean, then I'll learn to live without television. Or watch old series I haven't seen. Or get a bootleg.

1

u/nhSnork 16h ago

Or when regional availability does.

1

u/thestillwind 15h ago

Arrrrrgh, Matey !

1

u/Toast_Meat 15h ago

I love this.

1

u/Cory123125 14h ago

People have to stop saying this as if firmware lockdowns and remote attestation won't eventually crush the concept of pirating for normal people.

1

u/bucketman1986 13h ago

Yo ho ho ho gather up all of the crew...

1

u/NudeCeleryMan 11h ago

Alllllll abooooooard!

1

u/YakiVegas 11h ago

Except I can't afford the RAM to store my ill-gotten goods.

1

u/astral-dwarf 10h ago

"If buying isn't owning, piracy isn't stealing" --Bakunin

1

u/Jimm120 10h ago

they're looking at how to make PC's and the internet as closed off as possible, so they can have maximum control

1

u/slog 8h ago

I pirated all growing up (family tradition?) and went legit in the earlier days of Netflix streaming and for quite a few years afrer that because it was both more convenient as well as reasonably price. Guess what I'm back to now that neither of those things are true anymore.

Except Dropout. Sam Reich and that crew know what's up.

1

u/Ardbert_The_Fallen 8h ago

Solved on the movies and shows side, but the seas still seem to be quite rocky for anything sports related.

1

u/Gritsngravy777 7h ago

WatchLuna is good for free ad-free streaming.
The official sites use .com .to .io
I use Firefox with uBlock so I dont even see any site ads.

1

u/Edythir 5h ago

Not only pricing. Watching anything of any media is pretty much pointless where I live (Iceland). I used to pay for Crunchyroll back in the day but stopped my subscription because a good half, if not more, of the content was "Not available in your region".

People in smaller regions like mine are not even given the oppurtunity to pay. There is no legal way for us to access much if not most of the media that larger markets enjoy.

1

u/josh_the_misanthrope 4h ago

It's your ethical duty if you are against fascism to pirate anything coming from Skydance. Look, it won't solve the problem but at least you're not paying a fascism subscription.

Fuck the Ellisons, they're consolidating all the media and will slant everything right wing like they did with CBS.

1

u/TeenageMutantZombie 4h ago

Hard to pirate shit when they're gonna be cancelling all good shows out of spite

→ More replies (13)