this post was submitted on 08 Jul 2023

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Is there something like the pirate bay but for direct downloads? (lemmy.fmhy.ml)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Im honestly scared to get into pirating but some things are just way too overpriced. i know theres the piract bay and such sites but it requires torrecting and a vpn but i cant afford a vpn so is there like a direct downloads version of the pirete bay or a safer alternative? im looking to get a few peices of media by the way.

also how do you all store so much media without issues or getting into trouble? also am i aksing the wrong place by chance?

i know there is internet archive but i find it hard to find what you are looking for and kinda clunky.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It depends what you are looking for. NES Roms? You can use Internet Archive and a download manager. Some romance playlist you made on Spotify and now want to burn on a CD? You can use a converter that will fetch MP3 files from YouTube.

The megathread is the place to look.

You may want to look into Usenet. There is a price involved but it's not significantly more than a VPN.

To store stuff I use large hard drives. Most of my data is on one other device so those drives act as a back up in a way. It's unlikely both devices fail at the same time

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (5 children)

thank you for the info also i plan to do manly books and movies/shows, also could you link me the megathread if i might ask or if you dont mind... also i will probrably use tor but idk if that is enough.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

If you are using direct downloads you probably don't even need Tor. You should avoid torrenting through Tor. It puts unnecessary strain a volunteer network

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Books are pretty easy for direct downloads. Try these: https://libgen.is/ https://annas-archive.org/

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

For movies/shows you can get DDL from sites like pahe.li and olamovies For books you can download from libgen / zlib or annas archive You can find our wiki/megathread at https://fmhy.ml or https://fmhy.pages.dev

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Megathread: https://fmhy.pages.dev/

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Try Libby for books. It's not downloading them but you can use your library card for free ebooks and audiobooks

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Hoopla is also great for books, especially audiobooks. Also legit, free and through your public library system (USA only)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

PS2 and PS3 games are also abundant in Internet Archive. Using IDM (or you could use any multipart downloader you like), I can usually download from there at my max speed (which is only 65mbps but still).

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Closest thing would be the Usenet, which is paid. (Decently cheap, but still.)

Seedboxes and DMCA ignore VPS's exist, which is how a lot of DDLs and streaming sites live. You can also encrypt it before uploading (although you'll have to decrypt it afterwards.) For archiving, Telegram has 2GB file limits but is free and unlimited total storage.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Unfortunately I think paying for an anonymizing service of some kind is required. It’s easier to afford if you just go all in and drop all of your paid streaming services. But that can be difficult to get everyone in the household to agree on.

Seedbox services are a little more money, but for around $30/month you get a computer located in a country which doesn’t care about data piracy. It downloads torrents for you and you can just log in later and download the files to your home machine.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Closest thing I've found was /r/OpenDirectories on the site that shall not be named. Which is to say, no there's not really any such thing as "Pirate Bay but for direct downloads." At least not that I've found.

Pirate Bay but for direct downloads does seem like something that might be able to thrive on the dark web, though, doesn't it? I wonder why something like that hasn't become a thing and gotten big.

I suppose some site that just acts like a searchable directory of links to IPFS could be used in combination with IPFS web adapter sites. But I haven't found anything like that.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I wonder why something like that hasn't become a thing and gotten big.

Not only is tor not used by the majority of pirates, it also limits speeds by a lot. Not to mention you can't index onion links in search engines. But I mean, you wouldn't need a VPN with it, so...

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I guess I must not mind whatever speed limits there are, because I use yt-dlp over Tor frequently.

I'm not sure what you mean by "you can't index onion links in search engines", though.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

As in tor links don't show up on regular search engines (like Google, DDG, etc.) It's how most people find piracy sites.

Also, aren't downloads incredibly slow? I know regular browsing is so I'd imagine downloads would be slower.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Oh I'm with you. There used to be (though I haven't been able to find any lately) Tor web gateways that would let you visit a tor site without having to run Tor or Tor Browser yourself. They don't protect your identity when you use them the way using Tor Browser protects your identity, but they could be used. And some onion sites still come up as results when you search DDG for something like "Hidden Wiki site:onion.pet". The result doesn't link you to the .onion address, but to a .onion.pet address that takes you to the same page/site.

As far as Tor and speeds, I think Tor imposes very large latencies (that is, it takes a few seconds to get a download started), which is more what you're experiencing when you notice sites "being slow" when browsing through Tor. But bandwidth isn't affected all that much.

One caveat, though. When downloading through Tor, your request is being proxied through a chain of proxies. If any one of those is slow or purposefully limits speeds, that will limit your bandwidth. That's a problem, maybe 30% of the time or so. But there are commands you can use to tell Tor to "please select a different route." After doing that once or twice, you'll generally get a decently fast "circuit."

Just as a test, I downloaded the latest Arch Linux ISO (which is 853MB in size) from here both via Tor and directly. Direct took 7 minutes 36.324 seconds for an average speed of 1.869MB/s. Tor took 9 minutes 26.627 seconds for an average speed of 1.505MB/s. In short, a pretty moderate difference in speed.

And, yes, this is a highly unscientific, n=1 test, but I think it's pretty well in line with what I've seen in the past.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Those two seem pretty slow regardless, but you're right, that's not a big difference, so it could work... really, though, the main hurdle is popularity. Unless you're operating like a private tracker (which is no fun), it's going to be very hard to get both uploaders and users to it. You'll have to somehow get a lot of people interested, starting without any content (or if you're an uploader yourself, not a lot of content), not a lot of recognition, on a relatively new platform. With the added bonus of it being harder to access.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (5 children)

You don't need a VPN to download torrents

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Well yes and no, it truly depends on your location and ISP.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

You sound like someone who has never had their ISP send them a warning letter.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Really depends on the country you are in.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

You sound like someone who has never had their ISP send them a warning letter.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Personally I would always err on the side of caution, but up to you my friend.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Mine has literally shut off my internet a couple times from torrenting.

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