this post was submitted on 31 Aug 2023

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How do you watch moves while staying private? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 11 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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As the title says, how do you pirate your movies while staying private?

I currently use one of the multiple 123movies websites to watch all my movies. But I'd like to not have my IP on their servers, so I use the tor network to connect to them. Now, as you can imagine, this is very slow and far from ideal. Most free VPNs have blocked the websites, and I do not want to pay for one. I thought about torrents, but found no way to do that privately either. Then I thought about Startpages "Anonymous view" feature, but that breaks the website I use.

So, how do you do it? I need some inspiration. Thanks in advance.

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Buy a 2 year VPN subscription. Any free service raises the question of how it is funding itself. If you aren't paying you're the product.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 11 months ago (2 children)

While that would probably work, as I already said, I do not want to pay for one. It's less about the money but more about that I'd have to give them all my information - my name, credit card details and so on. And I am not willing to do that, as a VPN is only private until the government or whoever asks for all your data, which would include the Website and the fact that I visited it.

[+] [email protected] 18 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

[deleted]

[+] [email protected] -8 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

Thanks, that might be an idea. I would still definitely prefer a way to do it for free, but as a last option, I'll look into this. Edit: Just found out that it costs €5 per month, no matter what. I could almost buy Netflix from that...

[–] [email protected] 15 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

As has been noted, if you're not the customer, you're the product. You can't expect to get free, safe, and private. You'll have to pick what you value more.

It’s less about the money

is at odds with

Edit: Just found out that it costs €5 per month, no matter what. I could almost buy Netflix from that…

Personally, I prefer to give my money to Mullvad than to Netflix.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

is at odds with

I just didn't expect it to be this much. After all, two years of this would cost me €120. I expected it to be more like €50. So I guess in this case, it is about the money; after all, there is a reason why we pirate ;)

Personally, I prefer to give my money to Mullvad than to Netflix.

Don't worry, so would I. There is no way I'm supporting this company. It was just supposed to be a comparison.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Netflix starts at $6.99/month. That's their most basic service with ads. Yes,you pay Netflix and they still serve you ads. Want to watch Marvel movies? There's a Disney+ sub, too. $7.99 (again, with ads). Gotta rewatch Game of Thrones and catch up on The Last of Us, there's an HBO Max sub. $9.99. Can't forget Hulu, there's some good stuff on Hulu. Another $7.99/m subscription. Again, with ads!

That's a potential $32.96/month on subscription services that will still serve you ads. My point is this: the cost of a VPN subscription shouldn't be compared to the cost of a subscription streaming service, because 1) they serve two very different purposes, and 2) when you break it down the VPN sub always wins. 😉

The other commenter suggested Mullvad, and I do as well. It's what I use. It's $5, always. No holiday sales, no spring cleaning sales, no bulk discounts, nothing. And I view that as a positive thing. It has been $5/m and will continue being $5/m for a long time. It's predictable. It also means I'm not missing out by not buying in bulk. My sub is coming close but I can't or don't want to shell out the $$$ for a year? I can buy one month and not feel like I'm missing out on savings.

It's fast, reliable, I use it on my phone and my desktop. And most of all, its privacy centric. What if I told you that you could pay for your Mullvad subscription in cash?

You can put money in an envelope with your account id # on a piece of paper and mail it to Mullvad (mail does not require a return address, making this option completely anonymous) and since Mullvad doesn't keep any unnecessary personal data on your account... They just add the time to the associated account number and move on with their day. Though they recommend paying with Monero crypto if total absolute privacy is your goal.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

My point is this: the cost of a VPN subscription shouldn't be compared to the cost of a subscription streaming service, because 1) they serve two very different purposes, and 2) when you break it down the VPN sub always wins. 😉

I know, and you're right. It was just meant to serve as an expression of how surprised I was by the price.

No holiday sales, no spring cleaning sales, no bulk discounts, nothing. And I view that as a positive thing.

So do I.

Apparently, people get upset when you tell them that you were surprised by something you didn't expect.

Anyway, let's not make that discussion about my view on the price of a VPN; I feel like this is kind of irrelevant.

What's more important, do you know if they blocked all those 123Movies websites? After all, this is the most important requirement I have.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Hmm. Less upset, more... Surprised. At your surprise. Lol! Surprised, and ready to discuss why it's worth it. Just out of curiosity, what price range were you expecting for quality VPN service?

That will depend. My understanding is that the VPN services themselves don't block those URLs (that would be really dumb on their part. Pay the VPN to limit what websites you can visit? Isn't the point of a VPN for many folks to get around web censorship?) but rather the website keeps a block-list of IPs that are known to belong to VPNs. I've seen a lot of sites that block Mullvad IPs... And a lot of times it's as simple as changing which location I'm routed through to find an IP that isn't yet blocked.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Surprised. At your surprise.

Haha, that's hilarious.

I guess I was expecting something between €50 and €80. But certainly nothing over €100. For two years, of course.

But you have to understand that I watch a movie maybe once a month, and I do not need a VPN for anything else. Tor works totally fine for all my other needs.

Also, I do not and never did pay for any other online subscriptions, so like many of you suggested, I would not be saving money by canceling them and spending money on a VPN instead. But I can see how it might be a great option in your case.

website keeps a block-list of IPs that are known to belong to VPNs.

That's a good point; I've never thought about it this way. But if you say that one can easily find an IP that isn't blocked yet, I guess it would be fine.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

Well, if you're considering any VPN service, I would recommend doing a search for that VPN + whatever services you'd be using it with. Mullvad is not great for streaming content because they don't aim to get around VPN IP blocks, and they aren't specifically trying to provide access to content outside your zone. I don't use it for streaming, so I don't run into those issues.

It's true that if you look elsewhere you can find better deals specifically if you buy in bulk. NordVPN's "Standard" package can be had for just over the upper limit you suggested, at $86.13 for your first two years before tax. No guarantees you can resub at that same price after that period is up, but they have sales all the time and if you're careful you can probably re-up at a good time. Worth looking if you're considering a VPN and price is a sticking point.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

I cancelled cable TV ($100) , Netflix (which in Canada is $16+tax without ads) and Prime (it's too easy to buy stuff there as well, I'm trying to support more local stores), downgraded my Internet to 150Mbps because I calculated my usage and discovered I was paying for speeds I very rarely really needed, MMORPG gaming is less than 1Mbps, streaming HD <10Mbps, streaming 4K <30Mbps (though I don't do that), instead I only pay for Mullvad and cheaper Internet. I save a lot every month from that perspective.

In addition I occasionally need Mullvad for other things than bittorrent, like to access websites in other countries/etc. It can be handy to have a VPN sometimes.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Proton VPN. They're pretty transparent with their free tier. Collects nothing and nothing has sold, the paid users subsidise it

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

That's what I tried at first, but they blocked the website I use.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Usenet and hard drives. LOTS of hard drives.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

How many hard drives are we talking

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago

I've done nothing but teleport hard drives for three days

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

So what do you do when a new movie comes out that you want to watch?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

Mark it as wanted in radarr webapp (or lunasea app) Then about 10min later open plex on the desired consumer device

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago

Just pay for a VPN service... ~$5/month. Think of all the value you're getting for free through piracy, and realize that you're ultimately paying for egress bandwidth when you pay for a VPN service.

Seriously, I have a lightweight cloud instance for various reasons but it would cost me more to route my download traffic through it than it does through Mullvad.

You just can't get this kind of thing for free these days

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

I download everything from a private torrent tracker, and stream with plex. It's all a pretty well oiled machine. I can use a browser or an app to search for a movie then shortly after I'm streaming to my tv from my nas

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Interesting. What is that "private torrent tracker"? How exactly do you download from it?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

It's a website that's managed by a community of pirates. It's invite-only (meaning you have to be invited by an existing user) and you will have your membership revoked if you don't follow certain rules (mostly about seeding). The .torrent files you get from them are specific to that private tracker, so no one who's not also a member of the same site can see which files you're seeding.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I thought about torrents, but found no way to do that privately either.

You can torrent privately using I2P (It's like Tor but peer-to-peer). The Java router comes with a pre-installed torrent client, accessible from the console. After installing and setting up your browser you can browse the main tracker at tracker2.postman.i2p.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

Thanks, I will take a look at this.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

Not saying I do this but... try a video downloader over a Tor connection? I wouldn't actually stream anything off those scammy ass sites... I learned my lesson when I my son was about 7 or 8 (so 5 years ago) and we were trying to watch an episode of some cartoon (I don't even remember) and suddenly there was anime pussy all over the screen and my son said "What's that?" I'll never forget how mortified I was.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

Vpn.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I wear a balaclava and gloves in the cinema.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I read that as “I wear baklava”. Each to their own.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

I put a baklava on top of my balaclava - people are too distracted to complain.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Idk if it would help, but you might like mov-cli, if you don't want to use the sites: https://mov-cli.github.io/

Though, all it does is just scrape all those sites, so I guess you're still connecting to them

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

I had never heard of this before. Installed it in Termux on Android. Some dependencies were missing, but after installing them along the way, it worked in the end! What a cool little tool. Streaming seemed to be working well. However, when I tried using the download features, the speeds seemed to stall. It took maybe 30 min to download 8 mins of video (a few 100 MB, ~25% of the size of the files I tried). I force killed the processes, which left temp incomplete files. I found and removed them using these commands:

ls

to list the files in the termux dir,

followed by:

rm filename.mp4

to remove the file

...after which the size of my Termux app decreased, as expected.

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

Maybe the site has rate limiting to prevent scraping? I've never used mov-cli myself