Well, After hundreds of GB of torrents downloaded, I slipped up. I've been changing around linux distros recently and i believe i configured my VPN wrong or forgot to turn it back on after doing something. Well, I finally got hit with a copyright warning. Just your typical "we had to send this" type of warning but none-the-less, I slipped up.

Sharing this because the day before it happened, I read a post about not only having your killswitch on but also binding your client to you vpn interface for situations like this. Needless to say I didn't take that precaution. For those who are on linux, I found a great post about how to set this up on reddit and wanted to remind people to "double wrap" because why not be safe lol.

The steps were more or less as follows (for QBitTorrent at least):

Tools -> Preferences -> Advanced Settings
Under "Network Interface", select your vpn interface. To test, check what shows with your vpn on, and then turn it off and re-navigate to this part to see what dissapeared. Thats likely your vpn interface if the name wasn't clear. (Do not be seeding/downloading torrents while doing this in case).
To test, download a non-copyright torrent like the Ubuntu ISO torrent. In the middle of download, disconnect or close your vpn connection. This should stop the download.

Not sure if reddit links are cool here but here is the guide source if anyones interested. Binding VPN to Torrent Client

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[–] AceFuzzLord@lemm.ee 19 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I swear, getting a letter and/or email about your piracy is definitely a rite of passage. My parents have definitely gotten a couple for things I've done (since they pay for the service) and I regret nothing.

Probably not accurate whatsoever, but I like to think ISPs and such refuse to drop your service if they're a big enough ISP because that's less money for their greedy cannon fodder of a CEO and won't do anything unless the government or a larger company comes along either serving them a lawsuit or legal letters/documents.

[–] JackAttack@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 6 days ago (1 children)

It definitely felt like a right of passage lol. Ill be saving that. Might have to put it up on the wall to look back upon in my elder days.

[–] AceFuzzLord@lemm.ee 5 points 6 days ago

I kinda wish I could save mine now that you mention it, but I don't have access to my parents emails and they've probably long since deleted the email.

[–] Spectrism@feddit.org 21 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (2 children)

Same thing also happened to me at the end of last year. I usually only use torrents on my PC, but that day I decided to also use them on my laptop and of course I forgot to change the network interface to that of my VPN in qBittorrent because I'm an idiot. After around 2 weeks, I got a cease and desist letter ordering me to pay ~1000 € and sign their cease and desist declaration. Was able to negotiate down to 600 € and only sent back a modified declaration, still pretty expensive for such a silly little mistake. I'd say you can consider yourself lucky to just receive a warning :)

Unfortunately for me, German law makes torrents a very lucrative business model for some law firms who do nothing but send cease and desist letters, thousands each year.

I only got caught for a few seconds according to their letter, but that was enough to get me into trouble. Not sure what the reason was, perhaps I started the VPN too late or maybe systemd was stopping the VPN service before qBt got closed when I was shutting the laptop down. Either way, this probably wouldn't have happened if I had set the correct network interface in qBt and I've learnt to always do that first whenever I install a torrent client. I can only advise everyone to also check the publicly visible torrent IP with tools like this, just to be sure.

Smooth sailin' me hearties! 🏴‍☠️

[–] mnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.works 6 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

The IP checker you linked likes to flag false positives. I just checked it on my phone and it claimed that my IP address was being leaked, despute me using a VPN and the IP they listed being my VPN's server

[–] Spectrism@feddit.org 4 points 6 days ago

Ignore that orange banner, it's an ad. In fact, ignore all banners telling you something like "Your IP is exposed", because those are all just trying to sell you a VPN and can't possibly know for certain if an address belongs to a VPN server or not. Always compare IP addresses manually.

What's important in this case is the address listed in the table below after you have opened the magnet link in your torrent client. If everything works correctly, it should be different from your actual IP address (which may or may not be the one displayed on the site, depending on whether you're using split tunneling).

[–] JackAttack@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Oh dang, well so far it's only a letter they sent to my ISP, in which they relayed that someone on my network was doing it with or without my knowledge.

My ISP has records I can look up the see the original email sent from the person who claimed the copyright. I was like, where did I mess up? They must not have very clear evidence.

Well.. I was dead to rights Lmao. IP, movie name, times, data downloaded, etc. I'm hoping that's the only thing that leaked in that time period and there isn't more just qeueing lol.

But yeah, that's why I wanted to share this post. Some people aren't in countries where this matters, but for those of us that are, stay safe. Learn from others. Im lucky so far but someone may not be and get fined like in your situation.

I used Usenet but honestly I love being able to publicly seed for others. It feels like giving back so it's a risk I'll take over using usenet.

Much love to the community 🏴‍☠️

[–] Trainguyrom@reddthat.com 5 points 6 days ago

Obviously you kicked the former friend off your network after you learned of their illegal activities and admonished them to pay for their media instead nudge nudge

[–] brygphilomena@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 points 6 days ago (1 children)

My father got us kicked off our ISP for downloading music from random public trackers.

I've been on private ones for years and never gotten a warning.

[–] PopeRigby@beehaw.org 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Damn, kicked off? Where do you live and how many violations did he get?

[–] brygphilomena@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 6 days ago (1 children)

California. And I'm not entirely sure. The emails went to my mother, so I didn't hear too much about it until they terminated our contract.

[–] PopeRigby@beehaw.org 2 points 6 days ago

Crazy. Never heard of them actually banning someone.

[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 6 points 5 days ago (1 children)

You can use this to test your IP while torrenting.

https://torguard.net/checkmytorrentipaddress.php

[–] hossein@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I prefer https://ip.network/, much easier to remember.

[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 3 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I do split tunnelling, so only the torrent stuff goes through the VPN.

[–] hossein@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 5 days ago

Thanks! Gotta admit I didn't check the link, for the lazy like me, it's basically a torrent file that you download and the site tells you your IP. Neat.

[–] sunzu2@thebrainbin.org 4 points 6 days ago

My man the only thing I download and seed are Linux ISO!!!!

😉

[–] bjorney@lemmy.ca 157 points 1 week ago (9 children)

I collect these like pokemon 🙃

[–] 0range@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 day ago

Man i wish. Here in France they actually send letters and you get a 1500€ fine if you ignore them three times.

Or at least they did back in the day, do they still? Well i've already gotten 2/3 letters so i'm not gonna try to find out

[–] lord_ryvan@ttrpg.network 12 points 6 days ago

Maybe do something about your opsec...

[–] uninvitedguest@lemmy.ca 8 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I had no idea that Teksavvy passed these along. I thought they took a stance to ignore these.

[–] bjorney@lemmy.ca 8 points 6 days ago

The content of the email is very laissez-faire, e.g. "we legally have to send these ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ "

[–] Rentlar@lemmy.ca 4 points 6 days ago

All hail Canada's notice-and-notice-and-notice-and-notice-and-notice system of copyright enforcement!

[–] ramjambamalam@lemmy.ca 1 points 5 days ago

Head's up – there's a law firm which many on RFD are talking about being served demand letters from, after repeated warnings were ignored.

Don't worry though, the demand letters are largely baseless and unenforceable, especially since the SCoC ruled last year that service bill payers are not responsible for the actions of their network users.

[–] JackAttack@lemmy.dbzer0.com 55 points 1 week ago

LMFAOOOO

[–] powerofm@lemmy.ca 32 points 1 week ago

Based TekSavvy user

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[–] originalucifer@moist.catsweat.com 75 points 1 week ago (9 children)

ive not had any leaking since i setup my torrenting container(deluge is my fav) to use the openvpn container(gluetun) for its internet. theres zero chance it can leak, nothing to 'forget to turn on'.. kinda idiotproof, which i needed

gluetun is your friend

[–] ftbd@feddit.org 6 points 6 days ago

Why openvpn? Last I checked wireguard has significantly better performance (plus it's built into the kernel already)

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[–] shirro@aussie.zone 56 points 1 week ago

Reply that you work for Meta and Mark said it will be ok.

[–] Sparky@lemmy.blahaj.zone 27 points 1 week ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

I keep forgetting that some people need vpns to torrent.

[–] black0ut@pawb.social 11 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Yeah it sounds so bizarre to me... What do you mean your ISP is constantly snooping all your encrypted traffic or trying to de-anonimize you by making undercover peers? That doesn't sound very net neutral...

[–] nomy@lemmy.zip 6 points 6 days ago

The ISP usually doesn't give a shit. It's various industry groups (think RIAA) seeding and trying to deanonymize people, then they complain to the ISP who'll usually (IME) brush it off with stern look but I guess in really egregious cases they'll cut service.

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