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.
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
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.
You don’t need a VPN to download torrents
Well yes and no, it truly depends on your location and ISP.
Mine has literally shut off my internet a couple times from torrenting.