busted by cable company

[jacquesbrustere]

I recently received a letter from my cable company that i had downloaded certain materials. I have friends who have gotten similar notifications in the past, but I have been downloading movies and tv shows from vuze since 2008 and I have never gotten busted.  What can I do to avoid this in the future? If this has been addressed please direct me to the specific thread. Thanks.
 

 

[dunn.hatani]

generally if you want to obscure your traffic something like a VPN or a proxy is required. I personally use a VPN.

EDIT: and that's pretty much the only way that your isp can't know what you're doing. More correctly, those in the torrent swarm cannot properly identify you as they won't have your actual IP address.

[Phorat]

After getting two notices in 2009 (no VPN or proxy), I switched to Usenet for most of my content - Usenet is theoretically 100% safe, since you don't upload content, you only download it.  I've never had a problem since.  Plus, with Usenet you always get the benefit of your ISP's full bandwidth.

I -do- still use bittorrent from time to time for the obscure stuff (although with TPB gone, that source has dried up quite a bit).  I never have bought a VPN account.  Thus, I only join swarms that have very few leechers (< 20, preferably < 10).  The IP trackers hang out as leechers.  However, if there's very little activity on a torrent, then there's not much benefit for a tracker to monitor it.  I avoid any swarm that has hundreds of peers.  It's still possible to get good download speeds in a small swarm if the seeder-to-leecher ratio is high (>> 1).  Taking these precautions, I have never received another notice.

[dunn.hatani]

After getting two notices in 2009 (no VPN or proxy), I switched to Usenet for most of my content - Usenet is theoretically 100% safe, since you don't upload content, you only download it.  I've never had a problem since.  Plus, with Usenet you always get the benefit of your ISP's full bandwidth.

I -do- still use bittorrent from time to time for the obscure stuff (although with TPB gone, that source has dried up quite a bit).  I never have bought a VPN account.  Thus, I only join swarms that have very few leechers (< 20, preferably < 10).  The IP trackers hang out as leechers.  However, if there's very little activity on a torrent, then there's not much benefit for a tracker to monitor it.  I avoid any swarm that has hundreds of peers.  It's still possible to get good download speeds in a small swarm if the seeder-to-leecher ratio is high (>> 1).  Taking these precautions, I have never received another notice.

 

Certainly is an option to go the usenet route. I've generally found usenet harder to navigate than is necessary. And just because you are only downloading doesn't mean that you're totally safe from potential DMCA issues.

The VPN provider that I use has several servers in several different countries and I've never had a problem getting full saturation of my bandwidth, (assuming that the swarm can provide it) and it's rather inexpensive at around $20 annually.

Before using a VPN I used a IP block list and that worked fairly well for a while. But a IP block list is no guarantee since the firms that lurk for swarms that may have copyrighted materials can occasionally switch IP addresses and then you might get a notice. There is no way to know when they switch. So VPN.

I use privateinternetaccess

 

[Phorat]

I was using IP Blocker (the "premium" version, no less) when I got my notices.  I then read that IP Blocker is useless - which was certainly my experience.

To each their own.  I've found just the opposite to be true, i.e., that Usenet is -easier- to navigate than bittorrent, but that's just me, I suppose.  But I must say this - yes, it's theoretically possible to get busted from Usenet, but not bloody well likely.  For one, the connection is via SSL.  Thus, the only way to get busted is if a provider gets busted (not gonna happen until the laws change in every country in the world), and said provider agress to provide its user IP's (assuming they're not encrypted).  There's just no such thing as a DMCA letter in Usenet.  I've not seen one incidence reported of Usenet users getting busted (as opposed to the frequent reports - even on this forum - of people using bittorrent getting the infamous "letter").

If you get full bandwidth with bittorrent, good on ya, mate.  Never happens for me.  But then, that's probably because I always swim in the shallow pool when it comes to bittorrent.

I will admit that I'm intrigued by your $20/year VPN.  That's bloody inexpensive.  Who is it (or is that a no-no on this forum)?

(By the way, it seems to me that the amount of risk in using Usenet is the same as that when using a VPN)

[jacquesbrustere]

Thanks for the info, guys!